Farsijana's home of intercivilization, intercultures and interreligious practices
Senin, 10 Desember 2012
Sabtu, 08 Desember 2012
Jumat, 07 Desember 2012
Kamis, 06 Desember 2012
Rabu, 05 Desember 2012
Good stories never spoil
Good stories never spoil
December 2012
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
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| With children after their dancing performance at Pendopo |
Dear Family, Friends and Colleagues,Dear Family, Friends and Colleagues,
Good stories
never spoil, especially the
story of the
birth of someone we love.
As we approach Christmas, we are especially thankful for the story of
the birth of Jesus. For
a while, our most powerful
story was about my younger brother’s life and tragic death this
year.
As we shared the deep sorrow
of his
story, we experienced how our
lives are in God’s hand. We are continually reborn in the midst of
death.
Recently
my husband, Bernie,
told me he wanted
to welcome his 64th birthday with special joy.
Life keeps moving slowly along, until suddenly
we realise that
aging is quickly
approaching. Bernie wrote an inspiring
invitation to friends and neighbors in Java
to share in the celebration of
his 64th birthday.
He admires the way Javanese people celebrate
birth. According to their cosmology,
there are three
important birthdays in a person’s
life that are based on the sacred number 8 (windu).
The first is a
celebration of childhood when they reach the age of 8 years and many Muslim
children are circumcised. The next is a celebration of adulthood when they have
lived half a windu of windus (4X8) and are 32 years old. The final
birthday is when they are fully grown up and have lived a full windu of
windus (8X8) at the age of 64 years. This is a celebration of aging.
Bernie’s
invitation touched my heart because of his honesty in
reflecting
deeply on the mystery of his
life. He’s glad he no longer has to worry about what he’ll be when he’s
all grown up.On his birthday, people came from four universities where Bernie teaches and mentors students: Universitas Gadjah Mada, Duta Wacana Christian University (DWCU), State Islamic University Sunan Kalijaga and Muhammadiah University Yogyakarta. The first three are part of the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS), which Bernie helped start. Our neighbors and networks of women and children also joined the party. Together with my family we celebrated not only Bernie’s birthday but also renewed our relationships in this large, extended family. We made a map of Bernie’s life journey and realized that he has travelled to so many countries to live with people around the world. So many people have touched his heart and enriched his ideas and experiences.
I remember Bernie’s story about his mother, whose birthday is only one day after his. When she gave birth to Bernie she said that he was God’s present to her. On the 64th celebration of his birthday, Bernie cut the birthday cake and gave the first piece to Leonard Epafras, who was God’s birthday gift to Bernie. Leo was the first graduate of ICRS, who successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation on the day before Bernie’s 64th birthday. Bernie met Leo when he was a computer engineer with a good job. Bernie encouraged Leo to follow his heart, study theology and do research on relations between Jews, Muslims and Christians. Leo wrote a brilliant Master’s thesis on the role of Jews in Indonesian Muslim discourse. He went on to become a Ph.D. student in the opening year of ICRS. Along with Profs. Amin Abdullah and Reuven Firestone, Bernie guided Leo’s research on “Jewish Sufism” in Medieval Egypt. Leo explored the porous frontier between two religious communities, created by spiritual hunger. He showed that the common antagonism between Muslims, Jews and Christians can be overcome under the right conditions. These different religious communities have much to learn from each other. This is an important message in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, where the Middle East conflict is felt like a painful wound in the side. Leo is now the newest full faculty member of ICRS. So Leo got the first piece of Bernie’s birthday cake: yummy!
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| The ritual of honouring the first inborn scholar of ICRS Yogya |
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| Explaining the feast |
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| Dancing Pendet |
Warm greetings
Farsijana and Bernie Adeney-Risakotta
Selasa, 29 Mei 2012
Religion, Music and Politics in Indonesia
Religion, Music and Politics in Indonesia
By Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta
Just recently, the management of Lady Gaga has canceled the plan to have her to perform in Indonesia. The reason of their cancelation was to concern on the security issues. We all wonder why Lady Gaga has been rejected in several countries to welcome her globe tour to Asia. Despite she had condemned both in Manila and Seoul, she still did the show there. However, in Indonesia she canceled her show.
People around this globe appreciate to her artistic works on making her music to alive, but at the same time even in USA, her provocative symbols and religious languages to be accommodated into her show have created protests from many religious bodies. Her unique music which contains deep meaning in a very simple way of singing has tied many young people around the globe. She has used music to advocate human rights issues to relate with those who have marginalized due to their special sexual differences.
