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World Diving Record Broken at Sail Bunaken


Dalih Sembiring

Divers line up to break the record. (Photo: Antara)

Divers line up to break the record. (Photo: Antara)


Nearly 3,000 divers set a world record Sunday for the largest group dive by plunging into the famed waters of Bunaken, North Sulawesi.

The information center of the Sail Bunaken 2009 committee said 2,818 people participated in the event, but only 2,805 people stayed underwater for at least 25 minutes. That is the minimum length of time required by the Guinness Book of Records, whose representatives were on hand to witness the new record.

"Divers began entering the water at 8 in the morning. By midday, all of them had returned to shore," Koesdiantoro of the Sail Bunaken 2009 committee said.

The mass dive also marked Indonesia's Independence Day, August 17. An Indonesian flag will be unfurled underwater tomorrow as part of the independence celebrations.

Sail Bunaken is a government-sponsored festival designed to promote Manado, and the visually rich waters of Bunaken, as an international tourist hotspot.

Indonesian Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi, who also heads the festival committee, said Manado had seen a spike in economic growth thanks to Sail Bunaken.

"The growth is temporary, but it has given the people of North Sulawesi a chance to learn how to develop their local potential," he said.


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Treasure Hunts Yield Valuables in Indonesia


Christiane Oelrich


In the lore surrounding hidden treasures, the gods often see fit to subject the treasure hunter to a long quest before he finds the objects of his desire. Treasure hunter Klaus Keppler knows that only too well. For years, the owner of a salvage company has been looking for the wrecks of ships that had been carrying gold, silver or china. Recently, after a long dry spell, he got lucky. Twice.

Keppler — who has recovered a 10th-century wreck and the Forbes, a British vessel that ran aground in 1806, off Indonesia — contentedly surveys his treasures in a Jakarta port storehouse, holding up a huge lump of silver coins. “Hurry up, this thing is incredibly heavy,” the 70-year-old German urges a photographer, but with a big smile on his face.

The divers of his salvage ship, the Maruta Jaya, have recovered many kilograms of silver coins from the Forbes, as well as cannon, gold jewelry, crystal, silverware and 400 bottles of wine. “Those gentlemen on board knew how to live well,” he says.

Especially the many different coins will sell well, he believes, spinning a large one between his fingers: “One coin can be worth between $50 and several thousand.”

This is even more the case if the history of the artifact is known. Keppler hired a young man to scour archives around the world for information about the Forbes.

The vessel sailed the seas under a commission from the British king, a kind of pirate ship with a royal permit. It ran aground on a reef off Belitung Island, between Borneo and Sumatra, en route to India on Sept. 9, 1806.

Captain Frazer Sinclair and his crew survived. The Mampango reef was only charted five years later.

Upstairs in Keppler’s storehouse, four archaeology students measure, photograph and describe every recovered coin and enter the results in a databank.

“Everything gets documented,” Keppler says. Officials from various Indonesian ministries who must accompany every search trip make sure that no treasures are squirreled away.

The Indonesian state receives 50 percent of all revenues derived from the treasure hunts in its territory. While it is rumored among treasure hunters that some officials are not adverse to cutting individual deals, the searchers also eye each other with mistrust.

“Eighty percent are scoundrels and mountebanks,” Keppler says.

Apart from the revenue, Indonesia’s interest is limited, as is obvious with the second wreck Keppler found in a depth of 50 meters off Java Island, says Horst Liebner, an expert on Malay culture and history.

“The Karawang wreck is from the 10th century,” Liebner says. “In Germany, such a find would be a sensation, but in Indonesia, not a single archaeologist stopped by to have a look.

Liebner dated the wreck with the help of Chinese lead coins from the Min dynasty, which fell in 947. Divers also recovered vases, ewers and plates. “It’s a time capsule,” he enthuses.

So far, the treasure hunters have not become rich. The flotilla of salvage ships, equipment, divers and storage all needed to be financed in advance, long before any promising finds were on the horizon.

