Escape to Sumedang, Wonderful Indonesia

       "Proud" is too weak word and Indonesia is too big to be generalized. That is why I must say that I am proud of our founding fathers, our freedom fighters and our patriotic youths of 1928 generation, without them all the pluralistic Indonesia would not stand united until today. I am proud of Soekarno and Hatta, but I have mixed feelings about other top leaders who came after them. 

I am proud of the many colors of Indonesian culture. 

       I learn that living in Indonesia means respecting each other in diverse environment and culture, and the diversity is embracing each other. I learn from Indonesia that the ocean, the mountains and the lakes can help me learn about being grateful for every single little thing that God provide for the human. I learn about the power of story, how history is easily transformed through writing and broadcast, but many people would not forget the stories that pass on through generations. I learn that when we’re scared to speak up, there will not be any change. I learn that nature can be destroyed, animals can extinct and people can easily forget. But most importantly, I learn that hope and the spirit of change is real. Life is a work in progress. It's not perfect but it doesn't mean that you can't fall in love with the process.         

       During my time abroad to Singapore in 2014, whenever I introduced myself and where I came from, this will be the typical questions: Indonesia? Where is it located? Is it near from Bali? Oh you are from Indonesia, do you mean Bali? Yeah, I have been there several times. Bali is awesome!I’m not surprised on their responses, because I also thought that Bali is a beautiful land I ever go. But that is before I got the opportunity to explore other part of Indonesia.  

     And the truth is, Bali is only one of many beautiful places in Indonesia. For those who like to enjoy beautiful sceneries, explore different kind of cultures, try various delicious food, Indonesia is the right place to go! There will be so many hiden beauty land that will make you wonder? Am I in Indonesia?? So far, there is reason to believe that Indonesia is still unknown (except Bali) and even alien to a large part of the foreign community.
       Actually Indonesia has a huge potential tourism for visitors, for example Sumedang. Sumedang as a tourist resort promises maximum facilities, services and satisfaction for visitors. Beautiful view, beautiful mountain, unique culture and good foods also. Sumedang famous with “Kota Leutik Campeurnik”, in English we called “A beautifull little City” and also famous with “kota tahu” or “city of tofu”. There we can found a lot of mountain that suruonded sumedang city.

Top 3 Interesting Places in Sumedang

       Sumedang as a part of region in West Java, has a beautiful nature and places. Green mountain, yellowing field, and a clear river, etc. That’s all makes me impressed when I go to my hometown nowadays, the spot to go “piknik” is raising dy by day. That’s all start when Jatigede Dam (Bendungan Jatigede) officially opened by the ministry of ... and housing on August 2015. And here is top 3 interesting places in sumedang.

   1.   “Toga Village / Toga hills” 

       Toga Village offers the visitors with good view of mountain, good panorama of sumedang. In a land area over 32 hectares, togahills has many facilities. Villa, Karaoke, Restourant, and Souvenir can be found here. And for the visitors who like an outdoor activity like paragliding, toga village also has this facility, which ensures a perfect setting for a memorable adventureous holiday. Toga village just 15 minutes from city center.  

2. Nature Tourism Cipanas Cipantenen 

 

       Located in North Sumedang, in the village of Cipantenen, it is about 15 Km from the city center Sumedang. Hot springs contain a high enough vitamin on the water, so it is commonly used as treatment media. Not only spring, here in Cipantenen also has a beautiful Pine forest, so cold and nice to capturing your photo and to be upload in your Instagram account. 

3. Enchanted Jati Gede 

 

      Just like what I am saying at the first, Jatigede has it own interesting thing. Sumedang used to as a green field, but now you could find so many beaches of this region because of the dam. One of them is Enchanted Jatigede, located in Desa Ciduging. There is so many resto with Dam view. Of course there must be boat and ship to treat the visitor who want to know aroung the Dam, you have to paid only Rp. 20.000,- for looking around the Dam. 

Top 3 Interesting People Activity in Sumedang

        Not only the places, but also the people is very enchanting in Sumedang, they have so much more activityt that will make us amaze of a beauty of villager living style if we compare with city life that separated by the “cluster” and live by them self with no caring to each other.

1.   Hajat Oar 

Hajat Oar in Dusun Cibungur to swipe away the disaster.

       Hajat oar is an actitvity of the vilager when there is so much disaster happen in the recent time. For example in my own village, Desa Cangkuang, in one week there are some disaster happened, 3 people passed away when fishing in the beach of Jatigede in one week. The people believe that disaster would be go away when they held Hajat Oar. The “sesepuh” on the village will lead this Hajat, and all of the villager will bring any food , such as nasi uduk, nasi kuning etc which will be share when the hajat finish, The “sesepuh” will pray to The One and Only God to swipe away al of disaster, and believe it or not, it is work. There is no longer disaster happen. 

2.   Hajat Bumi

       

        Hajat Bumi is an activity when the villager having a great result of their “panen”. All of the villager will gather in the field and bring their field result such as corn, rice, fruit, umi umbian, etc and doing some carnaval around the village. And when they finish with their carnaval they will share the things that they bring. Totally impressive. 

