This is my submission for the Hive Cross Culture Biweekly Question: “What do you love about the country you grew up in"?
I am going to leave politic,bureaucrazy and religion out of the door as much as possible.
If I were to ask how to describe the country I grew up in, I would have no exact words except maybe, multiculturalism.
For many, you may hear about the country because of the stunning rice fields and beaches, backyard of OZ, paradise for vegans, digital nomads, and some of the extremes, flogging punishment.
source : picture taken during my Bali trip.
Those things do exist and I loathe some of it. However, I find multiculturalism in the country is amazing. The country I grew up in has a lot of languages,ways of life, beliefs, customs tradition and food. I believe it will be difficult for one to actually experience all of them in a lifetime.
I live in a place known as the "student" province. There are about 21 universities and some little private universities. This surely attracts students not only from this small province but also throughout the country and internationally. One of the results from that dynamic is how diverse the food that can be found in this place. I can find food from my own place, Eastern Indonesian, Balinese food and even international cuisine especially European. And lately, Mexican food is gaining popularity too.
Another thing to highlight is despite being a melting pot, this province still maintain its original culture.
I originally spend a lot of my time in a place where it's hot, the people are hot-headed, loud, direct, and enjoys spicy food. Now that I have been living in this place, I started becoming like them. I speak with a bit of their dialect, I expect people to become more hospitable, friendly, and soft-speaking. Whenever I come home, I would experience a bit of shock and the need to adjust myself once again. But certainly there is a bit distinction from me and my peers who are coming from this place, I speak louder. No, we are not yelling, that's just how we speak.
I have an interesting story about it. My mother and I were on a train from west-java. It was filled with Sundanese and they love bringing something with distinct smell. I already told my mom not to speak loud or make comment about the smell. But when we got inside the train, My mom casually mentioned, " what is this smell?" and the whole train can hear it despite for us, it was not loud. In the train, we become the loudest though we have already lowered our volume. Where I grew up, it was known that we cuss a lot, a lot that every word is filled with fuck, bitch, shit(if translated to English). For people outside where I grew up, it may be strange but that is how we communicate to each other. I had to tone it down when I live in my current place.
Even as a child, when my parents and I travel to this city, we always enjoy how welcoming and friendly the people are in contrast to where we originally live. However, my parents definitely don't enjoy too much sweetness in this place. It's also one of the thing that hasn't changed, my liking to savory and spicy food instead sweet meal.
The place I live, accepts people from all walks of life, background, and stories. It does not even try to change you but when you live long enough, you sort of adjust with the way things work.
Surely, this experience was a bit different when I live in Bali. I felt as though, I was living the western way with western prices. I really have yet to experience what it was like to actually live like a Balinese and understand their customs and traditions. The same goes with other places I visited in this country. I think it will take me more than a year in order to actually understand different customs, culture and traditions from these places.
I have colleagues from different cultures and when we did community service then, it was interesting. Despite the location was only a few hours from the inner city, the custom and tradition were much different. It was also different from my colleagues background too and we learn so many new things.
But surely, the diversity is noticeable even when you travel an hour away to another city within the same province. They may share the same language but it will have different dialect and ways to say things.There is also higher chances, the custom and tradition will be different despite being in the same province. This has something to do with the country history which was consisted of little monarch in the country. Even in modern day, there are 5 provinces which gained its special status that enables these places to have its own rules on top of the country's rule.
There are also problems here and there when it comes to multiculturalism. But many of us tried to be accepting and open towards differences.It is reflected in the country motto, unity in diversity which was taken from an ancient Javanese scripture in the 14th century.
his quotation(Mpu Tantular, the writer of this stanza) comes from canto 139, stanza 5. The full stanza reads as follows:
Hæng dhâtu winuwæs Buddha Wiswa,
Bhinnêki rakwa ring apan kena parwanœsen,
Nangda khong Jinatuaa khlawan Hokwatatwa tunggal,
Bhinneka tunggal ika tæng hana dharma mangrwa.
Translation
It is said that the well-known Buddha and Shiva are two different substances.
They are indeed different, yet how is it possible to recognise their difference in a glance,
since the truth of Jina (Buddha) and the truth of Shiva is one.
They are indeed different, but they are of the same kind, as there is no duality in Truth.
Source : Wikipedia
I think liking this aspect of the country is able to summarize my love to wandering, trying to taste different food,knowing different customs, traditions and even enjoying different landscape the country has to offer.
If you ask me to generalize the work ethic, the views towards life, that will be difficult since it differs from one culture to another. I hear friendliness becomes the most general opinion about the country which is true especially if we interact with people from different cultures, many of us always approach it with a sense of curiosity because again, this country is diverse and we all are different.Despite some pessimism I have about the country, I still have some aspects that I love about it. Mac