In the Central Java town of Surakarta, the celebration of the Lunar New Year, locally known as Imlek, has become a model of Chinese-Javanese cultural harmony.

Harmonious Chinese-Javanese culture in Surakarta, Central Java was reflected in Grebeg Sudiro '€” a parade of mountain-shaped piles of Chinese cakes '€” held around Pasar Gede in the Sudiroprajan subdistrict.

Sudiroprajan is where the first Chinatown area, Kampung Balong, was located.

An expert in Chinese history, Yohanes Setiawan, said the Chinese were estimated to have settled in Kampung Balong in 1745 and 1746, not long after the Mataram Kingdom moved from Kartasura to Surakarta, its present location.

Their descendants later mingled and interacted with Javanese people who inhabited other districts.

For more than a century, ethnic Chinese and Javanese communities have been coexisting harmoniously and generating, through mixed marriages, multiethnic, multicultural and multi-religious families in Surakarta.

'€œIn Sudiroprajan, tolerance is accomplished, with no more Chinese-Javanese racist sentiments. Today, Chinatown is not only Balong, but has spread over other adjacent areas like Mijen, Kepanjen, [eastern] Sama'€™an and [central] Sudiroprajan,'€ said Sumartono, a Chinese figure in Surakarta.

With a population of around 4,000 evenly divided into the Javanese and Chinese, Sudiroprajan has thus become a zone of acculturation, eventually developing a series of traditions to welcome Imlek, from the Buk Teko thanksgiving ceremony, the Umbul Mantram ritual, to Grebeg Sudiro.

'€œAll three constitute a communal, artistic and cultural assimilation. For example, ampyang, as one of the snacks served, is composed of groundnuts representing the ethnic Chinese and palm sugar the ethnic Javanese,'€ said Henry, chairman of the Imlek organizing committee.

Celebration spirit: Residents watch the Grebeg Sudiro carnival parade held to welcome the Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb. 8 this year, in Surakarta, Central Java.

The Buk Teko ceremony was held recently to commence the celebration by offering prayers while walking around Sudiroprajan. This tradition dates back to the period of Surakartan King Pakubuwono X (1893 to 1939). '€œIt was the embryo of a Javanese-Chinese inter-ethnic dialog,'€ said Henry.

Following was the Umbul Mantram ritual at Buk Teko, the bridge near Pasar Gede, involving not only Sudiroprajan people but also those living outside Chinatown.

After saying prayers, ritual participants scattered seeds and fish along the Pepe River, a tributary of the Solo River.

Finally, Grebeg Sudiro topped the celebration events, held on Jan. 31 on Sunday, with around 2,000 Surakarta residents joining the parade from the front of the Pasar Gede and Tien Kok Sie Chinese temple to the zone of Sudiroprajan, covering a distance of 5 kilometers.

Before the parade, two gunungan (mountain-shaped) piles of kue keranjang (Chinese cakes made from sticky rice and palm sugar) were taken into the temple for a prayer ceremony, accompanied by dragon and lion dancers.

In the procession, the two big piles of kue keranjang spearheaded the march, followed by other gunungan with agricultural produce and snacks typical of both ethnic groups, including onde-onde (Javanese round cakes filled with mung beans) and bakpao (Chinese buns filled with meat).

Apart from food, Grebeg Sudiro was also enlivened by the art performances of both ethnic communities. Dragon and lion dances appeared in collaboration with reog (tiger mask) and topeng ireng (black mask) dances, typical of the slopes of Mount Merbabu and Mount Merapi.

Thousands of Surakarta residents packed the area around Pasar Gede as well as the main roads passed by the parade. Many of them even took selfies with the dragon and lion, the Chinese monkey king Sun Go Kong and the Chinese cakes.

'€œThis tradition eliminates ethnic, social and cultural division. There'€™s no Javanese, no Chinese, all of them are Indonesians. It'€™s our heritage,'€ said acting Surakarta mayor Budi Yulistyanto.

Center of attention: Participants clad as punakawan (palace jokers in shadow puppet stories) attract attention during the Grebek Sudiro parade in Surakarta, Central Java.

Grebeg Sudiro was wound up with hundreds of spectators scrambling to the gunungan piles of food near the Tugu Jam clock tower, Pasar Gede. The two heaps with 3,000 Chinese cakes each were littering the road and grabbed by residents.

Apart from the parade and ritual, two weeks before Imlek, which falls on Feb. 8, Surakarta was already adorned with thousands of lanterns along the way between Pasar Gede and Tien Kok Sie temple.

A Lunar New Year Festival was held at Vastenberg Fort and tourist boats invited passengers to sail along a 300-meter stream of the lantern-studded Pepe River.

'€œSailing along the small river created a sensation of its own. I felt as if I had been cruising in China with the lanterns hanging over the river,'€ said a Surakarta resident, Regina Rere.

'€” Photos by JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi
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