JOMBLANG CAVE

GUA JOMBLANG (JOMBLANG CAVE)
An Ancient Forest dan Heavenly Light in the Bowel of the Earth

Jomblang is one of hundreds of cave complex in Gunungkidul that becomes well known because of its uniqueness. In 2011, it is used as the object of a program called Amazing Race America. Located on the range of karst hills in the southern coastal spread along Gombong, Central Java up to karst area in Sewu Mountain, Pacitan, West Java, this vertical cave has collapse doline. It was constructed from a geological process when the land and its vegetation vanished into the bowel of the earth thousand years ago. The ruins formed a sinkhole, which in Javanese language was called sumuran or luweng. As a result, the cave which has 50 meter diameter was later named Luweng Jomblang.
To enter Jomblang cave, we need to master single rope technique (SRT). Everyone who wish to do caving in this place should use special equipments based on the caving safety standard in a vertical cave and should also be accompanied by the experienced caving trainers. Together with the cavers from Jomblang Resort, YogYES tried to do caving in this exotic cave. After wearing coverall, boot, helmet, and headlamp, a trainer set SRT set on our body while explaining the name of each tool and its function. The single rope technique equipments consisted of seat harness, chest harness, ascender / croll, auto descender, footloop, jammer, carabiner, long cowstail, and short cowstail.

An adventure to the deep part of the earth was soon started by leaving the basecamp to get to the edge of the cave as the track. There were some tracks in Jomblang cave with various heights, from 40 up to 80 meters. Since this was the very first time for us to do vertical caving, the shortest track, known as the VIP one, was chosen. The first 15 meter from the VIP terrace was a slope that was possibly stepped, and we continued to go down on a 20 meter rope to get to the bottom of the cave. The feeling of scared and nervous when we hung in the air was suddenly disappear when we stepped our feet on the ground.
Surprisingly, the view in front of us was awesome. When we were above, we could only see barren region with hardwood and when we were hanging on the rope to get to the bottom, we could only see karst, but in the bowl of Jomblang cave we could really see the green view of fertile and dense vegetation. Various kinds of moss, fern, bush, and big trees densely grew. A forest with different vegetation from the land above it was usually called ancient forest. Since the geological process of the land happening in the past, those vegetations were continuously growing up to now.
Luweng Grubug, a Visible Heavenly Light
The cave adventure we did was not only stopped at Jomblang. We still continued our journey to Luweng Grubug by entering an entrance, which was an extra large edge of a cave. Jomblang and Grubug were connected by an alley with 300 meters length. Many beautiful ornaments decorated this alley, such as crystal, stalactite, and stalagmite. Walking for a while, we heard thundering sound from the river stream and saw light in the dark. We curiously fastened our steps to see what was going on.
Wonderful scenery, which was really fascinating, spread in front of us. An underground river which still had the same system as Kalisuci flew quickly. The sun light that got in through Laweng Grubug formed a 90 meter light pillar and shone the flowstone in the dark cave. The water drops also made it become a more perfect view. At that time, YogYES really couldn’t say anything, but only feeling of amazed and surprised seeing something called light from heaven directly.

Unesco-Yogya City Government Realize Inclusive Education

The city government (local government) and Unesco Yogyakarta cooperate in developing educational / school inclusion, as well as a pilot model for cities and districts in Indonesia.

"There is a vision for developing inclusive schools. We need cooperation with many parties. Very grateful to be working with UNESCO, "said the Mayor of Yogyakarta, Haryadi Suyuti, while receiving representatives of UNESCO, at the local town hall.

"Later, not only involving the Department of Education, but also the Department of Transportation, Department of Settlement and Regional Infrastructure, and Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) Yogyakarta," he explained.

According to the Head of Economic Affairs, Revenue Development and Cooperation Yogyakarta City Government, Danang Subagjono, to realize the cooperation program will be assigned a number of schools as a model.

