I remember my first flight in Manado in 2011. From the airplane window, the sea sparkled under the sun, with a huge carpet of coconut trees, before they gradually urban in a concrete jungle rotated. "Therefore Minahasa nickname is Bumi Nyiur Melambai Land of Waving Coconut Trees," said my friend, when he addressed to the Manado Tua Volcano and Bunaken in the distance.
The journey from Manado on the Highland town of Tomohon neighboring was a scenic one. It was too early for the service areas to open, many of them with views of Manado Bay and Cape Tongkeina through lush fields of coconut trees.
It was harvest time for carrots and squash, as we rode through the hills vegetable plantations Tomohon.
Volcanic Earth has the Minahasa Highlands made a fertile hinterland of eastern Indonesia. Perpetual premium has Minahasa both jovial party people and religious thanks donors made
This culture is reflected in the omnipresence of "retreat houses" -. Villas rented for Christian prayer meetings - throughout the Mahawu mountain.
I was told that our first objective the Mahawu viewpoint, which boasted a magnificent view of Manado on the one hand and on the other Tondano. Unfortunately the weather was not good for sightseeing. But I was pleasantly surprised that the misty prospects to find, in fact, was the edge of a crater with yellow sulfur, green moss full, and naturally carved by hundreds and thousands of years of tectonic movements contours, wind and rain.
There is a long pleasant bush path through the woods around the crater rim. It is the natural habitat of Sulawesi crested black macaques, but these days a Spek is a rare event.
It was noon when we descended. See a lizard cross the street, Enar said: "It is a good animal" as he recalled with lizard stew over a drunken night with his buddies. He drove us to the exotic Metzger Pasar Tomohon.
Toar and Lumimuut, ancestors of the Minahasa people
was hidden behind cheerful flower stalls and colorful vegetable vendors a nightmarish vision of fried dog, grilled rats and chopped bats. It evokes memories of a traumatic meal I was offered on a previous visit in a lakeside restaurant in Tondano. (The guests were disappointed that the restaurant of monkeys ran.)
I opted for a more sensible lunch renga (snail curry) and sayur paku (sauteed away) through the rice fields near the border Tondano while Enar indulged in some duck chili. " Bumbu ERWE " he said, meaning that the duck in spices normally used for cooking dog was boiled.
After lunch we visited the Kampung Jawa Tondano. The Javanese Muslim enclave was founded in the late 1830s, when the Dutch colonial government banned Prince Diponegoro and his court. Prince Diponegoro was famous for leading the Java War, one of the deadliest wars in Indonesian history. Kampung Jawa Tondano has the home of the descendants of the royal subjects of Diponegoro, and the grave of Kyai Mojo-the religious leaders of the band.
as the descendants of the male and female Javanese noble ancestors Minahasa farmers who today Jawa Tondano community live in interesting hybrid culture. Many Tondano Javanese are bilingual in Javanese and Malay Manado. You have family names like the Minahasa, but their names are as Javanese Ponggawa (commander) and Pulukadang (ten brothers, named after a servant Kyai Mojo). They cook Minahasa influenced Javanese dishes like jenang (riceflour- or tapioca-based sweet coconut milk pudding) and ketupat (diamond-shaped rice cakes served with a mild coconut curry).
Missing Lake Tondano because of heavy rain, we ended the day in Bukit Kasih Kanonang, Minahasa iconic pan-religious pilgrimage. This flagship project of a dominant church network in Minahasa was opened in 02 as a symbol of religious tolerance in Minahasa.
faces the Minahasa ancestors Toar and Lumimuut be carved on a cliff top on the Bukit Kasih, a little in the style of Mount Rushmore (but not quite). According to the Minahasa chronicles Toar was Genghis Khan Warlord, the Mongol Empire army led to unite its colonies in Eurasia. Toar fell in Lumimuut, a royal servant, whose beauty and character was comparable with the goddesses in heaven. But Toar was not the only - the applied Toar his archrival Genghis Khan to his son Ögedei to banish into oblivion
Aware Ögedei evil scheme, Toar planned to escape .. He sent Lumimuut out in a boat and promised her to take to their destination after the battle to fight. Toar hid for two years in northern China as a refugee from before they leave to look for Lumimuut. He came in Bangka Iceland (at the northern tip of Sulawesi) belongs and by the locals of the beautiful Mongolian woman living with Karema, an elderly woman in the neighboring island Likupang. There he found Lumimuut and Karema officiated their marriage. So the emergence of Minahasa was human.
The colorful Bukit Kasih Kanonang crater where the houses of prayer were asked five religions side by side
Now and then I whiney articles on Bukit Kasih less than read heroic maintenance. Now I know why: Bukit Kasih is indeed a large volcanic crater. Fourteen years of tectonic activity is more than enough to destroy the pretty walkways, prayer stations and has adopted what how the five mini-churches to look on the hill. There was everywhere landslides. Poor maintenance is not the problem, but the fact that this country was made to not support construction manmade.
While I understand the beauty of nature, some people make extravagant praise to this higher power that they believe that this will give set, I did not Bukit Kasih. Instead of a God-glorifying place of universal adoration experienced, the message I seemed to be more about a foolish mission institution to subdue nature and sing his own praises in the name of religious tolerance.
While without this dangerous building, Bukit Kanonang is beautiful in its own right: lush forests, the contoured Orange stained white limestone to meet, full of sulfur and misty hot springs, the distinctive topography of the home Minahasa view , And yet this work-of-God miracle of nature is not what people say when they talk about Bukit Kasih. Today the wreck Bukit Kasih see is how the universe to make a statement that at the end of the day, gaining nature. For me to see was winning nature, which made my visit worthwhile.
The drive back to Manado after dark was long and cold. We stopped for dinner in Kawangkoan on char siu fried rice in a Cantonese restaurant and a pleasant conversation the land of volcanoes and ancient heroes
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Facts
Country: Indonesia
Province: Sulawesi Utara (North Sulawesi)
land area: Minahasa Regency - 1.115 km 2
Largest city: Manado
population: 309876 - 2010 estimate of Minahasa
Directions: Daily flights from most major cities to Manado
What to bring: hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, camera, rain coat, trekking shoes, warm
and windproof clothing
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