Therefore, investors attracted by a sense of adventure are welcome.

But occasionally, there is a wreck that fulfills the treasure hunter’s hopes. “We checked out about 70 wrecks here, but only five of them are probably worth it,” Keppler says.

The money only starts coming in when a buyer is found. Keppler’s team is in negotiations with Chinese museums over the Karawang treasure, which he hopes will bring in 1.4 million euros ($1.98 million), with salvage costs amounting to 600,000 euros.

The Forbes might prove more profitable, netting 5 million to 10 million euros, with 400,000 euros in salvage costs. “There are more than 30 million coin collectors worldwide,” says Keppler, who admits to be more fond of modern currency himself.

But in the end, he is in it for the search — his eyes already set on future wrecks to be discovered.

Deutsche Presse-Argentur

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Outrage Over 'Stolen' Pendet Dance Ends Up As a Misstep


Kinanti Pinta Karana & Putri Prameshwari

Forget the myth, here’s the real thing: Ni Ketut Arini teaches girls Pendet in Denpasar, Bali, on Monday. She was a student of Pendet creator I Wayan Rindi, who died in 1967. (Photo: J.P. Christo, JG)

Forget the myth, here’s the real thing: Ni Ketut Arini teaches girls Pendet in Denpasar, Bali, on Monday. She was a student of Pendet creator I Wayan Rindi, who died in 1967. (Photo: J.P. Christo, JG)

Outrage Over 'Stolen' Pendet Dance Ends Up As a Misstep

It was a burning issue of national pride that stirred up the righteous anger of a nation slighted.

Well, not quite. A firestorm of Internet outrage over the supposed theft of the Balinese pendet dance for a Malaysian tourism ad turned out to be just hot air on Monday, when the Discovery TV network owned up and said that the dancers had appeared in one of its own TV promotions, and it was all a mistake anyway.

But not before Indonesia’s government, unaware of Discovery’s action, had already made an official protest to Malaysia.

The story started late last week, as rumors about the ad and reactions shot to the top of the social microblogging Web site Twitter’s hot topics list.

“Pendet is ours! Noordin M. Top is yours!” said one popular Twitter message, referring to the Malaysia-born terrorist suspect wanted in connection with the July 17 bombings in Jakarta.

Over the weekend, news stories had reported, erroneously, that the image of a traditional Balinese pendet dancer was used in an official Malaysia Tourism ad.

They were a touchpaper to reignite smouldering and long-standing antagonism between the two countries over the heritage of traditional songs and dances, and further stoked the furor on Twitter and Facebook.

The problem was, it was all wrong — and perhaps a lesson in the myth-making power of the Internet — as an apology statement by Discovery made clear: “Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific regrets that the image of a Balinese dancer, sourced from an independent third party, was used in the promotion of the series ‘Enigmatic Malaysia.’ The promotional clip has been removed from all feeds.

“The Balinese dancer was not featured in any way in the program. Discovery has the deepest respect for the traditions, cultures and practices of all races and nations, and it is not our intention to cause any misunderstanding or distress to any party.”

Widyarka Ryananta, a senior diplomat at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, confirmed that the Malaysian government had never made an ad featuring pendet. “It was all a misunderstanding. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” he told the Jakarta Globe.

By the time Discovery’s apology had been issued, Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik had already sent a letter to his Malaysian counterpart, demanding the ad campaign be removed. “It happened two years ago with Reog Ponorogo. We don’t want it to happen again to us,” he said.

He said a bilateral pact signed in 2007 stated that if both countries wanted to publicize a culture in a “grey area,” they had to consult with each other first. But pendet was a different story: “People around the world would recognize in a glance that pendet is a Balinese dance. There’s nothing grey about it.”

After the error had been explained, Jero called on Indonesians to quickly register all forms of Indonesian cultural heritage to prevent such misunderstandings from reoccurring.

“We have so much cultural heritage,” he said. “We may accidentally neglect some of them.”

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