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MOUNT MERAPI (2968 m)
Monday, October 22, 2007
This fire mountain remains one of the most active and dangerous volcano in the world. It can be seen from its name – Merapi from Javanese world Meru means mountain and Api means fire. The latest eruption In the early morning of Saturday, July 11, 1998, at 4.59 a.m, the volcano erupted again after days of ominous rumblings and minor tremors. At once, following the explosion, a black smoke rose up to more than 3000 m above its peak, spewing heat clouds and volcanic ash and debris several kilometers away. The ash hit the area as far as 60 Km away on the West of the mountain. Many surrounding towns were blanketed with white ash. The most dangerous killers are the heat clouds. This 3000 0 Celsius heat substance should melt and burnt easily anything found on its way. "Luckily, this cloud blew to an uninhabited area west of the mountain. In 1994 sudden eruption, 66 people of the South-West slope have been killed by this heat cloud.
The local people call this heat cloud in Javanese Wedus Gembel (Wedus – a sheep; gembel – thick curly hair), as it looked like. Usually the local inhabitants should flee from their villages only after seeing the emergence of the "curly sheep", as considered the real menace of the "Merapi Rulers". In 1997, thousand of Merapi villagers have been evacuated when it began spewing ash and lava.
The worst eruption was in 1930 which killed about 1300 people. People did not know exactly how many thousand or even million times, Merapi has been erupted since its birth. In the 10th century, its ashes had buried totally a temple 15 km southward. Probably its unbearable activity had pushed eastward the Hindu Mataram kingdom from Prambanan, central Java to East Java in the 10th century.
But Merapi does not act always as "a bad guy", most of the time "it is a good guy", handsomely gives tremendous fertility to the land, stands strongly guarding the nature
Mountaineering Routes There are 2 routes lead to Mt. Merapi. The first is thru Yogyakarta from the South, the second is thru the village of Selo, Boyolali from the north.
From Yogyakarta From the city of Yogya, a climber shall travel to Kaliurang – a small nice 1300 m high mountain resort, 27 Km north of Yogya and then continue to Kimahrejo village, the last village to the top. A guide, sufficient supply (water etc), any information are available here. Normally, it shall take 6 hours of climbing to the peak.
Tugu Jogja, the Most Popular Landmark in Yogyakarta
Tugu Jogja or the Jogja Monument becomes the landmark that is closely linked to Yogyakarta. There is a tradition to hug and kiss this monument after finishing the study in a university. Digg del.icio.us Reddit Google Yahoo! Facebook Tugu Jogja, the Most Popular Landmark in Yogyakarta Tugu Jogja is the most popular landmark of Yogyakarta. This monument is located right in the center of the crossroad between the Mangkubumi, Soedirman, A.M. Sangaji and Diponegoro roads. The Tugu Jogja that is almost 3 centuries old has a very deep meaning and it keeps some history records of Yogyakarta. Tugu Jogja was built around one year after the construction of Yogyakarta Kingdom. At the early time of its construction, it clearly described the philosophy of the unity of God's creatures that means the spirit of togetherness of lay people and authorities to fight colonials. In Javanese term, the spirit of togetherness is called golong gilig that is clearly described in the construction of the monument: the pole is of gilig (cylinder) form and the top part is golong (rounded). This monument was known as Tugu Golong-Gilig.
In details, the monument was originally constructed in the form of a cylindrical pole with conical form upwards. The base is an encircling fence while the top is rounded. The preliminary height of the monument was 25 meters.
Everything changed when on Monday, 10 June 1867, a big earthquake in Yogyakarta ruined the monument. The collapse of the monument was the transition time when the unity was not really reflected on the monument.
The situation changed totally when in 1889 the Dutch government renovated the monument. The monument was constructed as a square with each side being decorated with a kind of inscription containing the names of people who were involved in the renovation. The top portion is no longer rounded but a pointed cone. The height of the monument is also lower, namely 15 meters. Since then, this monument was also called as De Witt Paal or Tugu Pal Putih (white pole monument).
The renovation of the monument was actually the tactic used by the Dutch colonial to erase the philosophy of togetherness between lay people and the king. Learning from the result of the struggle afterwards, however, the effort did not seem to be successful.
If we want to look at the monument satisfactorily while remembering its philosophical meaning, there are benches facing the monument on the corner of Mangkubumi Street. At 05:00 a.m. - 06:00 a.m. is the right time since the air is still fresh and not much passerby yet. Occasionally, the newspaper boy will greet us politely while riding his bicycle to go to the distribution office of the biggest local newspaper, the Kedaulatan Rakyat.
