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(c) aria widyanto

having celebrated new year’s eve abroad and another continent within indonesia archipelago instead of java mainland, we did something different to ending year of 2011. it’s  took pretty close to the heart of jakarta, the capital city. we had said goodbye to the previous year by gather amongst the portuguese creole descendants and feel so happy to be able learn their culture.

ruinas do sao paulo, macau (c) ukirsari 2006

previously, more than five years ago i had encounter with the portuguese creole or known as kristang or the cristao in malacca, about two hours drive from kuala lumpur, malaysia. to be frank, if speaking about the old portuguese colonial fortress and buildings that easy to be visited from my country, my choice will goes to macau’s old quarter in special administration region (sar) of china and following by goa in india—the last i’d never been there yet.

but in medan portugis or portuguese quarter of malacca i found a distinctive language called papia kristang that spoken by the kristang, a community of people with mixed portuguese and asian ancestry. and since my national language has included some portuguese words in our daily conversation just like meski (mas que), jendela (janela) and bendera (bandeira) to named a few, i feel so dearly. i keep on searching and wrote my experience here and got an e-mail from a very well-know scientific magazine that asked further about my experience within malacca. unfortunately i could not give a hand since i just spend few days there and my main interest was to find out the similarity between its language and what i am speaking nowadays.

st paul's hill, malacca (c) ukirsari 2003

later, i back again to malacca for an assignment—maybe a fate, but not related i can guarantee, i start working in a magazine that bear the same name with journalist’s office  who wrote me about malacca by e-mail!—i managed myself to make a special feature, to answer my own question about the portuguese creole. and i am so glad that i’d got positive feedback from some readers and one of them even mentioned at the forum dated back a year ago when i attended a public speaking about traveling. it’s really an honour!

that’s not an ending yet, since i still want to write about its language and its people as i had read there’s a portuguese descendants settlement within jakarta. so there i go accompanied by marvy, an internship within our office. he admitted that our work kinda tracking down something unknown and ending with a bright light.

i do agree with his point of view. it’s a treasure to see some old manuscript from the creole community that mentioned some portuguese words. and i enchanted more, when one of them giving example about how a creole greetings to the guests who enter the house. it’s, “bos, yo kere kumi?” or transliteration to “vos, eu quer comer?” in portuguese. i amazed, dazzled to realize that i already find what i’m looking for. it’s exactly the same with papia kristang greetings that i had heard in malacca! that’s the way they greets me every single day in there! i  burst in happiness and share the jolly with marvy.  the difference only word to spell “comer”, here they say “kumi” whilst in malacca spelt as “kimi”.

ever since the day marvy and i visit the portuguese settlement in kampung tugu, i feel so dearly with the community. especially about their language that has some similarity with eastern indonesia dialect, ambonese to be exact that i spoke during my childhood in moluccas and so did marvy’s mother tongue.

with kindhearted, ikatan besar keluarga tugu (ikbt) invited me to attend their notable festivities called rabu-rabu and mandi-mandi. the first one is a procession, visit door to door to all creole clans who stay within kampung tugu and start by the mid-day of january 1st. i went with my beloved nicholas and follow the group to sing and dancing in every creole’s house, ended when the night falls at the last creole’s house for dinner and praying together.

kampung tugu (c) ukirsari 2012

mandi-mandi or thanksgiving in welcoming a new year is held at the first week of january. we got morning service that delivers by local church, “kumi” of course, distinctive special music performance called keroncong tugu that very well-known dated back 17s century and last but not the least … “screw up” everyone’s face by beauty powder dissolved into water. everybody laugh, everybody happy and it’s said with putting powder on your face means we’re ready to start a year with giving forgiveness towards others. very touching indeed and i can not runaway, especially whenever a little boy politely asked me, “may i touch your cheek with the powder?” of course i say yes, and give him a full powdery finger in return!

we did enjoy all the festivities arranged by minority group of portuguese creole in kampung tugu and so grateful to have these rare opportunity. all i can say is thank them very much and if i can borrow some sleepsong lyrics, performed by saoirse and written by brendan graham, i would like to pray them, “may you bring love and may you bring happiness. beloved in return ’till the end of your days.” and i would like to say the same to my beloved nicholas, to marvy and fandi, to my family and best friends. for them, to whom i feel pretty alive and jolly and to whom i shared the tears and happiness. happy new year everyone!