Linda Nataprawira wrote from Indonesia: Mother’s day = "onde" day December 22nd is Mother’s Day in Indonesia.  In indo-chinese tradition, we always make "onde" on that day too. They’re made of glutinous flour and filled with peanuts & sugar inside. The taste is sweet. Onde is also called onde-onde.  Sometimes it’s served in... Read more »

Open Culture has a page of free language learning links covering 40 languages. Here are some of the languages you can find links for… Arabic, English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, Gaelic, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Maori, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Swahili,... Read more »

We take a lot of hikes and recently we’ve been coming upon arrangements of stones stacked on top of each other like those in the photo.  I couldn’t help but wonder if there’s a significance to these sculptures? My cousin, James Yannucci, who has travelled all over Asia and lives in China saw my photo and... Read more »

Wayang puppets are from Indonesia.  They’re used in shadow puppet theater that’s also called Wayang.  Wayang refers to both the puppets and the type of shadow puppet theater. Here’s a video about Wayang Puppet Theater… Video about Wayang Puppet Theater The photo below shows antique wayangs owned by Purabi Khisa. Purabi wrote, "My wayangs… So far as I remember,... Read more »

Dedy Dowo sent me this photo of young Indonesians dressed for a traditional dance. Dedy said: "They do a dance of traditional java that’s called Jaranan or Jatilan (Horse dance)." I asked if it was performed for any specific event and Dedy wrote: "Yes it is, usually in a traditional ceremony or to celebrate a birthday... Read more »