Cempaka Culture and Tourism: Sharing Chinese and local cultures at Semarang market

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Sharing Chinese and local cultures at Semarang market

Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Semarang

People from all walks of life have flocked in their thousands to Semawis Imlek (Chinese New Year) market on Jl. Pinggir in Semarang, Central Java.

"This is the fifth time we have organized Imlek Semawis market since it first ran in 2003," Semarang Chinatown Tourism Community chairman Haryanto Halim told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

"We have held the event every year since."

Through to Wednesday the 300-meter stretch of road in Semarang's Chinatown area will be filled with various stalls featuring the Chinese chess, medicine, comics, ornaments, sketches and photographs, folk performances and the famous lion dance.

Local cigarette, car, motorbike and medicinal herb companies are also participating in the festival, as well as Chinese and traditional food stands, to welcome the Chinese New Year which falls Thursday.

"We have maintained the spirit of a traditional night market in greeting the Chinese New Year, by holding it in the middle of the street. This is truly Semarang's most popular night market," Haryanto said.

Art performances have also developed into an exchange forum between different ethnicities.

Students from the Indonesian Christian School in Semarang, a majority of whom are from the Indonesian-Chinese community, staged a choir performance of traditional songs accompanied by angklung (Sundanese traditional bamboo musical instrument) and kolintang (North Sulawesi bamboo instrument) music.

Similarly pupils from Kong Kauw Hwee elementary school sang with an accompaniment of music played by musicians from the IAIN Walisongo Islamic University in Semarang.

"We aim to promote cultural exchange through the festival, so as to forge social interaction," Haryanto said.

"We will invite artists from Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore next year, so that they can exchange knowledge with local artists," he said, adding that he hoped the visits would lead to involvement of businessmen from the respective countries.

Semarang's Chinatown district has apparently become one of the city's main tourist attractions now.

Since former president Abdurrahman Wahid's initiative to restore cultural freedom to Indonesian-Chinese citizens in 1999, Chinese culture in Semarang has prospered.

The art of playing Chinese chess has been revived by Kwan Bun, 78, who was engrossed in a game with his opponent, an architectural student at the Soegijapranata Catholic University, Melissa, 19.

"I've only played it for a year. It's not hard. If you know how to play conventional chess then it's not hard to play the Chinese version. You just have to follow the rules of the game," Melissa said.

A master of the Li Dou ritual which stems from the Tao faith of asking for blessings and warding off misfortune, Santoso, said, "Around 500 people took part in the Li Dou ritual last year".

"A similar ritual will be held Feb. 26 this year," he said.

"Essentially each person has his or her own destiny. People can change bad fate by improving their behavior," he said.

The festival will also host cultural dialogs, inviting a number of noted figures to speak, including cultural observer and former Diponegoro University rector Eko Budiharjo, jamu herbal medicine producer Irwan Hidayat, Father Setyaji of Bhinneka Swa Budaya, and Surabaya's Sami Rukun Rahayu Agawe Santoso Association chairman Fadholi Said.

"Self-restraint is hard to come by these days because most people are influenced by spiritual illness like envy, spite, arrogance, egotism and greed. To maintain self-restraint people must be able to cure themselves from such illnesses," Fadholi said.