For me as an anthropologist and a theologian, reading the rejection of our society to the performance of Lady Gaga, has to relate with the fact that religion needs to be respected. Many people think that Lady Gaga is an immoral singer. She does not respect to any religious institutions. However, I found something different with her.
Lady Gaga is a person with a deep spirituality but also a smart girl. Before she became a songwriter, she started writing critics on music and social issues during her study at New York University, Tisch School of Art. Now she is a very productive songwriter on the theme of religions, sexuality, social issues like politics of the marginal people etc.
Her outstanding stage performance tries showing the real life of people to whom she sings about them. When she sings Judas, actually according to my understanding, she wants to let this world knowing that in human heart there is always a tension between being attractive to demon or to God. I think she appears to be honest in her show however, perhaps in other culture it looks too vulgar.
If this is the base of our reason, which is because of her vulgarity to express artistic mood relating with the use of her sexual performance, in Indonesia to reject her, is the best than to let this world knows our rejection because of treating action from a particular religious group to the show. If it is the case, it shows that our government cannot lead this country well, because they are being dictated by the group which tends to use violence to manage the life of a society.
What can we value more on this phenomena especially to think about to what extend the roles of religions have to be interwined into the public life of people including to determine to the government's decision to all people. This is a very hard question to be discussed in the context of our society. I wonder whether could be hard also at other contexts and countries around this globe?
Rabu, 29 Februari 2012
Senin, 13 Februari 2012
From death comes life
From death
comes life
By Farsijana
Adeney-Risakotta
We all shocked of the death of our brother John Franklin Risakotta, even though he seemed not shocking
to die. He was sleeping beautifully. I told him before we closed his coffin
that he appeared more handsome than his performance when he got married three months
ago before his death. I thought he was happy to hear that.
We were all shock. He died by himself only with God. My father died in the
same way. Nobody knew when he was gone. We came to his room he already
went during his sleep.
I could see his faith to God that brought him so peacefully. It was his
gift for all of us. He inherited his loving and peaceful face as if he was sent
back to earth to tell us about how wonderful to live in heaven.
He had truly lived with his faith as his favorite reading from the Bible
coloring his last life as we all have seen.
I am writing down Psalm 23:
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want;
he makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil;
for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me"
After our Christian pray at home yesterday at noon, bu Tum,
the wife of our RT (neighborhood organization), pak Supri, a Muslim came to ask for "ayat bacaan"
(reading from scripture) that needed to be inserted in the box of
thanksgiving for my brother’s seven days of departure. I gave his favorite Psalm to ibu Tum to put into the boxes of meals.
Women of our neighborhood prepared the meals and included the "ayat
bacaan" into the box of meal before they distributed to the whole
RT. She also asked whether we needed to bring all boxes
firstly to our home before they were distributed. I told them to take directly
from the house of bu Nardi who was the head of the cook.
I approached them
after they came back from delivering the packages. It was just right time
before the dinner. Before people opened the box of meal, they prayed to thank
God for their birth and life which do not choose a particular people. Seeing
other people death likes reflecting to our own when we have to be ready any
time.
Moreover, in the Bible says that your neighbor is your family and it is
true. I remember my colleague,bu Siti Ruhaini Dzuhayatin from UIN, came
to our gathering during the Ramadhan at our home, and shared the teaching of
the Prophet Muhammad to ask people sharing their meals when the smelt of their
cook spread out across the wall.
In our neighborhood,
I could see what people practices the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad. In the time of
suffering, what neighbor could do is to enlighten the burden of those who are
in mourning. Our return to their love is to do the same things as what we are
taught in our religious teaching.
Bible says you
shall love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12: 31). The Lord our God, the Lord
is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mark 12: 29).
Living is doing as everyone knows birth, life and death to bring people
closely to each other as a family both among our own biological fam and our society
where we live.
Sabtu, 11 Februari 2012
How do People Die in Indonesia?
How do People Die in Indonesia?
