Food is important part of religious observance and spiritual for many faiths such as Islam and Buddhism. The role of food in cultural practices and religious beliefs are complex and varies among individuals and communities. Understanding the role of food in cultural and religious practices is an important to show respect and to respond to the needs of people in religious communities. It’s also important to avoid assumptions about a person’s culture and beliefs. The central of Muslim way of life is moderation in all things including eating and dietary habits. When doing according to the way of Allah, daily acts like eating are considered as form of worship. Islam applies the concept of Halal as main role of food to all areas of a person’s life and includes regulations surrounding food. Halal means lawful or permitted. All foods are allowed or Halal except for those that are considered harmful. Prohibited foods or other aspects of life are called Haram. The Haram foods include meat from carnivore animal such as pork, alcohol. Gelatin made from pork or other carnivore animals is forbidden, but some gelatin may be Halal. Muslim also has fasting period such as Ramadhan and the ninth day of Zulhijjah.
Differ from Islam role of food, the dietary rules of Buddhism, which is more of a life philosophy than a religious doctrine, depend on which branch of Buddhism is practiced and in what country. Most Buddhists choose to become vegetarian to avoid killing animals because Buddhists believe that Buddha cycled through various animal forms before attaining the form of a human being. But this is different with the concept of Halal-Haram in Islam. Buddhists also believes that violence or pain inflicted on others will rebound on us, hence the needs for a vegetarian lifestyle. Some of them also believe that a contributing cause of human aggression is violence against animals. Some Buddhists avoid meat and dairy products but the others only avoid beef. This is affected by cultural influences. Buddhist monks tend to fast in the afternoon. Buddhist monks and nuns are not allowed to cultivate, store or cook their own food. Instead, they must rely on ‘alms’, which are donations from believers. This sometimes includes meats, as monks and nuns are not allowed to ask for specific foods.
Part I: Korean Movies
During the last decade, Korea produced many movies and reached its success. Korean people have big interest in their own movies than Hollywood’s movies. In 2009, the amount of sold tickets of the big ten Korean movie is 42 millions, and the population of Korea is about 50 millions. Korea also has many international movie festivals:
Busan International Film Festival (BIFF)
Blue Dragon Film Awards
Seoul independent Film Festival
Golden Bell Film Festival
The Pucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan)
The Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF)
The Women’s Film Festival in Seoul (WFFIS)
The Chungmuro International Film Festival (CHIFFS)
Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival (SICAF)
The Green Film Festival in Seoul
Mise-en-scene’s Genre Film Festival
Those show that Korean people have big interest and actively make and help Korean movies known internationally. By holding these festivals, Korean movies can be more widely known and shows that Korean movies also have quality like Hollywood movies.
Korea also has two organizations which actively contribute in its own movies. They are KOFA (Korean Film Archive) which established in 1974 and KOFIC (Korean Film Council) which established in 1973. KOFA is an organization which assembles, improves, and shows Korean movies and supporting documents. KOFA has Korean movie database that can be access by public. KOFIC has responsibility in promoting Korean movies worldwide. The government of Korea also contributes in its success, so not only the movie makers that have contribute in that success.
Part 2: Modern Hanbok (Korean Costume)
Hanbok is Korean traditional clothe that has unique characters and patterns. Before western things had influenced Korea, Korean people wore Hanbok in their daily life. But nowadays Korean people wear Hanbok only in special events or ceremonies such as new years, thanksgiving, wedding, etc. Today Koreans wear diverse varieties of clothing such as suits, jackets, T-shirts, jeans, dress, and other items mostly from the West.
Koreans in old days wore white Hanbok. It was natural color and represented the purity of Korean way of thinking. As time passed by, Koreans began to wear the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow. In general Hanbok consist of 2 parts, it is small tops called jeogori and long skirts called chima for women and men wore jeogori and pants called baji. In Korean traditional societies, design of Hanbok reflected people’s gender, profession, and social status.
Hanbok are beautiful, but they are uncomfortable if worn in everyday live. As western influence entered Korea at the end of the Joseon Period, Hanbok began to disappear from Korean daily life and today Hanbok is worn for special occasions. However, these days, a modern version of Hanbok is gaining in popularity. This is because Koreans are beginning to realize the importance of traditions. The aesthetics of the traditional Hanbok can still be found in the modified modern Hanbok. The thing that made traditional Hanbok uncomfortable for the modern style has been modified for convenience and comfort.
