The Magnificent Bhumi Arema is an exercise in intentional appreciation and I simply want to share some of things that make this place special to me. In the posts to come, my plan is for them to be photo laden, informative, chock full of personal opinions, and hopefully, fun to read. The main goal, however, is to appreciate these things in a public space that will allow for those who are interested to follow along.
This first post will only cover some basics about Malang, East Java, Indonesia.
This is a Google map of Indonesia.
Don't let the image fool you - the island archipelago of Indonesia is a huge country and located along the southern portion of the famed "ring of fire" that is known for volcanoes and various other earth-shaking natural events.
Ever since January of 2011 I've lived on the island of Java - on the map above it is the largish island south of the "Ind" of Indonesia. The map below is a close-up of Java.
As you can see here, Malang is located in the eastern part of Java (East Java) and is surrounded by a ring of mountainous volcanoes - some dormant and some not-so.
This is the area of greater Malang with the cities of Batu and Malang excluded from the boundary. The area of Bhumi Arema, however, includes the area within the boundary, as well as the cities of Batu and Malang.
In the map above you can see to the east the location of Bromo, a very famous and beautiful volcano that straddles the border between Malang and Probolinggo. To the west you can see the location of Blitar, the burial place of the first Indonesian president, Dr.(HC) Ir. H. Soekarno, affectionately referred to as "Bung Karno".
Because of the diversity of environs here, the weather can vary from place to place. In the mountainous areas, it can get rather chilly at times and in the lower areas, it can be rather toasty. (Coming from the hot South of the United States, for me, the climate here is quite comfortable - not too hot, not too cold, comfortable - every day. That is one of my favorite things)
Based on my remedial math skills, a little help from Google, and a healthy dose of generalization, it appears that the average temperatures range between the mid '60s and mid '80s, but again, it depends on where you are (and what time of day it is!)
There are two dominant seasons, rainy and dry. We have just entered the dry season and it means that the air is less humid, there are fewer rain showers, and as far as I can tell, it gets much colder at night! Dry season begins around May/June and lasts until September/October.
In addition to the wonderful weather and idyllic setting, Malang is home to the number one soccer club in Indonesia, Arema. Arema stands for "Arek Malang"(People of Malang) and is known not only for their dominating wins, amazing sportsmanship, and scores of devoted fans, but also for their motto; the foundational belief that exceedingly represents the people and the civic mindset that makes Malang such a great place to live.
Salam Satu Jiwa. In English, it roughly means "the Peace of One Soul" and it means that we may all be different - come from different places, have different languages, even look different, but here we can be one in the peace of one spirit - one soul. Unity in diversity. In the US we know that as "E Pluribus Unum" (out of many, one) and in Indonesia, it's "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika", which means basically the same thing.
In Malang, diversity seems to be appreciated, promoted, and nurtured. Maybe that attitude hearkens back to the Majapahit Era - that's not for me to know, but it surely seems that way when I look at the carvings on some of the older temples around here - lots of different looking people...and most of the time, they seem to be getting along splendidly.
That's enough for this week - if there are certain topics you'd like me to cover, I'd love to hear about them. Please post in the comment section.
Until next week - Salam Satu Jiwa!
