Royal Indonesian Wedding Festival Take Place on March 6, 2010

On 6 march the Forum Silaturahmi Keraton se Nusantara (the Cooperation of Friendship of the Indonesian Dynasties/FSKN) will held a special royal festival dedicated to the rich and very variated royal wedding culture of Indonesia.
The 1 day festival will take place in Sasono Utomo TM II building in Jakarta and will be opened already by the celebrity Mr. Menko Kesra at 9.00 in the morning.
The festival is of course open for the public.
Royal and Princely dynasties from several places of the Indonesian archipelago will show their centuries old wedding ceremonies, special wedding clothes, special wedding music, etc.
A few of them, who display and present their palace wedding culture are:the sultan's dynasty of Bulungan (East-Kalimantan), the sultan's dynasty of Siak (East-Sumatra), the pangeran dynasty of Gebang (Cirebon-area/West-Java) and the sultan's dynasty of Pontianak(West-Kalimantan).
The festival also will be attended by several kings,rajas,dynastychiefs and the like of areas all over Indonesia.
The royal wedding culture of Indonesia is one of the most interesting subjects of the general and royal culture.

We hope to be able to put some reports about it later.

Namatota;the most eastern Indonesian principality

In the SE East of the Bomberay peninsula of Papua lies the Namatota, or Kowiai area. The raja of Namaotota, who lived in the capital Namatota was together with the raja of Rumbati the most important raja of the peninsula.His area was the biggest of all, although not always he had a very direct influence there. Before the stateletts of Arguni and Kaimana were his vasals. The raja of Namaotota could augment his influence with the help of the sultan of Tidore. It was also described as a commercial principality with the economic centre in the capital. The dynasty says, they come from the Gunung Baik area originally. The present raja of Namatota is Raja Hayum Ombaier and like most of the other rajas here also member of the local government. The present raja is meber of the staf of the bupati of Kaimana.

I. Festivana
DP Tick gRMK

Patipi;the religious principality of Papua

One of the former vasal-principalities of Rumbati was Patipi. Already long it had it's own rulers.It was known for the wish of their rulers to bring the islam to the surrounding peoples. The present raja dynasty is the 2nd dynasty, which ever ruled Patipi.The 1st raja dynasty still was in the government atmosphere in the 20th century and even delivered 2 rajas in that time, when the 2nd dynasty already was ruling.The present raja is only regent-raja of Paitpi:Regent-Raja Ahmad Iba and is considered as the 16th ruler of Paitpi. When his brother Raja Usman Iba died, he became regent, because the crownorince (son of the deceased raja) was then still studying:Raja Muda Atarai Iba. It is not known, when the crownprince will be installed as the new raja. The regent is a retired official of the department of fishery of the kabupaten Fak Fak.

I. Festivana
DP Tick gRMK

Karangasem;the Prussia of the Bali-Lombok area

In the east of Bali lies the area of Karangasem. Before it was a very powerfull area.In the 18th century it was the rajapower also in Buleleng in the north and in the 17th century it began to become the paramount power in the nearby muslim island of Lombok. The present branch of the Karangasem dynasty actually ruled this empire, of which it was called the emperor, but in the 19th century the branch of the dynastysm, which ruled on Lombok began to rule as paramount rajas.The rule in Lombok ended at the end of the 19th century and the rule in Buleleng ca. 1850. The rajas of this dynasty always were known as good rulers, prorgassive rulers with a realistic mind:being an example for others.The present raja of Karangasem is a son of the last ruling raja. He was installed 9-4-2009 as the chief of the rajadynasty with the name Ida Anak Agung Gde Agung Putra Agung. He is a very well-known history professor on Bali.


