Published on January 26, 2015
The beautiful highlands of Dieng Plateau in Central Java will be animated with festivity from 1st to 2nd August 2015 when the Dieng Cultural Festival 2015 gets underway. Held annually as a community celebration, the festival presents a variety of art and cultural performances, Dieng’s finest products exhibition, and to top it all is the unique dreadlock kids’ ritual ceremony (orRuwatan anak gembel/gimbal).
The festival is highlighted with the release of traditional lanterns, a leather puppet wayang show, traditional art and cultural performances, and a fireworks fiesta. Adding sparkle to the festival will be a Dieng Film Festival and Jazz performances entitled Jazz above the Clouds. As every year, the pinnacle of the festival will be the ritual of trimming off of kids’ dreadlocks.
Being the main feature of the festival, the ceremony of shaving off the hair of dreadlock kids is truly exceptional. While globally dreadlock hair is commonly known as Rastafarian style from Jamaica, here in the highlands of Dieng, dreadlock, or matted hair is not a chosen style but rather a mystifying feature that only occurs in children.
Dieng’s dreadlocks children are born with normal hair, but at one point in their young life, their hair amazingly turns dreadlock all by itself. Various studies to scientifically investigate the cause have not resulted in any logical explanation. According to local belief, however, these kids are somehow chosen by the ancestors to accept these gifts. The dreadlocks may not be trimmed unless the children themselves ask for it, or the hair will continue to grow back. The precious moments when the dreadlock kids hair are shaven off are celebrated in a series of ritual ceremonies known as the Ruwatan Anak Gimbal.
The ceremony commences with the procession of the dreadlock kids carried around the village. The kids will be paraded on a Javanese traditional horse drawn carriage or Dokar guarded by Manggala Yudha or royal troops and followed by various traditional art processions. The special kids will then be taken to the Arjuna Temple in the Dieng Temple complex where the ritual of the dreadlock hair cutting will take place. Subsequently, the shaven off hair will be taken to the lake and submerged here as symbol of returning the hair to the ancestors.
Located about three hours drive away from Yogyakarta or two hours from Semarang, the Dieng highlands are truly a marvel all their own. Literally translated as “abode of the Gods”, Dieng plateau not only presents a remarkable collection of temples believed to have been built in the 8th century, but it is also set in a fascinating mountainous background, surrounded by the mystical culture of its people.