In the evening, we find the seller of gudeg (traditional menu cooked from young jackfruit) at the corner of Diponegoro Road. The gudeg sold here is delicious at reasonable price. You may have it in crossed-legs seating arrangement while looking at the view of the Tugu Jogja that is bathed with lights.
Being so identical of the Tugu Jogja to Yogyakarta makes many university students from outside of Yogyakarta to express their happiness after the graduation day by hugging and kissing the Tugu Jogja. That may also express their love to Yogyakarta that they will about to leave soon and at the same time say their promise to return to this city.
Geography Yogyakarta is located in south-central Java. It is surrounded by the province of Central Java (Jawa Tengah) and the Indian Ocean in the south. The city is located at 7°47′S, 110°22′E.
The population of DIY in 2003 was approximately 3,000,000. The province of Yogyakarta has a total area of 3,185.80 km². Yogyakarta has the second-smallest area of the provinces in Indonesia, after the Jakarta Capital Region. However it has, along with adjacent areas in Central Java, some of the highest population densities of Java.
Administrative divisions
Yogyakarta province is subdivided into four regencies (kabupaten) and one city (kota):
Bantul Regency (506.86 km²) Gunung Kidul Regency (1,485.36 km²) Kulon Progo Regency (586.27 km²) Sleman Regency (574.82 km²) Yogyakarta City (32.5 km²) Yogyakarta city
Main article: Yogyakarta (city) Located within the Yogyakarta province, Yogyakarta city is known as a center of classical Javanese fine art and culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry and puppet shows. It is also famous as a center for Indonesian higher education. At Yogyakarta's center is the kraton, or Sultan's palace. While the city sprawls in all directions from the kraton, the core of the modern city is to the north
HISTORY
The Yogyakarta Sultanate, formally the Sultanate of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat, was formed in 1755 when the existing Sultanate of Mataram was divided by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in two under the Treaty of Giyanti. This treaty states that the Sultanate of Mataram was to be divided into the Sultanate of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat with Yogyakarta as the capital and Mangkubumi who became Sultan Hamengkubuwono I as its Sultan and the Sultanate of Surakarta Hadiningrat with Surakarta as the capital and Pakubuwono III who was the ruler of the Sultanate of Mataram as its Sultan. The Sultan Hamengkubuwono I spent the next 37 years building the new capital, with the Kraton as the centerpiece and the court at Surakarta as the blueprint model. By the time he died in 1792, his territory exceeded Surakarta's.
The ruler Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX (April 12, 1912 - 1988) held a degree from the Dutch Leiden University, and held for a time the largely ceremonial position of Vice-President of Indonesia, in recognition of his status, as well as Minister of Finance and Minister of Defense.
In support of Indonesia declaring independence from the Dutch and Japanese occupation, in September 5, 1945, Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX of Yogya and Sri Paku Alam VIII in Yogya declared their sultanates to be part of the Republic of Indonesia. In return for this unfailing support, a law was passed in 1950, in which Yogyakarta was granted the status of province Daerah Istimewa (Special Region Province), with special status that recognizes the power of the Sultan in his own region's domestic affairs. Hence Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX was appointed as the governor for life. During the Indonesian war of independence against the Dutch after World War II (1945-1950), the capital of the newly-declared Indonesian republic was temporarily moved to Yogyakarta when the Dutch reoccupied Jakarta from January 1946 until August 1950.
The current ruler of Yogyakarta is his son, Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, who holds a law degree from Universitas Gadjah Mada. Upon the elder sultan's death, the position of governor, according to the agreement with Indonesia, was to pass to his heir. However, the central government at that time insisted on an election. In 1998, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X was elected as governor by the provincial house of representatives (DPRD) of Yogyakarta, defying the will of the central government. He remains the only governor in Java without a military background: "I may be a sultan," he has been quoted in Asia Week as saying, "but is it not possible for me to also be a democrat?"[2]
2006 Earthquake
Main article: May 2006 Java earthquake The province of Yogyakarta bore the brunt of a 6.3-magnitude earthquake on 27 May 2006 which killed 5,782 people and left some 36,299 persons injured. More than 135,000 houses are damaged, and 600,000 people are homeless [3]. The earthquake extensively damaged the local region of Bantul, and its surrounding hinterland. The most significant number of deaths occurred in this region.
The coincidence of the recent eruption of Mount Merapi, and the earthquake would not be lost on the older and more superstitious Javanese - as such natural phenonomena are given considerable import within their understanding of the spiritual aspect of such events.
Transportation
Yogyakarta is served by Adisucipto International Airport.