Korean designers also contributed in making of modern Hanbok. Three of Korean designers that have made some design for modern Hanbok are Lee Shin-woo (Icinoo), Sol Yoon-hyong, Lee Young-hee. Lee Shin-woo designed Hanbok made from machine made cotton and make modern Hanbok in soft color that reflected color of sky. Lee Youg-hee designed modern Hanbok by combine the aesthetics of west and east, she has made Hanbok that consist of pants and vest for women. That vest refers to Korean traditional vest called baeja. Sol Yoon-hyong designed modern Hanbok by designing ‘you can see’ blouse and still maintain traditional patterns and strong colors.
Today, in traditional markets or shops in Korea, many simply and modern Hanboks are sold there. There is kind of modern Hanbok such as long dress, it’s very simple to wear. Hanbok is one of Korean prides.
Part 3: Korean Food: Kimchi Today
Among Korean life essentials, fool is where most traditions still thrive. Korean traditional food not only remains part of the modern Korean diet, but some of it is becoming internationally known. The basic of Korean food is certain to include rice, broth, and Kimchi. We also can find various soups and pot stews.
The most Korean represented food is Kimchi, Kimchi is a fermented food made by marinating cabbage, radish or cucumber in salt. Then mixing it with red pepper, garlic, green onion, ginger, and pickled seafood. In the past, people were unable to eat vegetables in winter, so they made Kimchi to store vegetables. There are many types of Kimchi and in general, Kimchi refers to the Cabbage Kimchi.
Kimchi is used to make various foods such as Kimchi Stew, Kimchi Fried Rice, Kimchi Pancakes, Kimchi Buns and more. Recently, a hamburger with Kimchi called ‘Kimchi Burger’ was introduced and children and teenagers like it very much. There are other western foods that combine with Kimchi, they are Kimchi Pizza, Kimchi Spaghetti, Kimchi Sandwich. It shows that though Koreans enjoy the western food, they still maintain the traditional things and their own culture. Koreans like Kimchi so much that they feel emptiness when Kimchi is missing from a meal. Kimchi is now liked not only by Koreans but by foreigners, which makes it a world-wide food.
Ritual can be defined as a set of actions which contain values and usually prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. A ritual may be performed by an individual or a community in private or public places. Rituals have purposes, it can be personal purposes or public purposes and sometimes ritual is held just for the pleasure. Rituals also have various kind, rituals include not only the various worship rites but also include coronations, club meetings, etc. There are some rituals that load the occultists or magic, for example the ritual which performed with sacrifice and murder or suicide.
The most simply rituals are hand-shaking and saying hello. In Islam communities, the greeting is by saying ‘Assalamu’alaikum’ and there’s an obligation to answer it by saying ‘Wa alaikum salam.’ In Korea, we can say ‘Annyeonghaseyo,’ these are the simply form of ritual actions. Rituals in religion include worship, pray, cult. Rituals in customs and traditions include marriages, funerals, birthdays, parties, parades, ceremonies, etc. For example, in Indonesia there is a ceremony which held to celebrate the Indonesia’s freedom. In Korea there is a ritual that held to celebrate a baby’s first birthday called ‘Dol janci’. In Indonesia there are some special rituals which combine the religion and customs such as Grebeg Mulud which is held to celebrate the birth of Prophet of Muhammad, this ritual combines the Islam doctrine and Javanese custom.
Superstition is a belief or notion which not based on reason or knowledge. Superstition is different from ritual, ritual is an action, but superstition is only a belief or notion. Although superstition isn’t based on knowledge, the purpose of superstition is good, and sometimes superstition is really happened. For example, in Javanese communities there is superstition that sitting on broom will suffocate having many children and for the girls sitting in the door will suffocate difficulties of having husband. Those superstitions didn’t base on reason but have good purpose that sitting on a broom can break the broom. In Korea, there is a superstition that leaving a fan on in a closed room will suffocate the occupants.
Diplomatic relation between Indonesia and India experienced dynamic changes since Asian African Conference in 1955. Then the relationship between Indonesia and India became closer and warm. But about a decade later, when the India-Pakistan war, the relation was getting worse and deteriorating because Indonesia sent arms supplies to Pakistan and mobilized the mass to stage the anti-India demonstration in Jakarta. However, this situation was changed into warm relation again after Soeharto seized the power and both Indonesia and India restored their diplomatic relation. Indonesia and Indonesia then agreed to maintain the peace and security in Southeast Asia in order to set up a strategic regional balance. Both countries keep maintaining the cooperation in security and defense. However, they have not maintained good cooperation in economic relation.
