Thursday, October 6, 2011

Gates: A Gap Maker pt II

On a previous post, it said that highway road is a gap maker. It separates between two societies that maybe close but they’re not aware each other. This often happen in the big cities, where the fast mobilization and modernizations are growing up. Different condition can be seen in the village, where the small main road, with a small number of vehicles, so people can still visit the neighbor’s house. It keeps the human relationship.
But, a gap maker is not only highway road, but also gates. In Javanese, Kraton (especially Yogyakarta and Surakarta) is surrounding by gates. It makes the different social class or social status between inside and outside the gates. But, Kraton should be like that.
How if it happens in the common societies?
What are gates? Based on the function, gates are used to protect a house of anything from outside. First, it may used to protect from thief’s attack, but slowly, people are afraid to enter to the house with the big gates and big wall. House with the big gates and wall makes people think, what are inside this house?
In Javanese, there is a pitutur (advice), “luwih becik pager mangkok tinimbang pager tembok” (bowl gate is better than the wall gate). It shows that human relationship must built by a good relationship with visiting each other (silaturahmi), give something to neighbor, etc. In Muslim’s perspective, neighbors are the closest brothers and sisters.
Again, it often happens in the big cities societies. Their houses are close, but they don’t know each other.


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