School inclusion is not only targeting graduating students only, but students also need to have expertise. Schools must have a competent teacher and supervisor. "In Yogyakarta there are 33 school inclusion of kindergarten to high school level or its equivalent, with a total of 288 students," said Danang.

Head of Basic Education, Department of Education of Yogyakarta, Sugeng Subono admit, there are still teachers who do not understand how to deal with children with special needs. On the other hand, schools such as laboratory infrastructure is still lacking.

Head of Social and Human Sciences UNESCO, charaf Ahmimed describes, through a collaborative program that is expected to run in April 2013, could be the beginning and a model for other regions in Indonesia.

Through the first program in Indonesia, is expected to develop into a national program, especially for education in eastern Indonesia.

donate to UNESCO’s

Jogja and Central Java Hotels Association donate to UNESCO’s Emergency Operation for the Safeguarding of Borobudur Temple Compounds

Mr. Muhamad Munir, chairman of the Jogja and Central Java Hotels Association, officially handed over a donation of 56,192,000 IDR to Mr. Masanori Nagaoka, Head of Culture unit of the UNESCO Office Jakarta, on 14 December 2011 at the Sheraton Mustika Yogyakarta Resort and Spa.

The donation was collected during the ‘Save Borobudur Charity Golf Tournament’ one-day event, which was organised by the Jogja and Central Java Hotels Association, under the auspices of UNESCO and the Friends of Borobudur, at the Mt. Merapi Golf Club on 23 October in 2011. Some 40 participants from local and international parties joined this event to show their support to UNESCO’s Safeguarding Borobudur operation.

Mr. Masanori Nagaoka of the UNESCO office in Jakarta was invited to deliver a speech during the donation hand-over event. While expressing his appreciation for their generous spirit of joining UNESCO’s safeguarding operation financially, he shared the project’s achievements, especially the progress of the emergency cleaning operation which enlisted the full participation of the local community. He also explained the planned future activities such as income generation training workshops for the local community in the tourism and cultural industries and workshops to improve awareness of Natural Disaster Management at the World Heritage site.

A substantial amount of financial resources will still be required to fully restore the Borobudur Temple Compounds, to rehabilitate the cultural tourism sector and to enhance the livelihoods of affected local communities in the region at large. UNESCO and the ‘Friends of Borobudur’ (chaired by Mr. Warwick Purser) welcome any further financial assistance from donors, the private sector and other concerned partners, to safeguard the outstanding universal value of the Borobudur Temple Compounds World Heritage Site.

The collected donation will be utilised to improve the local stakeholders’ understanding regarding the potential of heritage tourism as a sustainable way to generate income and to promote sustainable rural development initiatives managed by the local communities.

• 16-12-2011

Yogyakarta is a beautiful city of Indonesia

Yogyakarta is a beautiful city of Indonesia and always amazed!

Yogyakarta is a beautiful city of Indonesia. I am very proud of the culture that is owned by Yogyakarta.

Jogja (there is mention of Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, or Jogja) is a province in Indonesia known as the Special Region of Yogyakarta, a city famous for its history and cultural heritage. But not only the culture of which is owned by Yogyakarta, many tourist attractions owned Yogyakarta which has always been a tourist attraction for the tourists from Indonesia itself or from another country.

Yogyakarta is the center of the kingdom of Mataram (1575-1640), and until now Kraton (palace) is still as Kingdom Centre in the real sense. Yogyakarta also has many temples thousands of years old which is a relic of the kingdoms of the ancient Hindu era, among them the Borobudur Temple which was built in the 9th century by the Sailendra dynasty.

The most interesting part of the city of Yogyakarta is the atmosphere of the evening.

Jogja at night!!!
Jogja never die!!!

it is a nickname that is currently carried Yogya. Because the night, yogya increasingly crowded with haunts, as one of them is this famous. Angkringan sells various foods cheaply, such as ginger, rice cat, all kinds of satay, etc.. It creates yogya never die even though the night.

Yogyakarta was always amazed!
Ok, see you in Yogyakarta!