Dear
Family, Friends and Colleagues,
This week my brother, in
February 6th, John Franklin Risakotta died. He was 42
years old. John, Farsijana’s younger brother, lived with us for about 5
years including the past three months after he married Ely. John was a
gentle soul who did not find life easy but loved to joke. He and Ely
carried various jobs to eck out a living. In our household he was always
ready to help and supported our service in the community, especially by running
errands and driving people hither and yon. We do not know why he
died. He was in good health. On the morning of his death he was
joking around, playing with our 2 year old niece, changing a flat tire for his
sister in law and (uncharacteristically for an Indonesia male), washing the
dishes. He gave his wife a hug and kiss and went to take a shower.
She found him on the bathroom floor, not breathing. There were no signs
of a heart attack or stroke and he had no known history of illness.
Perhaps he was the victim of Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome, or Cardiac
Arrest. This is fairly common in young, Southeast Asian males. His
heart just stopped. God called him home. As he lay in the coffin in
our living room, everyone was struck by how beautiful and peaceful he
looked. Our family is now in the house of
sorrow. This week we have wept an ocean of tears.
How do Indonesians die? First of all, they seem to die more often.
When I first arrived in Indonesia, the young, high school phy-ed teacher who
taught our kids sports died of tetnus after a minor accident. Later, the
pregnant daughter of our household handyman (Sungkono) died of TB because she
couldn’t afford the medicine the doctor prescribed. Many people die of
causes that would not be considered life threatening in the West. I moved
to Indonesia when I was 40 and had only attended 4 or 5 funerals in my whole
life. During my past 20 years in Indonesia it’s more like 4 or 5 funerals
per year. Death seems so much closer.
Secondly, Indonesians die in community. I don’t know if the rate of death
is much higher than in the West. Over the past 50 years life expectancy
in Indonesia has risen from about 40 years to almost 70, because of vastly
improved nutrition, education and health care. But death is a very public
event. John died around noon. That evening and in the morning,
although John is a Christian, his death was announced over the loud speaker
from our local mosque as Berita Duka, News of Sorrow. By
afternoon, our Muslim neighbors had already brought chairs to set up in our
garden and street to accommodate the many guests who would begin to
arrive. By evening village leaders had closed off the street and set up
huge tents to keep the sun and rain off those who were already arriving to
mourn. The villagers all came to melayat, share in our
mourning. People came from our Christian university, but also the Islamic
university and the national university where we teach. Many came from his
church and our church. Women came from various chapters of the Indonesian
Women’s Coalition (KPI) in part because John often drove KPI members for
meetings, cultural events and disaster relief. Many came who had never
met John, just because they knew us. The funeral service and burial were
held the day after his death. By that time hundreds had passed through
our house where we served them snacks and they viewed John’s body. Most
left an envelope with a monetary gift to lighten the sorrow.
Thirdly, Indonesians die ecumenically. Traditionally, everyone who knows
a grieving relative of a person who died, will come to grieve with them,
without regard for their religion, race or ethnic background. On the
night of John’s death, leaders from his church came to pray and sing around the
body. Some Muslims observed and others sat outside under the tents.
The next morning church leaders held a more formal service, followed by an
ecumenical ceremony including speeches from village leaders. I shared my
impressions of Johns gentleness and toughness. “Blessed are the meek, for
they shall inherit the earth.” John has inherited a new earth. The
coffin was closed amid unbearable lamentations. Then we pushed the coffin
on a cart to the village graveyard, where a few Christian graves are
interspersed with many Muslim ones. In Indonesia there is a disturbing
growth in religious intolerance, discrimination against minorities and attempts
at religious separation (apartheid). Fortunately the intolerant are still
a small minority who are running against the grain of centuries of relative
harmony between different religious communities. Our family, like many in
Indonesia, includes both Christians and Muslims.
Fouthly, Indonesians, like people everywhere, experience great sorrow at the
death of those they love. Traditionally Indonesians of different
religions hold services not only on the days of death and burial, but also 7
days, 30 days, 100 days and 1,000 days after a person dies. It is never
easy. Frankly, just days after his death, I find it hard to move, hard to
breathe. I feel like I am stumbling around in darkness. I’m still
not pasrah, “submitted to the will of God.” I rushed home when
they found his body and vainly used CPR to try to make him breathe and start
his heart. At home and all the way to the hospital: blow, pump, blow,
pump. But he was gone.
My son Peter wrote, “Dad, I love you. I wish I could
be there to breathe with you. I guess I am.” So that is the task of
the living: to breathe. And more than that, to breathe together.
Yours in sorrow,
Bernie and Farsijana (Nona) Adeney-Risakotta
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