Tourism minister sees off Majapahit ship to eight countries

Jakarta, Indonesia - Minister of Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik here on Sunday saw off the "Spirit of Majapahit" traditional ship from North Jakarta`s Marina Batavia marine resort, leaving for eight countries.

The Spirit of Majapahit ship with 20 tons of weight was traditionally made of teak wood at Slopeng coastal resort in Sumenep, East Java seven months ago, and would leave for Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, the Philippine, Japan, China, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The ship was constructed by Sapardi in assistance of 15 craftsmen in oval shape with two tapering ends in a bid to pass through the 5-meter-high waves.

The Spirit of Majapahit is the Indonesia`s largest traditional boat with a length of 20 meters, 4.5 meters wide, and two meters high, and this ship was made of the 28.63 cubic old teak wood.

The Spirit of Majapahit ship was the result of reconstruction from the trading ship replica in the Majapahit Empire era which was taken from the relief panels in Borobudur temple in the 13th century.

The reconstruction of the Spirit of Majapahit ship was the results of a seminar entitled "Finding the Shape of Majapahit ship" organized by the community of Japan Majapahit Association (JPA), a group of Japanese entrepreneurs who took care about the history and culture of the Majapahit Empire in Tokyo, March 2009 and the Workshop in Jakarta in June 2009.

The JPA community is a forum for developing cooperation in the form of research and digging the history of Majapahit deeper, aimed to be admired by the Indonesians and the international community.

The Spirit of Majapahit ship has two skippers namely Major (Navy) Eko Deni Hartono and Risky Prayudi with three Japanese crew, including Yoshiyuki Yamamoto of the JPA as a leader of the expedition, and five Indonesian crew members. (Uu.H016/B003/P003)

Source: http://www.antaranews.com
Photo: http://surabaya.detik.com

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