YOGYAKARTA SPECIAL

YOGYAKARTA (often also called Jogja, Yogya or Jogja) is located in middle of Java Island - Indonesia, where everything is cheap. It's enough with $ 20 per-day, you are able to stay over, eat famous authentic delicious food, and rent a motorbike to explore the pure beaches and thousand of years old ancient temples.

A thousand years ago, Yogyakarta was the center of ancient Mataram Kingdom which was prosperous and high civilized. This kingdom built Borobudur Temple which was the biggest Buddhist temple in the world, 300 years before Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Some other relics are Prambanan Temple, Ratu Boko Palace, and dozens of other temples scattered throughout Yogyakarta. (See Archaeological Sights)

However, by some mysterious reason, Ancient Mataram Kingdom moved its central government to East Java in the 10th century. The magnificent temples were abandoned and partially buried by the eruption material of Merapi Volcano. Slowly, Yogyakarta region went back into the dense forest.

Six hundred years later, Panembahan Senopati established the Islamic Mataram Kingdom in the region. Once again, Yogyakarta became the witness of human history of a great Kingdom that ruled Java Island and its surrounding area. Islamic Mataram Kingdom was leaving a trail of ruins of fortress and royal tombs in Kotagede which recently is known as silver handicraft center in Yogyakarta. (See Historic & Heritage Sights)

Giyanti agreement in 1755 divided the Islamic Mataram Kingdom into Kasunanan Surakarta be based in the city of Solo and Yogyakarta Sultanate which founded in Yogyakarta. Kraton (palace) still exists until today and is functioned as the residence of sultan and his family as well as hundreds of abdi dalem (the servant of the palace) who faithfully serve the palace voluntarily and run the tradition in the midst of changing times. At the palace, there are many cultural performances such as wayang kulit (puppet shadow play), gamelan (Javanese orchestra), and Javanese dance etc. (See Calendar of Events)

Yogyakarta at present is a place where tradition and modern dynamics are going on together continuously. In this city, there is a palace which has hundreds of loyal servants to run the tradition, but there is also University of Gadjah Mada that is one of the leading universities in South East Asia. Some of its residents live in a strong agrarian culture. In the other side, there are also students who live with pop life-style. Traditional markets and handicraft centers are numerous in the city where some of them located by the malls which are no less hectic.

At the north end of Yogyakarta, you will see Mount Merapi stands proudly almost as high as 10,000 feet. This mountain is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia. The trace of its malignant of the 2006 eruption can be witnessed in the Village of Kaliadem, 30 km from the city of Yogyakarta. Mooi Indie style scenery of green rice field with Mount Merapi in the background can still be seen in the suburb area of Yogyakarta. (See Nature & Outdoors)

In the southern part of Yogyakarta, you will find many beaches. The most famous beach is Parangtritis with its legendary figure of Nyi Roro Kidul (Queen of the South), but Yogyakarta has also many natural beautiful beaches in Gunung Kidul. You can see the Sadeng Beach which is an ancient estuary of Bengawan Solo River before the powerful forces lifted the surface of the southern part of Java Island so that the flow of the river turned to the north like today. You can also visit Siung Beach which has 250 channels of rock climbing, Sundak Beach and many more. (See Beaches)

If Malaysia has the world's highest twin towers, Yogyakarta has Prambanan Temple with 47 meters tall and was made by hand about 1100 the previous years. If Singapore has modern life, Yogyakarta has traditional agrarian society. If Thailand and Bali have beautiful beaches, Yogyakarta owns natural beaches and Mount Merapi, which has a story of how powerful the force of nature is.

A unique combination of ancient temples, history, traditions, culture and natural forces make Yogyakarta a very worthwhile place to visit. YogYES.COM site will help you to plan a visit to Yogyakarta and enjoy the best charm of this place. We provide rich information about things to see and do, hotels, dining, car rentals and all the information you need to travel to Yogyakarta / Jogja.