Jemparingan Breksi

On Sunday, 28 October 2017, Duta Damai Indonesia (Peace Ambassador of Indonesia), organized an event called Festival Mewarnai Indonesia (Festival of Coloring Indonesia).

Before we go further to how the Festival went on, it's better for us to understand what Duta Damai Indonesia is. Duta Damai Indonesia is a youth organization established by and under the control of Indonesia's BNPT (Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Terorisme/National Bureau of Terrorism Defense). Its main job is to restrain people from terrorizing by posting positive contents on various social media like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (but Twitter is the most frequently used). Its members are dedicated young generation who are committed to protecting Indonesia from the danger of terrorism.

Coming back to the event, I, as a member of GenPI (Generasi Pesona Indonesia) chapter Jogja, was assigned to report how the Festival was going on via my Twitter account. As the event lasted all day long and night, the GenPI members were divided into two groups, morning and afternoon. I chose the morning one.

The morning event in the Festival was only jemparingan. Jemparingan is an art of Javanese traditional archery. It doesn't only involve sport, but also mind and soul.

Duta Damai Indonesia collaborated with a Jemparingan club called 'Kanca Sila Jemparingan Marto' that bases its activities in Mejing Wetan, Gamping, Sleman, the Special Region of Yogyakarta.

At the beginning of event, the leader of the club told us (live 'reporters') what jemparingan is, its philosophy and brief history, the tools we need and how to do that appropriately. Then he and some of club members showed us how to do that.

The time when they do jemparingan is called gladhen. Gladhen is not a battle, but a practice together with all members of the club. Each gladhen they will need for arrows. Usually they will have the gladhen for 15 to 20 rounds, depending on their deal.

There are three steps of doing jemparingan. Before we do that, we should sit on our crossed legs. Our body should face our right, while our left shoulder points at the target. We should sit tegat. After having that position, then we can start to do the first step, i.e. holding a gendewa (a Javanese traditional arch) with our left hand, up straight and pointing to the target. The target is like a short stick with a red top and white bottom. The strike is When we can shoot the red part. Then, strecth the arrow in a position of 45° tilt. The last step, stretch it until our right hand touches our right cheek. When we feel this position is perfect, then shoot.

When reporting, all GenPI Jogja volunteers were offered an opportunity to try the jemparingan. I didn't waste that moment. I tried with four arrows. Though I couldn't make a strike yet, I felt really happy because it was my very first time to do that and it was so cool to know that I did it. Later, is you wanna try to do that, please contact. Happy trying.