For some decades Indonesia and India has made 23 MoUs since 1951 up to 2005. These MoUs point outs five kinds of cooperation, nine MoUs in security and defense cooperation, 8 MoUs in economic cooperation, 2 Mous in friendship cooperation, 2 MoUs in general diplomatic policy cooperation, and 2 MoUs in cultural cooperation. Indonesia was interested in buying weapons from India such as torpedoes, corvette warships, and submarines. Both countries also signed a MoU on war against international terrorism 2004 and they established a Joint Work Group (JWG) and had the first meeting in February 2005.
But the other cooperation between both countries is not as good as the cooperation in security and defense. They had not fully maintained cooperation in another field like culture. Though Indonesia and India signed 8 MoUs in economic cooperation, but in field it didn’t work well. Both countries have different economic system and India’s economic development is faster than in Indonesia. It can be regarded as a bit unfortunate since Indonesia got its independence two years earlier than India did. In 2008 India recorded US $ 50.3 billion in trade volume, while Indonesia recorded only US $ 25.53 billion in the same year. India’s economic development ran twice faster than Indonesia did.
India succeeded in applying its liberal economic system and strength the economic infrastructure in technology and human resources. Indonesia has good system in economic development but it didn’t work because Indonesia was so preoccupied with corruption, collusion, and nepotism that spread like fungi. The government of India also developed a good educational system that made more professionals in India. The domestic situation influence economic development, India has more amount of population than Indonesia does, but it is more difficult to develop economic in Indonesia because Indonesia has more tribes or ethnics than India, or more pluralism than India. Each tribe has different culture and different train of thought, so there are many pro and contra between the Indonesian government and its people.
Indonesia and India had not fully gained the benefit from their cooperation in economic and cultural cooperation. And both countries had not maintained the educational cooperation. There is no formal Indian culture study in Indonesia that made by Indonesian government or university, it is important to make some cultural exchange between Indonesia and India. Indian movie industry has exported its movies to Indonesia and many Indonesian people that have interest in Indian movies. But it only happened some years ago, Indian movies were popular in Indonesia before Korean Wave came in Indonesia.
Indonesia-Korea
The Indonesia-Korea relationship continues to develop since the establishment of diplomatic relation in 1973. Korea is now the 6th largest trading partner of Indonesia, and Indonesia is now the 10th largest trading partner of Korea. The relationship between the two nations has developed into a thriving strategic partnership. About 23.000 Indonesians are in Korea to contribute to the significant progress of the Korean economy, and about 31.000 Koreans and 1.200 firms are in Indonesia. The two countries commit to strengthen exchanges in fields such as energy and resources which lead to economic cooperation. Both Korea and Indonesia also will additionally focus on the development of a wider mutual understanding each other through increased cultural exchange.
Economic relations between Indonesia and Korea have been further strengthened with cooperation which covers many fields: economic development, information technology, foreign workers, energy, maritime and fisheries, forestry, tourism, and science and technology. On bilateral trade, like what was mentioned in previous paragraph, Indonesia and Korea and Korea are important trading partner each other. Total trade between two countries in 2008 amounted to $ 19.25 billion, bigger than in 2007 which amounted only $ 14.89 billion. In the field of IT cooperation, there is cooperation between Radio Republic Indonesia (RRI) and Korea Broadcasting System (KBS). RRI dispatched one of its broadcasters to KBSin Korea to host the Indonesian language broadcast program.
Both countries maintain cooperation not only in economic field but also in cultural exchanges cooperation. Korea has developed studies for Indonesian language and cultures for about more than three decades ago and Indonesia has developed Korean language and cultural studies for about a decades. Since the Korean Star Wave or Hallyu that became popular in Indonesia in 2002s, interests in Korean culture of Indonesian people increases each years. Many MoUs were signed between universities in Indonesia and universities in Korea that contributed in cultural studies between both countries. Korea also established center for Korean studies organization in Indonesia like Korea Foundation and KOICA. Both organizations have supported Indonesian students and scholars to study about Korea in Indonesia or in Korea.
