Craft fair celebrates city birthday

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A bazaar featuring traditional handicrafts from all over the country has been organized at South Jakarta's Cilandak Town Square mall -- better known as Citos -- to help out small and medium sized businesses.

The event, dubbed "We Love Indonesia", will be held all day every Thursday, starting this week until Aug. 17.

The event is being held to coincide with Jakarta's 480th anniversary and the 62nd celebration of Independence Day on Aug. 17.

Each week, the bazaar will display products from one of 10 regions of Indonesia: Greater Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, North Sumatra, Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, Papua, West Sumatra and Kalimantan.

"Through this event, we want to help enterprises promote their goods. We also want Indonesian people to further know their own cultures, and expatriates to see what Indonesian cultures look like," said Baby Jim Aditya, the director of Sinergy, a company coordinating the event along with the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises and the Tourism Ministry.

On its first day Thursday, the weekly bazaar displayed goods produced by small and medium enterprises in Greater Jakarta, including handmade embroidered bags, batik wall cloths depicting traditional puppets, paper lamps and ondel-ondel (traditional Betawi effigy) ornaments.

Next week, the bazaar will feature traditional products from West Java.

Nani from Setu Betawi Group, a collection of several Betawi craft makers, showed off a pencil studded with an ondel-ondel ornament made from areca nut.

"It takes about a month to make 100 of these because we have to dry the nuts first to get the perfect shape and color," said Nani, who made the pencils.

At the market was also a stand displaying West Javanese Baduy handicrafts, at which a woman weaved a Baduy shawl.

"I have been weaving since I was 15 years old," said Bisna, 31.

She added that it usually took her about a week to weave a shawl.

"It's quite difficult, therefore there are only a few women from outer Baduy who can weave," Bisna said.

Unlike the inner Baduy sub-tribe who still make their shawls without any tools, Bisna and other outer Baduy make their shawls with the help of a simple loom.

Besides displaying handicrafts, the event will also feature dances and other traditional performances.

On Thursday, a group of dancers from the Jakarta Pavilion of Taman Mini Indonesia Indah performed the so-called Nandak Ganjen (a dance to charm) accompanied by Betawi Gambang Kromong music.

"I choreographed the dance in order to preserve Betawi culture," said Entong, a dancing teacher from the pavilion.

On Aug. 17, the peak of the event, traditional games from throughout the country will highlight the event along with the games usually performed during Independence Day celebrations.