jalanjalan

Born as Indonesian is an incredible gift for me. As far as the eye could see, as long as trace step, Indonesia is an interesting story to tell about. Natural beauty such as the sea, mountains, animals and plants and cultural diversity like art, food, and artifacts are much valuable. A wonderful gift that makes me crazy is temple!

Temple is artifact from Indonesian Classical period. It became the evidence of how high the culture and civilization of the ancestors of Indonesia. Temple is a religious building of the Hindu-Buddhist. Its art architecture decorated with various carvings and sculptures of relieves and statues with the elements of spirituality and creativity.

September 2011, I saw the excavation process of Palgading Temple in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This was my first experience of watching the digging process with my own eyes. Educational chat with the archaeologists there was completely changed my pattern of thought about historical site: they are there to be preserved.

Since then, I visit more often to various historical objects, especially those unpopular objects. Each of the new travel destination, I invite different friends, so that they can share their experience to more people around. And so on.

One way to preserve is to make an object can be known by many people: Publications! The more people know, the more eyes there to keep it sustainable. Go away, take pictures, make a write, than upload it to the internet. Publish the findings in each object visited is the most important way that traveler should realize.

This year I developed a database system for heritage in Indonesia, named Indonesian Heritage Inventory (IHI) http://indonesianheritage.web.id/ (in Bahasa Indonesia). This system is an effort to promote various kinds of resources in Indonesia, to distribute travel visit to more objects. If more people traveling to more tourist attraction, there will be more people who are empowered due to the positive impact of this tourism industry.