Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Return of the Crownprince of Kutai Kartanegara to his birthplace in Holland

Left : Dr. H.A.R.M.Gondo Prawiro
Middle : The Kutai Crownprince Pangeran Haji Aji Adipati Prabu Anum Surja Adiningrat
Right : Drs. Ferdinand F. Baron de Smeth van Alphen



The triumph of the Royal Culture of Kutai in Holland


On the 25th of may 2009 it was finally the day of His Royal Highness the Pangeran Makhota,or Crownprince of Kutai Kartanegara:Pangeran Aji Adipati Prabu Anum Surja Adiningrat to try to see his house,where he was born in 1951 in the town of Wassenaar; near Leiden in Holland. There his father,who then was the crownprince of Kutai Kartanegara,was studying at the Royal University of Leiden.
The Crownprince returned as a boy of 5 years to Kutai. But first the Crownprince had to fullfill his duties to lead the cultural dance and musicgroup of Kutai Kartanegara at the Tong Tong Fair in Den Haag. That is for the present promotion of extraordinary places and cultures of Indonesia in Europe. First the Crownprince in the presence of the Chief of the Department of Economic Development of Kutai Kartanegara; Pangeran Gondo Prawiro with his wife,and their respective staffs were greated with extra respect by the organisation of Tong Tong Fair. Then the show of traditional and modern culture of Kutai Kartanegara began.A trully impressive show,which luckily also impresses the very big audience (the audience hall was filled until the last place) at the place of the dances and show of modern clothes with inspiration of local weaving traditions.
The royal dances,the general Melayu dances and the Dayak dances; accompagnied by the for Dutch ears very unique sound of Kutai music and also the modern clothes show took 75 minutes. The Dutch audience was same impressed by the unique Kutai culture, which was because of their liveliness and happy character very liked by the Dutch audience. After 75 minutes the total audience was very unhappy, that it already ended, because they found it less from boring. The Crownprince espacially was accompagnied by the representative of the Dutch National Council of Nobility: Drs. Ferdinand F. Baron de Smeth van Alphen (whose family was for generations very close to the Royal Family of Holland). The Baron has the last years a project to try to exchange experiences with the Royal and Princely families of Indonesia with the Noble and Royal families of Europe concerning theirfunctioning in the so-called modern time;espacially their value for preserving the old culture and some moral values as well. The Crownprince was very proud to explain time after time his culture to this important nobleman from Holland. Coming friday the Dutch nobility;lead by the Baron, will be present again at a show of Kutai and other Indonesia culture at a cultural day in Den Haag;organised by the Indonesian embassy in the Netherlands. The Dutch audience was also very impressed to have a real crownprince of Indonesia near them for am while and more,they were impressed because it was also the Crownprince of the oldest kingdom of Indonesia(Kutai already exists for 1600 years). After the event the Crownprince was not able to refind his house of birth. But that would come later. Together with Pangeran Gondo Prawiro and their staffs he had to do more work to strengthen the position of Kutai as a tourist destination and also had to talk with Dutch archive researchers to try to find more old historical Kutai pictures, films and other documents, in which they were quite succesfull. After a bit relaxing as well some times and trying the for their taste strange Dutch food (only the Crownprince was happy to again taste the food of the country), where he had lived the first 5 years of his life like cheese, milk, havermout (Dutch porridge) and the best strawberries of the world (from Holland).
At 22.30 the royal- and civil delegation from Kutai Kartanegara finally could lay down their duties for the promotion of the royal and general culture of Kukar in Holland and went exhausted to sleep. Many Dutch people only remained with one question:
where the Kutai Kartanegara dance and musicgroup had taken the enormous amount of energy with which they performed their culture; a culture which was trully not in their mind,but in their heart.
Kutai culture:a trully unique culture.And that is no flattering.


Article By,
Donald P. Tick

Edited By,
festivi




Thursday, June 11, 2009

Hitu-one of the few principalities of the S-Moluccans still existing


In general the south part of the Moluccans are divided in several, or better said:many areas called negris and not really in principalities, or kingdoms.
That was because of the ruling systems in this area.
Also because the former foreign governments in here encouraged and stimulated seperate rule in all these areas.
There was some kind of ruling system, which was a development to more centralised rule, but wishes inside the society and the foreign stimulance of divided rule also didn't really speed up this process.
In general only the Hitu area in the north of Ambon island (covering a big part of that area ), the island of Kisar, some areas on Ceram, the negris of Kilang, Nusanive and Soya( and some more) are considered as a sort of principality.
Hitu exists as a semi-principality in development (so you can describe it at least) already for ca. 500 years. Before the begin of the first fereation head in 1512 there were some rulers, who were also described as the ruler of Hitu, but not of the Hitu as a federation, but of a negri.
In history the federation rule was described as being divided over 4
lines,2 delivered the federationhead, 1 the Raja Hitu(from which are descended a later Raja Hitu line) and another ruler.
The Hitu federation was brought to an end officially with the violent death of the last federationhead, who was the Kapitan Hitu;in 1643.
From a son are descended the later rajas of Hitulama, who are considered as the heirs of the Hitu principality.
There are also the rulers of Hitumessing with the same familyname, who live in the same area, but have a different people to rule as negri rulers.
On 21-3-2007 Upu Latu Sitania,or Raja Salhana Pelu was installed as the 37th raja of an area,which ever carried a Hitu-name and the 19th descendant of the first Hitu ruler (the negri) :Raja Abdul Kadir.
The present raja is born in 1975 and has studied economics and now is working in the businessworld.
He tries to live a clean moral live and even punished his brother, who was temptated by gambling some time ago.
The crownhat of the raja is a copy of the original one,but the objects on it and the design is original.
The Pelu dynasty is known to be pietistic,but not fundamentalistic.
The Hitu federation was formed by several negris, which still recognize the special traditional position of the Raja of Hitulama.
The several hunderds S-Moluccan negris with their rulers are united in a council of upu latu's (rajas) although not all has the right to have according the tradition the title of raja), which is f.i. in 2009 led by Raja Abdullah Malawat of Mamala (also a member of the Hitu federation).

Article and Photo from:
Donald P. Tick

Edited By,
festivi