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By the numbers
Book of Secrets: The so-called Book of a 100 Trillion Dreams drives the warungâs menu
Book of Secrets: The so-called Book of a 100 Trillion Dreams drives the warung's menu.
The code can be cracked using the Tafsir Mimpi 100 Trilyun [100 Trillion Dream Interpretations].
This cheaply printed and badly bound book is unlikely to be found on the shelves of your local library rubbing covers with biographies of the great and good.
Like the promises, 100 trillion is a gross exaggeration, though mixing and multiplying can expand permutations.
Buyers have to ask around. The one featured on this page was under a newsagent's counter. It cost Rp 15,000 (US$1.20). The seller insisted it be kept in a brown bag and not opened in public because, he said, numerology is haram (forbidden) along with astrology and fortune telling.
There are no details of the publisher or printer in Tafsir Mimpi, but every page has crude pictographs linked to numbers ' and not just for animals. No. 60 relates to the police, No. 21 is a prostitute, while No. 43 is a young widow ' and also a fish.
No. 11 can be a headscarf, fan, mushroom ' and a greedy government minister.
The complex angka togel lucky numbers was widely used when the state lottery was operating. Angka means number and togel is a combination of toto (lottery) and gelap (dark), implying a system that's slightly shady.
The national lottery, also called NALO, with a top prize of Rp 1 billion (about US$400,000 in the currency of the time) was known as Sumbangan Dana Sosial Berhadiah (Philanthropic Donation with Prizes).
However the religious weren't softened by the euphemism and insisted it meant gambling, which is haram.
Until reluctantly banned by the Soeharto administration in late 1993, following prolonged pressure from Islamic authorities, the lottery was a splendid income stream for the government.
Just remember that in those pre-Reform days, an independent investigation of accounts by a free press was impossible, so the public couldn't trace the rupiah river.
The togel or toggle system persists in Hong Kong and Singapore, where predictions on cards can be bought using allegedly lucky numbers associated with dreams, fortuitous events ' and animals.
Some Indonesian men's tabloids include the numbers, along with crime stories featuring sexual deviances and advertisements for paranormal services.
The togel cards are often illustrated with pictures of young ladies in various states of undress, suggesting that a big win will lead to success in bed.
'Duncan Graham