Relation Indonesia-India started more than a decade earlier than the relation Indonesia-Korea. But now the cooperation between Indonesia and Korea is more significant than between Indonesia and India. Cooperation Indonesia-India emphasized cooperation in security and defense, but in another field both countries has not fully gained the benefit from the cooperation. Both countries also passed the relation from warm relation to bad relation and now turned on warm relation again. Cooperation between Indonesia and Korea additionally focus on the economic and cultural cooperation, and both countries have gained the benefit of the cooperation. And since the forming diplomatic relation between Indonesia and Korea, both countries are keeping their warm relation till now. And both Indonesia and Korea seems that they are confident that the bilateral relationship between Korea and Indonesia will continue to develop for the mutual benefit of two countries.
Korean people seem that they have open-minded and active attitudes towards religion. It’s true that foreign religions were accepted easily. But some religions were not, for example the persecution of Catholicism in the late Joseon Dynasty. It proved that Korean people don’t have open-minded towards religion.
The Buddhism and Confucianism were accepted easily and became the state religion at that time. Islam is the latest foreign religion that came in Korea, but the number of Islam belivers are very few. And now the Christianity has the biggest religion in Korea but they are still influenced by Buddhism and Confucianism in their daily life. So Korean people practice the syncretism in their life. And I think that now there are many Korean Christian only believe in Christian just because Christianity is western thing. So Korean people only have open-minded for western things. Islam is not western thing so Korean people have little interest in Islam but prefer to choose Christian because Christian is the major religion in western country. It seems like Korean people choose Christianity just for fashion because they still practice the Confucianism or Buddhism.
Christianity supported democracy in Korea. The life of Korean people was influenced by Buddhism and Confucianism in the past time. But after Christianity came in Korea it was changed partly and became more dependent on Christianity. Korean people thought that everything that came from west is more modern. It made the way easier to Christianity spreads in Korea.
Christianity led the modernization in Korea and Korea started to be more liberal and democratized by the modernization. Buddhism has similarity with authoritarian throne and Korean people thought that was old fashioned thing that have to be leaved. Christianity has the similarity with democracy and liberalism that influenced Korean people and government to follow the democratization and liberalism. Christian taught the Korean people not only about the Christianity but also the western culture such as concept of freedom and democracy. It was support the middle class and lower class of Korean people. The middle class and lower class of Korean people felt comfortable with democracy that brought by Christianity because they have same position in governmental position with the high class if they practice the democracy.
During the past two millenia, Korean people have a number of major religions and ideologies, Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism and Christianity, at the same time, Korea's indigenous ideology has also maintaining a measure of influence. In the twentieth century, a large number of new religions developed in Korea, many of which have taken root and are now coexisting along with the other more established religions.It is Christianity that became the major religion in Korea now. At the first time, Christianity was not accepted in Korea easily but now it became the major religion that has big influence in Korean governmental life.
Indonesian religions also had influenced the governmental life in old Indonesian kingdoms in the past. Those religions were Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, and they became the major religion at that time. For examples, Hinduism was the major religion in Mataram Kingdom and the government was ruled by Hinduism concept. But now the major religion in Indonesia is Islam but it doesn’t have big influence in the governmental rule because Indonesia is the democratic nation. Though Islam become the major religion in Indonesia and has influence most of people, Islam doesn’t rule the governmental life because there are respect in another religions.
Korean religions and Indonesian religions both had influenced the government each of it from time to time. In Korea, the religion in governmental rule has big influence directly till now. In Indonesia, the religions had big influence in governmental rule directly in the past but now the religion in Indonesia doesn’t influence the government. Maybe it still has influence but not as big as in the past and indirectly.
·Ruwatan Rambut Gembel (Sticky and Twisted Hair Ritual)
This ritual is a tradition lived in Kejajar district, positioned about 17 kilometers northern of Wonosobo capital regency. In this region, many children have sticky and twisted hairs (rambut gembel), and according to local tale, these sticky and twisted hairs are given by someone called Ki Kolodete. Locals say that rambut gembel is a disaster, so a ritual for rambut gembel must be held. When rambut gimbal is cutted without ceremony the children will be ill-weakly. In traditional ceremonies the child can ask anything, and the parents must be accepted. Sometimes the requests are unique such as a box of eggs, a suck of chicken, etc. If ruwatan not upon a request, even though cutting has been done, the gembel will oddly grown again, according to some expert, rambut gembel might have been hereditary disease or phatological symptom, owing to the fact that their descendant, Ki Kolodete also had Rambut Gembel.