I. Festivana
DP Tick gRMK

New palace of the Emperor of Pagaruyung nearly finished

The imperial palace of the Emperor of Minangkabauw, or the Emperor of Pagaruyung; theIstana Basa Pagaruyung;is nearly ready. The first time this palace was built was in 1805. Then in 1815 it was destroyedduring a islamic rebellion.It was rebuilt the 2nd time totally after WorldWar II. To be precise:1986 all was ready there.At 27-2-2007 the wooden palace was burnt again and directly they decidedto rebuilt it according to the old design.Now it is nearly fnished. Hereby the pictures of it. We shall update you, when it will be openend. Then THE symbol of Minangkabauwculture in West-Sumatra will be there again.

I. Festivana
D.P. Tick gRMK/Pusaka

New Raja of Banggai Named

We have just received the info, that as 23rd tomundo, or raja of Banggai is proclaimed Raja Mohamad Fikran Ramadhan Iskandar Zaman.
He is the oldest son of Raja Ir. Iskandar Zaman Awaluddin, who died 27-1-2010 and was raja from 2008. Because the new raja is a minor of 16 years, his uncle Raja Muda Irawan Zaman Awaluddin will be the regent-raja.
It is not the tradition, that the new raja always must be the son of a previous raja,but in this situation the raja council (the so-called council of the basalo sangkap, or Kommisi Ampat) had decided,that now it is the best decission about it to be made.
With this proclamation Raja Mohamad Fikran Ramadhan Iskandar Zaman is probably the 2nd youngest king of Indonesia now. There are ca. 300 dynasties in Indonesia, but not all have an official proclaimed raja, or sultan.
The youngest Indonesian king at this moment is the sultan of Deli in East-Sumatra, who is 12 years old.
The sultan of Sambas in West-Kalimantan is like the new raja of Banggai also born in 1993.
The father of the new raja of Banggai was chief of the council of kings for the royal organisation FSKN for middle-Sulawesi (Sulawesi Tengah).
In march a new president of this branch of FSKN will be proclaimed.

We hope to inform you in due time about new developments in these matters.

I. Festivana
D.P. Tick gRMK

"To prevent disharmony and disunity in the raja dynasty of Banggai Raja Iskandar Zaman Awaluddin asked the FSKN to play a coordinating function concerning the succesion.
The testament and later he raja dignity staf (tongkat) were given to the secretary-general of FSKN;Pangeran Gunarso Kusumodingrat and when the new raja of under the regent-raja would be proclaimed it would be said, that the FSKN would play such a role to keep the harmony inside the dynasty.
So, when later the new raja and the regent-raja will be officially presented to the outside world, the FSKN will give the official symbol of the raja dignity to the above mentioned royals.
It is not the meaning to manipulate the succesion, but just to prevent, that claimants will enter the royal arena and deny the decission made by the basalo langkap.
That decission was made by the late raja, because he has learned from situations in some other dynasties, where disunity is beginning to control a little bit the dynastic matters.
In fact that was a wise ecission of the late raja for that reason."

Thank you all for your attention.
Salam hormat:
DP Tick

"We thank hereby also Pangeran Gunarso G. Kusumodiningrat; Secretary-General of FSKN; for being so friendly to inform us about the inner-dynastic developments regarding Banggai."

Manek Benjamin Messakh of Thie; The King, who preserved the history of the Rote-Ndao islands;died 25 januari 2010

