Indonesia - June, July 2011
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While Jakarta is quickly becoming a city of steel, glass and traffic jams, there are still neighborhoods where one can be close to friendly Indonesians. These pictures are from two days spent walking through some of Jakarta's kampungs (neighborhoods) and the market in Chinatown.
The young daughter of a butcher does his bookwork.
Young couple. Smiles were easy to find.
Rice vendor
On the job blood pressure monitoring by a public health worker.
The young...
... and the older.
Vegetable vendor.
"Dilarang Kencing" means No Urinating
Wi-fi in the market - or playing games?
Preparing a melon.
This lady prepared snacks from her home.
A tongkonan, a Toraja house on the left; granaries, which are often more ornately decorated than the homes, on the right.
Another tongkonan, a Torajan home.
Close up with the ubiquitous bouganvillea.
Country woman.
Farmer with his water buffalo.
Among the traditions of the Toraja people is their unusual burial practice. Very often the body is buried in a grave hollowed out of cliffs, as seen here, and marked with an effigy of the deceased. The buildings are ceremonial.
Effigies in front of Toraja burial sites. Our photographing the grave sites, the effigies and skeletal remains was perfectly OK with the Toraja people, not offensive at all.
Sometimes the coffins are placed in caves or caverns. Once the coffin is placed, or suspended, it is left untended, and the wood coffin is left to decay. Very often the skeletal remains are left for nature's processes to deal with.
There is absolutely no sacrilege to wandering, or photographing, amomg the Toraja grave sites. Clearly, someone before us positioned these skulls.
The coffin during a part of the funeral ceremony for this honored lady, which was held in her family compound.
The home of the deceased.
During the funeral ceremony.
Some of the funeral attendees.
Funeral attendees seated on one of the rice granaries in the courtyard of the deceased where the funeral was held.
One of the 85 water buffalo.
And one of the 500 pigs.
A portrait of the deceased being paraded through the village
The coffin and body.
