Nestled in the valley of the Brantas River, the cradle of the kingdom of Majapahit Hindu-Buddhist from the 13th to 16th centuries - and probably most ancient civilization of Java - there are a number of cottage industries that provide fascinating detours during visiting temples and the museum of the kingdom. A popular tourist site is Trowulan, southwest of Surabaya between Mojokerto and Jombang.
The Brantas River in East Java is what the Nile is to Egypt, a trade route and important communication and the site of human activity for millennia. It is therefore not surprising to find trades and old skills here, some of which are at least as old as the temples themselves.
Exploration of kampung on each side of the main road, a number of well established companies can be seen the realization of the skilled trades. An individual meets the shipping containers with carved figures for export to Europe, North America and Australasia, as well as trucks supplying domestic customers. Locals provide labor and skills under the tutelage of a master sculptor. Meteorite-like blocks are trucked from Central Java, and delivery, are divided into smaller portions sufficient to sculpt miniature figures or more, depending on what is needed, hammering huge stakes iron in the rock. This backbreaking work is a skill in itself, as a miscalculation can fragment the rock in unusable smaller pieces.
It seems that artisans know how the cookie crumbles. A rough approximation of the target object is first chopped, and then slowly, using the raw material, a recognizable face begins to take shape. The best work is made of stone with a pink or white color, with the cheapest pieces carved in igneous granite, which has a dark surface, slightly pitted. As Fig becomes progressively more refined, a mill is used until sandpaper provides a perfectly smooth. What strikes the visitor is how easy it would be in the hands of less trained to go a little overboard with the chisel and remove a nose or a finger. To achieve such a very detailed level of such a crude beginning is truly remarkable.
In the village of Mojoagung, about 20 minutes down the road to the west to Jombang, lost wax bronze casting is practiced in over a number of kampung houses. This method of casting sculptures is known to have been practiced in Java since at least 300 BC. Exhibitions at the museum show that the kingdom of Majapahit was a sophisticated society with a class of skilled craftsmen producing religious statues and figurines and ornaments for the upper classes. It is quite conceivable that there had been an unbroken tradition of bronze casting in this area at least since.
A lying carved in stone Buddha
has an artisan foundry particularly well established, gallery displays a wide range of copies of representative museum pieces of Hindu-Buddhist traditional figures, and the time of Majapahit doorknobs and handles, contemporary dance frogs, cats lolling, any form that can be cast in bronze. Bronze can age with acids to distinguish themselves from museum pieces, or be finished in a dull or polished patina. Behind them is a dilapidated gallery series sheds where the various process steps are performed. First, we see that the existing sculpture of a client or a design is carved in solid wax. Then, the hollow molds are made of wax from the "original". A clay mixture is shaped around this, and then baked in an oven in other sheds. The setup seems primitive, but we are reminded that it is an ancient craft that has never been dependent on the developed equipment.
The master bronze sculptor shows us that, after baking clay, wax inside melts. A cauldron a primitive-looking, long-handled ladle is dipped in a "bronze" molten alloy of copper, tin and other recycled metals and then poured into the clay mold cavity where the wax once was. It is left to cool and harden. Several workers have the task of hammering open terracotta well to reveal the bronze inside. A finishing team can be seen running with metal grinders and fine sandpaper, and the occasional welding of imperfections in the surface. Depending on customer needs, waxing is a frequently used agents to provide a beautiful patina. It is impossible not to be impressed and in awe of the whole operation.
It was in 1970 that manik-manik (pearl flowers) were first made in the hamlet of Gambang near Gudo, on the main road in Kediri. Beads are part of Indonesian culture; traditional Dayak Kalimantan them wear again, as the tribes of parts of eastern islands of Indonesia, and decorative beads on display in the museum date to the Majapahit era.
Made from broken glass factories bought or collected fragmentary, this is combined with a coloring agent and melted into a ball the size of a grapefruit. It is then withdrawn by a metal sensor in long thin rods on a welding torch at a temperature in the thousands of degrees centigrade. Another operator turns the rods on a flashlight smaller gas flame on a thin wire which is kaolin coated to prevent the beads stick to it. How craftsmen manage to perfect spheres rotate slowly rotating rod on the flame is fascinating to watch. Using different "seed beads" individual color that are melted into long thin stems before use, each pearl necklace is then decorated by hand, or sprinkling swirling melting colored glass on the surface. At one of the most established cottage industries, the owner was inspired to create replicas pearls found in other cultures beyond Indonesia. Lounges displays hundreds of different loans strung as necklaces, bracelets, brooches and earrings, and beads available individually
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Province :.
East Java
Directions:
fly in Surabaya (several national and international airlines connect here) and take a car to the Mojokerto regency in Trowulan, then the villages below in Jombang regency
Distance Surabaya :.
2-3 hours
spaces. visit:
Stone carving Java Sculpture Jl Majapahit 3 Dsn.. Wates Umpak, Trowulan, Mojokerto
Bronze: Ganeysa Jl Sanan Selatan 1/36, Mojoagung, Jombang
Glass Beads. Flower Beads Jl. Raya Gambang, Dsn. Gambang, Ds. Plumbon Gambang, Gudo, Jombang
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