Property of PUSAKA

Unfortunately the last time several of important and well-known,or lesser well-know rajas and sultans of Indonesia had died.
5 days ago one of the most important kings of the Rote-Ndao islands in East-Indonesia; being known for his preservation of the history of this archipelago, where the kings in fact continued to rule the longest in Indonesia(until ca. 1970) had died.
He was one of the most important and most active dynastychiefs from a total of 19 dynastychiefs;from the Rote islands;an archipelago of ca.
1.200 km2 lying west of Timor.
It seems, that most of his life was dedicated one way,or another to the well-being of Thie; one of the more bigger principalities of the Rote-islands, or of the Rote-archipelago in general.
When he was born in the 1930-ies His grandfather Manek Jeremias Wilhelmus Messakh was king of Thie;a royal power, which the Dutch had to reckon with, because of the consistent nationalistic performance against the Dutch government. Because of that his grandfather was deposed in 1948 after 17 years of rule.
After 2 tempory-rulers, his son Jusuf Nicolaas Messakh became manek,or king of Thie and ruled from 1949-1951. Then it was totally the end of Dutch rule in Indonesia (in fact in 1949) and Manek Jeremias W. Messakh could be installed as king of Thie again. He ruled for another 2 years.
Then the vice-manek,or fettor of Thie:Fettor Hermanus Haning ruled temporarily from 1953-1956.This ruler is the father of them present
bupati(districtchief) of Rote-Ndao:
Drs. Leonard Haning.
Then in 1956 the son of Manek Jermias W. Messakh and the father of the just deceased Manek of Thie Drs. Benjamin Messakh;Manek Jeremias Arnoldus Messakh became king of Thie. As such he ruled until 1962.Then this father was elected as subdistrict chief of West-Rote and his younger brother Thobias Arnoldus Messakh then was the last official royal ruler of Thie by being the caretaker of the royal dignity of manek from 1962-69.
The father of Manek Drs. Benjamin Messakh died in 1985.His uncle ex-Manek Thobias A. Messakh died in 2004.
When this uncle died the functioning of the dynasties were also revived in Rote-Ndao:as preservers of a big part of the local traditions.
In the mean time a lot had happened in the area. The Rotenese people;although having strong contacts with their brother peoples on nearby Timor;wanted to form their own seperate district.
Manek Benjamin Messakh would become the last assistant-bupati of Rote-Ndao in the transition period. After that period from 1998-2003 the new kabupaten of Rote-Nado was proclaimed.
Prince Drs. Benjamin Messakh was then officially proclaimed as the new king of Thie.
Officially they called it the chief of the manek,or royal clan BuralaE;named after the first king of this branch of the dynasty (who ruled continuously for nearly 300 years from then on):Manek Messakh Mbura (ruled 1674-1694).
This dynasty delivered 23 kings.
Manek Drs. Benjamin Messakh was the first dynastychief to be recognized again in the modern time as such.
As a assistant-bupati he already was known for his dedication to the well-being of his own and the people of the total Rote-Ndao archipelago.
He was very interested in history and preserved by all means the old historical stories from the area.
His dream was to publish his own book about the history of the 19 monarchies of the Rote-Ndao archipelago:being known as the area settled with the biggest density of monarchies of total Indonesia.
When I did in 2000 for the first time fieldwork concerning the dynasties of Rote-Ndao he did all, what was in his power to help me.
Although already being one of the mayor princes in the dynasty then, he was very humble in the acting towards other people.
And most of all:his rule was always clean!
He chared his historical interest for the principalities of Rote-Ndao with his wife, who is a princess of the Johannis dynasty of Landu(according to the traditional view the most important oldest kingdom of Rote-Ndao).
Apart from the politics his historical research was his lifework.
The last time he suddenly had problems with his heart and suddenly on the 25th of januari he died.
That the government will publish his bookmanuscript about the history of the principalities of Rote-Ndao;an area,which is also called because of his big density of dynasties:the archipelago of the kings.
That his succesor as manek,or dynastychief of Thie (also written as Ti'i) (unknown until nowto us,who will succeed him) will have the same wisdom, warm heart and dedication in live.
May the soul of this symphatic king,who had a well-spend life with his several dedications; rest in peace and that his family and dynasty will feel the comfort of the Loving God in Heaven during this difficult time.
From Lampung and Holland we send hereby also our sincere condolences.

I. Festivana
D.P. Tick gRMK
(pusaka.tick@tiscali.nl )

We also like to thank HRH Raja Leopold Isu Nisnoni of Kupang/Timor, who informed us about the passing way of the manek of Thie.