Welcome to My Humble Little Shack
I was excited to visit Yogyakarta last week. I keep calling it my humble little shack to everyone because despite its simplicity, Yogyakarta keep inspiring me over and over again, just like a humble hermit shack that teach people about wisdom and the value of life. This is the city where modernity meet with traditional culture. This is the place that teach me to think theoretically and act in accordance of humanity. This is also the place that teach me about diversity and religious pluarlism. Raise in one of the stronghold of conservative, Jogja give me a whole new experience on tolerance and living in harmony. During USIPP visit, Jogja once again inspire me to think globally and act locally. The visit on humble buddhist monastery (yes i will keep calling it humble) teach me on how muslim in this area could tolerate and accomodate buddhist community and its annual Vesak celebrations. A visit on local indigenous religion teach me on how local wisdom could coexist with other religion, even though certain abrahamic religion think that it is the act of heretic. The lecture about Kraton Politics give me a perspective that religious harmony is something that need to be constructed and regulated However, this trip also make me want realize that religious harmony is not something to taken for granted and not embedded in culture only. It has to be obtained through struggle and constant effort. I realized that througout the years, Jogja is no longer become a safe haven for religious diversity. The rise of conservative group and our ignorance to actively contain it has crippled Jogja and its value. The discussion with Alissa Wahid about intolerance practice in Jogjakarta and Indonesia made me realize that the sileng tolerant majority have to act. We almost do nothing when vigilante group close the transgender islamic boarding school. Majority of Jogja people, including me, care less when certain islamic group attack a christian congregation or attacking discussion about communism and feminism. We barely do anything when our King and government practically doing nothing when these things happened. This trip made me realize that I have to do something for my humble little shack. Its hermits is in the bad shape and its walls almost collapse. Lodang