·Nyadran Suran of Gianti sub-Villagers
This ritual is an anniversary ceremony for Gianti sub-village, a part of Kadipaten village, Selomerto district. It is often then followed by a ritual called Merdi Dusun combined with Tenongan ceremony. After the activities, then an art performance is held on the night until day changing to next. This is an expression of gratitude to God.
·Nyadran Suran of Pagerejo Villagers
This ritual is almost the same as the one in Gianti sub-village. It is held every Syuro 1st. In this ritual, Pagarejo villagers do bathing ceremony in Surodilogo spring, to clean the bodies and souls of villagers. This is also an expression of gratitude to God.
2.Indonesian Culture
Indonesian culture is multicultural, Indonesian culture is not plural because plural refer to the Indonesian people. It is multicultural because there are many different cultures from different areas. Indonesia is a plural nation but the culture is multicultural, and there is an understanding and a respect of different culture. For example, Batak people that live in Java Island, which have Batak cultures, understand and respect to the Java cultures and vice versa. So they can live together in one social area as a group.
Mental programming leads to person having same behaviors in similar situations, so we can predict a person’s behavior or people’s behavior if we know their mental programming and the situation. Our mental programs are physically determined by states of our brain cells. We cannot directly observe mental programs but we can observe behavior, words, or deeds. Every person’s mental programming is partly unique and partly shared with others.
There are three levels of uniqueness in human mental programming that consists of universal, collective, and individual level. The most basic of mental programming is universal level, in this level, mental programming is shared by all mankind. The collective level of mental programming is shared with some people in groups or categories. Language, which is part of culture, is learned in this level. The top level is individual level which is the truly unique part, each person is different and unique, because people have different mental programs.
Mental programs can be learned, and better if they are learned when we are young, it will be easier than if we start it in mature age. There are two kind of operationalization of mental programs, they are provoked behavior and natural behavior, and each of that can be verbal (words) and nonverbal (deeds). So, there are four kind of behavior, provoked words, natural words, provoked deeds, and natural deeds.
Values can be defined as an attribute of individuals as well as collectivities. Each person has many values in their life, and other people can agree with one person’s values or disagree with it. One value can be good in some people’s point of view or can be bad in another. Values are very subjective and each person has different subjective sign so that their values are different and most people hold some conflicting values.
Values are distinguished into desired and desirable, what people think ought to be desired isn’t always same with what they actually desire. Values are different with behavior, values also cannot be equated with deeds, it’s simple because behaviors depend on the person and the situation. Based on nature of a value, values can be distinguished into the desired and the desirable value, and based on the dimension of value, there are intensity and direction, and based on dominant outcome, the desired most has outcome in both deeds and words but the desirable has outcome in words. Important, successful, attractive, and preferred belong to terms used in measuring instrument of the desired values, whereas good, right, agree, ought, and should belong to terms used in measuring instrument of the desirable values. Based on the corresponding behavior, the desired value has choice and differential effort allocation, and the desirable value has approval or disapproval. Person reffered to in measuring instrument of the desired are ‘me’ and/or ‘you,’ and person reffered to measuring instrument of desirable are people in general.
Culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group. Values can be found in one person or individually, but culture only can be found in group of people or institutions. The institutions include the family, education system, politics, and legislation. The major group of population has the value system that became societal norms. The ecological factors and societal norms influenced the culture of each institution that raised the consequences of culture. The consequences are structure and functioning of institutions that consist of family patterns, role differentiation, social stratification, socialization emphases, education, religion, political structure, legislation, architecture, theory development. Each institution has different culture because the different norms and the different ecological conditions, those ecological factors are geographic, economic, demographic, genetic, historical, technological, and urbanization that led to different structure and functioning of institutions.
Ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture, that one's own race or ethnic group is the most important and that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups. Ethnocentrism is already present in the instruments used in data collection. To avoid ethnocentrism in data collection, the instruments should be developed cross-culturally. In fact, ethnocentrism still present in the decision, and it is also found in divulging of research results. The ethnocentrism has been the main reasons for the lack of advance of the art.
Language is part of culture that became the systematic study and theory-building. We can learn foreign language because language is a learned characteristic, but we have to learn about that foreign culture too. If we learn an additional language which is foreign language and we don’t know about its culture, we could find difficulties in translation. Because translation not only just translate the words or sentences but also translate the sense and also the style of the language, by knowing the culture will make the translation is natural and easily understood. In some cross-cultural studies, the translation is needed for research instruments. In that chase, sometimes error translations are happened, but it can be randomized if we able to increase the number of languages used.(Ulvia-2009)
