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Java is home to four Unesco World Heritage Sites, including Borobudur Temple.
PHOTO: AMANJIWO
Mavis Teo
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YOGYAKARTA – I sit cross-legged on a straw mat on a lush bank of the Progo River, which courses through central southern Java in Indonesia and flows into the Indian Ocean. The mat is full of fruit and flower offerings, said to be for spirits that roam the earth.
An elderly Indonesian man dressed in a traditional Javanese costume snips off about 3cm of my hair and places the lock in a bowl made of banana leaves. After chanting over it, he passes the bowl back and motions for me to cast the hair into the river.
