wanderlust: July 2013

If you guys ever wondered about my picture posts in instagram or path about this church, it was all for the final project in my religious studies class. The lecture told us to make anything creative –essay is also acceptable tho, but really, who would have chosen to write 15 pages essay over other more fun projects–, And I directly chose this house of worship for my photo essay. I frankly can't wait to see this magical place in real life ever since the first time I saw the picture in the internet.

I decided to post the photo and –obviously– the essay here so that you guys can also feel the thrill of this breathtaking bird. Enjoy! x

The final media: a booklet

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A huge, mysterious building that is shaped just like a pigeon, located on the back of Karst Menoreh, had been waffled among people. Many articles have talked about the building and even took its pictures from google maps to analyze it. Numerous stories and issues have also been spread around that some people call that particular strange building as Gereja Ayam (Chicken Church), whereas others call it Gereja Merpati (Pigeon Church).

The building is actually not a horrendous object for locals who live around Borobudur. It is, in a point of fact, a church that was built in the 1990s by Daniel Alamsjah. The hill that the church was built on to is called Bukti Rhema, and the building itself is called Gereja Manukan.

We could get to the Gereja Manukan by a footpath with a bit of trekking from Puthuk Setumbu to Bukit Rhema. But id you don't feel like walking as I tried the first option –walking from Puthuk to bukit Rhema and couldn't actually find the hill after an hour of exhausting trekking–, you could actually take your vehicle from the Puthuk Setumbu parking lot to Dusun Gombong that is only a km away. All the vehicles must be parked in the house of the locals of Dusun Gombing and you have to climb the hill for approximately 20 mins. The road was rocky with 60 degree slope to climb.

This pigeon shape was chosen for this church as a symbolization of The Holy Spirit (Roh Kudus) as well as to stress if it is a sanctuary.

The paint is eroded in most part of the pigeon, yet the structure does still look majestic. The decoration of the pigeon including the blue and yellow ceramics on its neck do really show if it is a vintage building and was also magnificent on its era.

The building has 2 floors. The first floor is filled with small rooms without doors which was built like a labyrinth. Those rooms are actually quite frightening as it was really dark and humid.

The wall is filled with vandalism graffiti which some of them contains inappropriate words. Trashes are everywhere and even some parts of the structure is also shattered.

The auditorium on the second floor with beautiful crucifix on the top of it.

Gereja Manukan is now only a playground for local kids who live nearby and even for some couple to have a romantic date.

Outside view from one of the auditorium windows. The location of the church is magnificent with the scenery of Karst Menoreh and Gunung Sumbing from the distance.

The church is used to be a place to do the assembly of chaplaincy and drugs rehabilitation as it is writtent on the official Bukit Rhema/Bukit Merpati website.

Because of the fund difficulties that Pak Daniel faced, the development and the activities that were done in Gereja Manukan needed to be stopped. The local people also said that many young couples usually do 'inappropriate things' there, end even do some uji nyali (ghost hunting).

It is heartbreaking knowing the fact that this abandoned bird is now full with vandalism graffiti and used for uncertain activities, remembering that it is used to be a religious building.

Note:
The newest update from the local people state that Gereja Manukan will soon be demolished because the building has already bought by someone else and that he will build another construction on it.

Warmly,
C.

The Southern Ocean, or Indonesians usually call it Laut Selatan, has always been fascinating to everyone doesn't it?

So I went a bit to the east yesterday to witness this notorious beach, Pantai Klayar. The beach is located in Pacitan, Jawa Timur. It takes around 3 hours to get there by car from Jogja –only if you didn't take the wrong path neither did take so much time asking for directions to the locals (you can guess it did happen to me).

The beach is beautiful yet the waves are frightening. It was also cloudy and drizzling the time I arrived, so it was quite creepy compared with other beaches in Gunung Kidul that don't have that kinda huge waves and is always sunny (seriously besides experiencing winter in beach when I travelled to other countries –those are funny feelings–, this is my first time experiencing d r i z z l e in the beach).