Dieng: Abode of God

After so many times of cancellation since last year, finally I went to Dieng with quite bad feeling and tiredness because I just came back form my tiring job duty to Sumatra two days before this trip. Though, my curiosity about Dieng killed my body need to get rest. The name "Dieng" comes from Di Hyang which means "Abode of the Gods" (wikipedia). Dieng is located in East Java, near to Wonosobo.

'Festival Culture Dieng' is my biggest reason to do this trip on that day because it just happens once a year. What is special about it? In Festival Culture Dieng, we can see the process of the "Anak Rambut Gembel" have their hair cut.

Anak Rambut Gembel (Dreadlock hair Kids) are the kids who were born and growth in Dieng area who have dreadlock hair. Their hair is not intended to be dreadlocks, but it grows naturally. Commonly, the hair were normal when the kids were just born, but when they grow older the hair changes and the kids will get a fever. There is a magic story about this phenomenon. Society believe that it will bring a bad luck for them, so the kids should have their hair cut when they are about 7 years old. There is a requirements to do that: the parents should grant all of the kids request because the hair can't be cut if the request hasn't fulfilled yet.

So, that was my mission visiting Dieng on last June, and here are my report.

 The night of the festival:

Fire camp

Lantern Festival

Fireworks

It's very cold at Dieng, I can't tolerate it to stay outside for a long time, so I and friends went to our homestay and sleep because we had to wake up about 2.a.m and trekked to Sikunir Top at 3.p.m.

Our homestay owner said that it was 9 degrees Celsius and it could reach under 0 degrees Celsius on August. Brrrr.....I think it will be easy for Dieng people go to 4-season country in winter, haha...

We're success to wake up at three, and oh my....trekked for an hour at 3 a.m was so challenging. Three of my friends reached the top faster than me...fortunately, there were many people around so I wasn't afraid.

Taraaaa....top of Sikunir Mount! with Sindoro Mount behind us..

These are the view on the way but we didn't see it for we walked at darkness before..

Telaga Cebong

Telaga Cebong

Traditional performance greeted us in the morning

This is the original fruit from Dieng, they called it Carica. They said that if we plant it outside Dieng, it will grow as Papaya. Strange, isn't it?

Carica

After the failed sunrise hunting and before we attanded the Rambut Gembel Ceremony, we visited this Telaga Warna (Coloured Lake)

Telaga Warna

We were very lucky that our homestay were passed by the procession.

Actually, I recorded it as video, but I can't publish it yet...
And theeeen....even the Slovakia ambassador for Indonesia, Stefan Rozpokal and his daughter attended this ceremony.

The ceremony was held at Arjuna Temple Complex:

This kid had had his hair cut in the ceremony

This girl hasn't had her hair cut yet

There are several place in Dieng that I haven't visited yet like the most famous one: Kawah Sikidang, and I hope the next trip to Dieng, God will let me see the Sunrise at Sikunir :)