Hidden Treasures at The Cloisters

                             

                  

                                      

The Cloisters

The Cloisters is located in Fort Tryon Park, New York City. It is the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art; reconstructed in the 1930s with several elements of the European medieval abbeys. 

It was a pretty Saturday afternoon when my friend, David and I decided to go there. We took the A train to 190th street as directed in the museum's website. But when we got off the train, somehow, we missed the exit station by the elevator. We came out looking at tall uncharacteristic apartment buildings. With just one road and a hill on one side, we walked along the road which led us to a walkway up the hill. It took us less than 15 minutes before we finally reached a park overlooking the Hudson River. Families were picnicking, while friends and lovers were taking a nice long stroll in the park. 

Finally, there it was - The Cloisters: charming yet unassuming.

The Cloisters incorporates parts from five French cloistered abbeys. Buildings at Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa, Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert, Bonnefont-en-Comminges, Trie-dn-Bigorre, and Froville were all disassembled brick-by-brick before being shipped to New York, and later reassembled in Fort Tryon Park between 1934 and 1938.

The Cloisters collection contains approximately five thousand European medieval works of art, with a particular emphasis on pieces dating from the 12th through 15th centuries. The Cloisters is on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. The Cloisters also holds many medieval manuscripts and illuminated books, including the Limbourg brothers' Les Belles Heures du Duc de Berry and Jean Pucelle's book of hours for Jeanne d'Evreux. Renowned for its architectural sculpture, The Cloisters also rewards visitors with its exquisite stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and tapestries art pieces.  

The bricked walls, high ceilings, and religious statutes of medieval times gave us a peace of mind as we wondered from one gallery to the next. 

The Cloisters is landscaped with gardens planted according to horticultural information obtained from medieval manuscripts and artifacts, and the structure includes multiple medieval-style cloistered herb gardens. The gardens and the area surrounding The Cloisters are very well-maintained. It is just relaxing without the hustle and bustle of city life, and a charm off the beaten path in New York City.

Borobudur

Borobudur - A Shrine to the Lord Buddha

Borobudur is one of the top destinations in Indonesia. Its ancient Buddhist temple is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We (Jeffrey, my brother-in-law and Jack, history teacher in New York and I) arrived at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta at noon. Weather in Yogyakarta or better known to the locals as Jogja was pretty hot and humid. After we checked into our hotel, we went for a buffet lunch. Jerky beef, oxtail soup, fried chicken and fish, sauteed vegetables, and rice. It was a very good meal and cost us $20. 

The commercial district in Jogja is along Jalan Malioboro. This is a major shopping street for both locals and tourists alike. Souvenirs, tee shirts, teas, local arts and crafts, batik, tidbits and knick knacks, or anything you can think of is available here. Vendors display and sell their merchandises on the sidewalks of most shophouses. Therefore, the sidewalks can be pretty narrow. As we walked, we began to wander off to the side street. We were approached by a gentleman who claimed that he has a nice collection of paintings, and today was his last day here in Jogja. "Today's your lucky day" he said. Jeffrey wanted to take a look, so me and Jack went along. Later, we found out that he was selling the paintings for a commission. 

Jogja is known for its silver work, leather puppets used for 'wayang kulit' (shadow plays) and batik. It has a very active underground art scene (like the one we were lured to see), and its gamelan music has a very unique sound, and it's very popular. As we wandered back to Jalan Malioboro, we came across this huge store. In the store front, there were teak wood furnitures, and something caught my eye; two gigantic birdcages beautifully handcrafted and made of wood. Welcome to Mirota Batek, a renowned batik and handicraft center. Once we got in there, we were entertained with traditional Javanese live music. I found a colorful bag made with 100% recycled papers.

In the evening, several open-air side-street restaurants, called lesehan, started to open up for business. Some of the favorite local dishes here are nasi gudeg, nasi langgi, mee goreng Java, and yam goreng Kalasan. Less obvious to the tourist, but more for the local population, side streets, lanes and structures that lead on to Malioboro are as important as the street itself. 

The next morning, we rented a car for a day (cost $15 plus gas) to take us to Borobudur. Borobudur is a 9th century Mahayana Buddhist monument near Magelang, Central Jawa. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relics panels and 504 Buddha statues. It is the biggest Buddhist monument of its kind in the world. Like most developing countries, entrance to most historical sites are extremely high for tourist. In this case, we had to pay $15 each to enter the site!

The monument is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage; once a year Buddhists in Indonesia celebrate Vesak at the monument, where the journey begins. It follows a path circumambulating the monument while ascending to the top through three levels of Buddhist cosmology, namely Kāmadhātu (the world of desire), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the world of formlessness). During the journey the monument guides the pilgrims through a system of stairways and corridors with 1,460 narrative relief panels on the wall and the balustrades.

From there, we went to Mount Merapi, one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia and it is in direct vicinity of Borobudur. In fact it is so active that the area where the river used to flow was dried up with traces of volcano activities. 

Besides Borobudur, there are other Buddhist and Hindu temples in the area, including the Prambanan Temples compound. Pramanan is a 9th century Hindu temple dedicated to Trimurti, the expression of God as the Creator (Brahma), the Sustainer (Vishnu) and the Destroyer (Shiva). This temple is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it is one of the largest Hindu temples in South-East Asia. It is characterized by its tall and pointed architecture, typical of Hindu temple architecture, and by the towering 47m (154 feet) high central building inside a large compound of individual temples. 

We ended the day with some cold beers and coffee with Prambanan behind as a backdrop. 

When people think of Indonesia, Bali always comes to mind. Indonesia comprises of more than 17,000 islands, and they are scattered over both sides of the equator. It has around 300 ethnic groups, each with cultural identities developed over centuries, and influenced by Indian, Arabic, Chinese, and European sources. A country full of diversities, and landscapes, so the next time you plan to go to Indonesia, think of places like Danau Toba, Banda Islands, Kelimutu, Pualu Biak, Sumba, and Labuan Bajo just to name a few.