3.   Hajat Milangkala

The head of  Darmaraja Districk when leading Hajat Milangkala.

       Hajat Milangkala is an activity to celebrate village’s birtday. This activity usually led by the head of the village or the head of Kecamatan. In this activity the people also doing canaval but they wil show some attraction usually a traditional dance in front of the stage  from each group of that village. 

Top 3 Interesting Culture of Sumedang 

        Sumedang is cultural city, many people in Sumedang have a capability to do some cultural thing such as traditional dance, playing traditional instrument (degung), ngawih (singing traditional song), here I will share Top 3 Interesting culture of Sumedang. As the ancient culture, Sumedang shows its importance as a cultural and art especially in the art of performing and magical traditional dancing. The following art froms all can be found in and around sumedang. Kuda Renggong, Tarawangsa, Tari Umbul, Reog and Calung.

1.   "PENCAK SILAT (IBING PENCA)" 

     

   Pencak Silat is an all comprising martial art from Indonesia. It is a form of self-defense which combines kicking, punching, grabbing, locking and several weapon-techniques to a graceful and dynamic hard-soft style. The emphasis lies in the agility, explosiveness and flexibility in combination with the surprise effect. All these aspects go hand in hand with traditional norms and values as brotherhood, self-discipline, politeness, loyalty and respect for others. West Java is inhabited by a specific ethnic group with specific cultural and social norms. For them, pencak silat is part of their way of life or as they say is "the blood in their body". In their language they say "penca" or "menpo" (from "maen poho', which literally means play with trickery) to indicate their main four styles Cimande, Cikalong, Timbangan, and Cikaret and all the schools and techniques which have derived from them. The Sundanese people have always utilized penca/mempo' for self-defense and recreation, and only recently have started to use it as a sport in national and regional competitions. In its self-defense form, using hands fighting techniques combined with a series of characteristic footsteps such as langka sigzag (zigzag step), langka tilu (triangular step), langka opat (quadrangular step) and langka lam alip, penca can be very dangerous. Therefore it is kept secret and, especially its magic (tenaga dalam or inner power) component is only taught in phases to selected students.  

 Penca as art (penca ibing) has been a source of inspiration for traditional Sundanese dances such as Jaipongan, Ketu'tilu', Dombret, and Cikeruhan and actually it resembles dance in its use of music instruments. These instruments, called "pencak drummers" (gendang penca), are devoted exclusively to penca performances and consist of two sets of drummers (gendang anak dan kulantir), a trumpet (tetet) and a gong. Pencak performances also use standard music rhythms such as tepak dua, tepak tilu, tepak dungdung, golempang and paleredan. Penca as art is not considered dangerous and can be openly shown to everyone. From generation to generation until today, penca performances animate wedding parties, rituals of circumcision, celebrations of the rice harvest and all kind of national festivities. After analizing the Pencak Silat the grandmasters agreed upon a structure. This structure emphasizes the versatility of the Indonesian-Malaysian martial art. In this structure the Pencak Silat is devided in 4 aspects, namely:• Kebatinan (mental-spiritual, such as meditation)• Seni (cultural/art)• Bela Diri (self-defense)• Wiralaga/Tanding (sport) .

2.   "Wayang Golek"

The most famous Dalang, Asep Sunandar Sunarya when Wayang Show in center city of Sumedang.

       Wayang golek is an original tradition from West java Indonesia. Wayang golek are three dimensional wooden puppets which similar to human face. Wayang Golek puppets have very finely detailed carvings on the head and body, with vivid color and detailed paintings. Like other craft In Indonesia, making wayang golek is a skill handed down through families. Wayang golek show is usually done during traditional parties, marriages, and circumcision. No pays for watching wayang golek, people come and go as they please. The showtime could reach whole night or only several hours. The plays and stories are based on the Ramayana or Mahabharata epics. The man who plays wayang golek is called “dalang”. And the famous one is Asep Sunandar Sunarya. A dalang, or puppet master, manipulated the puppets, spoke their parts, and coordinated the puppets' actions with music from a gamelan orchestra. If you are interest to listen the gamelan orchestra of wayang golek and having wayang golek as your collection please find at the right side of this page to email me. 

3.   "Umbul Dance"

Umbul dance in writers wedding.

       As the ancient cultural city, sumedang is rich in classical and traditional dances. Umbul Dance can still be found in the villages and usually presented by local performer, especially in Situraja and Darmaraja subdistrict. Umbul dance is holding on specific ocasions such us wedding celebrations. 

“Interest to visit Sumedang?”   

     From International Airport, Jakarta, travel cars with air conditioner are available. If the visitors choose train services, it must be stop in Bandung. And from Bandung the visitors can take a bus as alternative way to sumedang. Travel cars are available too from Bandung, but the most comfortable is using a taxy from train station to Sumedang.      

 As the ancient culture, Sumedang shows its importance as a cultural and art especially in the art of performing and magical traditional dancing. The following art froms all can be found in and around sumedang, Kuda Renggong, Tarawangsa, Tari Umbul, Reog and Calung.