in bed with “la noche oscura del alma“ by John The Cross. just another sleepless night to pass when every work has been done including editing few batch from Jogja 1/11 and retouching some shot that I captured from January 1st. really love to work at night, refreshing my self with black coffee & reciting some lines to kill the silence.
“All in the dark went right,
Down secret steps, disguised in other clothes,
(O coming of delight!)
In dark when no one knows,
When all my house lay long in deep repose.”
©Karolus Naga 2013
©Karolus Naga 2012
©Karolus Naga 092012 -Bonar and his son; Virand on their preparation for the First Communion. As I mentioned before, Catholic is not a religion anymore in here, on this very tight little right island, its a tradition.
©Karolus Naga 2012 - there are many myths about the relation between Flores people and ‘man’s best friend’: a canine, dog. I found out two similar myths on two different place in Flores, which got my attention to learn about it latter on the Library of University of Flores. One is from the East side of the island, Larantuka and the other one comes form Lio; Ende. Both telling the same story about dog, fire and the ungrateful human being. the story goes like this ‘once upon a time there were two villages on a very dark and heavy rainy night. folks from other village need fire and they can only get it by sending someone to the other village. but it was raining hard and thunder are roaring. so they decided to send a dog to brings the fire, by burnt its tail and let it run to the other village. the dog seems happy to help its master but when it reached the village, the folks laughing at it and making fun out of it. the dog bark and cried and god send big flood and the village is swept away” … as I read this I was thinking about the great Hanuman, the white monkey from one of the greatest Hindu epic: Ramayana. Hanuman let himself to be captured by Ravana when tried to saving Sita. due to the code of conduct of war, Ravana cant kill a messenger, so he burt the tail of Hanuman and they laughed at it. but what happened next was way beyond Ravana’s thought. Hanuman escaped and with fire on his tail, he burnt the great fancy city of Lanka. I dont know whether the myths about dog and flores people derived from Hindu’s epic or not but on my research I found a very very similar myth of a girl’s sacrifice and the birth of paddy in Ende with the myth of Devi Sri in Java. you might wanna compare this two with the myth from Totonac (South America) about Princes Xanat (anyone ever heard about this?) its about the black orchid - vanili. read about it of you guys have some free time, its a very great love story by the way.
when i was in elementary I was told many myths from the places in Flores Island. they are great, i mean the value, the local wisdom and everything behind every single myth that been told. Roland Barthes, on his essay about popular myths reveals the hidden code behind those. and what seems to be as a fairy tale is often a very great interesting subject. and yes I love myths and i love dogs.
Sunrise at Kelimutu National Park, Moni - Ende, Flores Island ©Karolus Naga 2012
