[Kabar-indonesia] Surabaya's Chinese Moon Festival A Spectacular Event

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

The Jakarta Post
Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Feature

Chinese Moon Festival offers interest at Surabaya theme park 

If you're in Surabaya this Friday (Oct. 6) take time to visit the Chinese 
Moon 
Festival -- it should be a spectacular event in a curious setting. 
Contributor 
Duncan Graham reports:

There's a monument missing from the coastal Kenjeran Panorama Ria Keluarga 
(also known as "Ken Park") recreation center on the east side of Surabaya, 
location for the annual Moon Festival. 

There's religious statuary aplenty, and all of it recent. More are planned, 
including a full-size replica of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing's Forbidden 
City. But there's nothing to commemorate the man who allowed them to be built 
and displayed -- or the man with the money behind the project. 

During the New Order government of president Soeharto there were heavy 
restrictions on the Chinese and their culture. These included the use of Chinese 
language in print and public discourse, and performances of events like the lion 
dance. 

Indonesia's fourth president, Abdurrahman ("Gus Dur") Wahid, scrapped the 
controls, and adult Chinese who remember the past seem forever grateful. "I think 
we all respect Gus Dur and what he did," said Surabayan businessman and 
low-profile philanthropist Soetiadji Yudho. 

"Without him there would be no traditional Chinese activities in public. We 
couldn't do anything. Now we feel free and happy." 

Soetiadji and his colleagues have wasted no time in making amends. 

They've used their capital and new-found liberties to go on a religious 
building spree in the East Java capital, with a massive four-faced Brahma under a 
36-meter-high, gold-colored dome as the latest edition. 

It takes some time for a Western visitor with a limited understanding of 
Eastern religions to work it all out: There are four faiths celebrating their 
presence on the same site -- Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Taoism. 

Size apparently does matter. The four-faced statue is supposed to be the 
biggest Brahma in Indonesia, and only slightly smaller than a similar one in 
Thailand. There's another in central Denpasar. 

It's widely regarded as a Buddha by the locals and is a Buddhist deity. 
However, according to Soetiadji the statue represents Brahma, the Hindu creator god 
(also known as Dewa Catur Muka-- the four-faced god.) 

The faces reflect mercy, magnanimity, fairness and meditation, while the 
multiple hands hold holy books, beads, water vessels and other artifacts. 

Earlier erections nearby include a vaulting 20-meter-high statue of the 
Goddess of Mercy, Kwan Im Po Sat, flanked by two daughters and four men on the 
level below. These are above a couple of dragons, apparently fighting for a magic 
jewel ball. Soetiadji said these images were part of Taoism. 

Although set high above the seashore, all the figures have their backs to the 
ocean. In most Western traditions, seashore statues look to the horizon for 
lands to conquer or invaders to repel. 

"The goddess has come from another dimension and is looking inland to bring 
blessings to people and make the world peaceful," said Soetiadji. 

"It doesn't matter whether you think her beautiful or not -- that's not 
important. The message is to lead a happy life and be open, honest and truthful." 

The central temple is more conventional, with several Buddhas, many burning 
candles and grandfather clocks. The atmosphere is relaxed with men and women 
mingling freely, burning incense and praying, indifferent to onlookers. 

The place is mercifully free of beggars and touts, and the people who show 
you around don't expect a tip. All religions (and presumably those with no 
religion) seem to be welcome. 

There are no plaques at Ken Park naming Soetiadji as the benefactor, and 
staff are told not to mention his name. He's a stocky, friendly man with a large 
central city hotel, another being built, a jewelry factory and other 
enterprises. Despite these assets he's not a big note guy. 

He declined to say how much he'd spent at Ken Park or to have his photo taken 
for The Jakarta Post. He said it was enough for the public to know his 
philosophy. 

"My father built a small temple about 30 years ago when such things were 
still allowed," he said. "I'm a Buddhist and I put up the new temple in his 
memory; then Kwan Im Po Sat, and later the four-faced Brahma. 

"Religion is in my heart. It's personal. I respect your beliefs, please 
respect mine. Don't ask me details of the meanings of the statues -- I just know 
how to build! 

"If people come and pray and get lucky, then I'm happy. Maybe some of that 
joy and luck will reflect on me. But I don't know. 

"Why did I do it? Because I like big projects! Surabaya is my hometown and I 
have the land. I didn't do it to attract tourists, though many now visit. 
That's a secondary concern. 

"This is my way of life. I feel happy doing this, and I hope visitors get 
happiness. That's my private philosophy. Now you know what's in my deepest 
heart." 

The Chinese corner is the only section of the 100-hectare park that deserves 
a visit -- and don't take the word of a jaded journalist for this observation. 

When the East Java Tourism News website writes of the park's "filthy, dirty 
or untidy image" then it's clear changes need to be made. 

Soetiadji says renovation plans are in place and include a seafood 
restaurant, a science education center and a riding school: Watch this space. 

The park looks as though maintenance wasn't included as an ongoing budget 
item when first designed and built on reclaimed land. There are wide streets, but 
hazards lurk in the sunken paving. Someone's idea of murals are peeling 
Disney characters. Statues of various animals are suffering in the last stages of 
concrete cancer. 

The views to sea are better at night when the heat is less and only the 
bobbing lights of passing boats can be seen while you dine at one of the scores of 
food stalls. 

By day the advertised "beach" can be more accurately described as a mud flat. 
If the flotation characteristics of black plastic bags fascinate, then this 
is the spot to be. 

Please don't be deterred by these criticisms, made only in the interests of 
balance (and maybe because the car's suspension took a beating during a drive 
around the complex). 

Go after sunset, particularly during the Moon Festival on Friday (the 15th 
day in the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, year 2557) and enjoy the 
celebrations, including lion dances and martial arts displays. 

Have a romantic evening, for this is what the Moon Festival is about, along 
with family reunions. Make your own sense of the religious imagery -- it's all 
benign. 

How to get there: Ken Park (better known to cab drivers as Taman Ria) is in 
the coastal suburb of Kenjeran, about 12 kilometers east of central Surabaya. 
Most tour and travel operators know the site. The Moon Festival will run all 
day and much of the night. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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