Rama & Shinta - Shadow Puppet

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Say “I Love you” in other languages

Afrikaan       Ek is lief vir jou Arabic          Ana Behibak (to a male);                      Ana Behibek (to a female) Bavarian       I mog di narrisch gern Bulgarian     Obicham te Cambodian  kh_nhaum soro_lahn                      nhee_ah Chinese        Wo ie ni Czech           miluji te Danish          Jeg elsker dig Dutch            Ik hou van jou Estonian       Mina armastan sind Esperanto     Mi amas vin Persian         Tora dust midaram Flemish         Ik zie oe geerne Finnish          Mina" rakastan sinua French          Je t'aime Gaelic          Ta gra agam ort German        Ich liebe Dich Greek           S' ayapo Hebrew        aNEE oHEIVET oTKHA                     (female to male)                     aNEE oHEIV otAKH                     (male to female) Hindi            Mein Tumse Pyar Karta Hoon

Hungarian    Szeretlek te'ged Indonesian   Aku cinta padamu Italian          Ti amo Irish              taim i' ngra leat Japanese     Kimi o ai shiteru Korean         Tangsinul sarang ha yo Latin             Te amo; Vos amo Lao               Khoi huk chau Norwegian   Jeg elsker deg (Bokmaal) Pakistani      Muje se mu habbat hai Persian         Tora dost daram Pilipino         Mahal Kita Polish           Ja Cie Kocham Portuguese   Eu te amo Romanian    Te iu besc Russian        Ya lyublyu tebya;                     Ya vas lyublyu Spanish        Te amo Swedish        Jag a"lskar dig Thai              Phom Rak Khun Turkish          Seni seviyorum! Vietnamese  Anh ye^u em (men to                      woman); Em ye^u anh                     (women to man) Zuni              Tom ho' ichema

Rama & Shinta
an Indonesian favorite love story from Ramayana Epic

Rama & Shinta - Wayang golek

Rama & Shinta – Wayang Golek Rama & Shinta, an episode from Ramayana epic. Rama is the king of Ayodya. He is a wise man and a faithful husband, struggled to free his beautiful wife, Shinta, who abducted by the ogre King Rahwana. With the help of Anoman, finally Rama was able to rescue Shinta, his faithful wife.

 Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic thought to have been compiled between approximately 400 BCE and 200 CE. It is one of the most important literary works on ancient India, the Ramayana has had a profound impact on art and culture in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, including Indonesia. ---


July 2007
Batik from the North Coast of Java.
Leather Puppet Artist and Earthquake 2006.

Batik from the North Coast of Java.
BATIK is one of Java's most famous and highly developed art traditions. It is painstakingly produced on cotton or silk, by hand or with an intricate handmade copper stamp. It's vastly different designs and colors are symbolic of the numerous producing regions, towns and their subsequent festivals and religious ceremonies.
Batik is made through a many stage process of hot wax drawing and dying. The number of colors in a batik piece represents how many times this process was repeated. Numerous dyeing cycles and design intricacy are reflected in the value of the cloth. Batik was exclusively created and used among courtesans, and North Coast Batik was popular among the courtesans since 14th century.
Because of access to the balance of the Indonesian archipelago, the Phillipines and the rest of Asia, there are several busy ports along Java's north coast dating back thousands of years. Chinese traders were intrigued by the intricate designs offered by the Javanese artisans and in turn the artisans incorporated Chinese motifs into their work. Other cultures left their mark on north coast batik, also. Most notable, Indian influence in 18th century, European in mid 18th century, Chinese in 19th century and finally Japanese in mid 19th century. Later in mid 18th century, batik became a popular art form outside the courtesans and spread out in Western societies in the 19th century.

Mega Mendung (Clouds) - North Coast batik with Chinese influence.

Leather Puppet Artist and Earthquake 2006.
It's been almost a year since the earthquake hit Jogyakarta. Jogya is in Southern-central part of Java Island, Indonesia. It was a shocking moment for Watie, my dear artist friend and Casa Esotica's key person in Jogya. Fortunately, she was safe but her small gallery and livelihood was ruined. She quickly joined the group distributing food and assistance to fellow victims that lost their homes and loved ones. Through her we extended our help to the victims of that catastrophe. In particular Darmono, a modest shadow puppet artist and bread-winner for an extended family, lost his entire workshop and inventory. He is a very talented artist with high standards that creates excruciatingly detailed and fine work. Shadow puppets are made from leather, and hand carved to create mythical figures for local puppet-masters and some tourist trade. His family prepares the leather for his puppets employing age-old methods including hand curing, stretching and scraping of the hides to achieve the right rigidity and thickness. Our financial help allowed Darmono and his family to survive and rebuild the family house and his workshop. During a visit in Spring of this year, it was a joy to see him, his family back on their feet working again. Of course, we brought back some his fine leather puppets, too.
His collection is available at Color Island.

Earthquake             Leather Prep           Darmono the Artist        Leather Puppet