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Chapter One

Creatures

Indonesia teems with tame, predatory and mythical animals. Some stick to the jungles, some loiter in your living room. Others roam the underworld.

Tikus kantor

Office rat = Thief.

A miscreant lingers in the office or on the factory floor until everyone leaves, then swipes valuables before scurrying away like a rodent.

Tikus negara (state rat) is a government worker intent on personal gain. A motorcycle policeman on the take pulls over a motorist who runs a red light or stop sign. The driver settles the case on the spot. He leans over and tucks a banknote into the cop’s boot, which rests on the foot peg of his bike.

Rats are part of life in Indonesia. They rummage through garbage at street corners and crawl from drainage ditches. They gnaw on house foundations, chew window screens, scuttle in ceilings, slither around the water bowls of squat toilets, leave droppings beside bedside tables and munch through food containers. A newspaper columnist once proposed putting a bounty on rats, but the idea fizzled.

Rats are cunning and live in the same surroundings as humans, so they make good symbols of unsavory characters such as tikus berdasi (rat in a tie) and tikus berjas (rat in a suit).

Rats are also a scourge in the countryside, where they eat rice and other crops, inflicting huge losses on farmers. They multiply and spread disease.

Bajing loncat

Jumping squirrel = A thief who waylays vehicles on long journeys.

Bajing loncat was the bane of the trans-Sumatra highway, a major artery stretching between Lampung province in the south and Aceh province in the north of the island.

Luggage-laden buses or cargo trucks formed convoys on the highway for safe passage through forests at night. Groups of bajing loncat hid behind trees at curves, or near potholes and bumpy stretches, and jumped onto the backs of slowing vehicles. They climbed up to bus roofs, or opened rear truck doors, and lobbed bags and goods onto the street. Then they leaped off, backtracking to collect the booty. Drivers and passengers realized their misfortune when they reached their destination.

You can travel the length of the trans-Sumatra road in two days, making regular stops. Jungle foliage and neat palm plantations line the road between towns of two-storey wooden buildings. The worst stretch of road is in the Palembang area in the south. You sometimes come across an overturned truck that blocks the road, delaying the trip for hours. Bandits lurk in places. Children converge on buses at rest stops and beg for money.

Bajing loncat is also a term for someone who jumps on the bandwagon. In early 2004, President Megawati Sukarnoputri criticized several former ministers in her Cabinet who had quit to run in the presidential election. She described them as bajing loncat, fickle people who pursued their own interests, not those of the nation. One of them, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, defeated Megawati in the election and became president.

Kelas kakap

Snapper class = Top of the line.

A red snapper fish is big and bold, and feeds on smaller fish. But kakap, which can refer to any large fish, also has negative connotations. Penjahat kelas kakap is a big-time gangster; playboy kelas kakap is a habitual womanizer.

The low end of the scale is kelas teri (teri is a small fish).

Ali Ghufron, an Islamic militant who claimed to have fought alongside Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and two other people were sentenced to death for organizing bombings that killed 202 people at nightclubs on Bali island on October 12, 2002. During his trial, Ghufron said he was ikan teri (small fry) and that U.S. President George W. Bush and his allies were the big fish who deserved punishment. Authorities blamed the attacks on Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terrorist network linked to al-Qaida.

In 2006, Ghufron and the two other militants remained on death row. Their families said they wished to be executed soon, believing they would be rewarded in heaven.

Kutu loncat

Jumping louse = An opportunist.

Someone who bounces from one job or scheme to the next, like a louse that dances in locks of hair.

Mati kutu (dead louse) is a cornered, powerless person.

Kutu buku (book louse) is a bookworm, or nerd. The term is complimentary because book lice are smart and eager to learn. Some Indonesian literacy campaigners hoisted huge posters with a cartoon image of a bespectacled louse, smiling and reading a book.

Lice are a nuisance in rural Indonesia. Farmers sigh with exasperation when they find lice squirming in grain sacks, but take the discovery in stride. Villagers, mostly females, sit on front porches on a lazy afternoon and pluck lice from the heads of friends and relatives in full view of passers-by. Lice-laced hair doesn’t inspire revulsion. Villagers often crunch the lice in their teeth, and eat them. They like the mild, salty taste.

Terlepas dari mulut buaya, masuk ke mulut harimau

Released from the crocodile’s mouth, enter the tiger’s mouth = From the frying pan into the fire.

The tiger is a symbol of pride and power in Indonesia. At one time, powerful people were believed to become tigers after death. The symbol of a division in the modern military is the white tiger.

In parts of Central Java, people who walked through jungles to get home once murmured eyang (grandfather or grandmother in Javanese) to any tigers lurking in the undergrowth. They believed the tigers would spare them if they addressed the creatures as respected family members.

Poaching and depletion of habitats slashed the tiger population. For decades, poachers defied conservation laws, hunting tigers for fur, bones, teeth, claws and whiskers. Middlemen sold the body parts across Asia as good luck charms and in traditional treatments for ailments such as arthritis. Some people covet the tiger penis as an aphrodisiac. Tigers disappeared from Bali and the crowded island of Java long ago. Park rangers on Sumatra protect a dwindling number of the big cats, but forests where they dwell are shrinking because developers clear land for palm oil plantations and other industries. Tigers sometimes pad out of the jungle and attack livestock and even villagers.

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Crocodiles are better off than tigers. The Sumatran city of Medan has the biggest crocodile farm in Indonesia. But demand for skins is high, and some rearing farms depend on eggs and young crocodiles seized from the wild.

Ancient beliefs held that the crocodile was the ruler of the underworld.

East Timor, a former Indonesian territory, holds the crocodile in high regard. A legend describes how a huge crocodile transformed itself into Timor island: A boy rescued a crocodile that was parched and stranded on land. The grateful reptile escorted the boy around the world for years until it was time for the crocodile to die. It arched its back, and the ridges and scales on its great body formed the hills and contours of the island that became a home for the boy and his descendants.

Jose Alexandre Gusmao, East Timor’s president and former guerrilla leader, wrote poetry in jungle hideouts and later in a Jakarta jail. One poem describes the legend of how the crocodile’s back formed the mountainous backbone of Timor. The ridge gave shelter to separatist rebels fighting the Indonesian military.

After independence from Indonesia, East Timor adopted two saltwater crocodiles as mascots for its new army. One of the beasts had belonged to Col. Tono Suratman, former commander of the Indonesian military in East Timor.

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Lidah buaya (crocodile’s tongue) is the Indonesian name of aloe vera, the plant that yields a gel used in shampoo and cosmetic skin creams, and as a treatment for minor wounds and burns. The leaf of aloe vera is green and its serrated edges are reminiscent of the contours of a crocodile’s body.

Buaya darat

Land crocodile = Playboy, womanizer.

One who treats women as expendable.

To older Indonesians, buaya darat is a thief, or scoundrel. Philandering was tricky in the old days, partly because young women rarely met men without chaperones. Families arranged marriages, and some betrothed couples set eyes on each other for the first time on their wedding day. Marriage among distant relatives was common.

Another term for womanizer is hidung belang (striped nose). A lover kisses her man on the nose, leaving a smear of incriminating lipstick.

An untrustworthy person is mulut buaya (crocodile mouth). He inflicts wounds with words, not teeth.

Krakatau/Krakatoa

There is often more than one theory about the origin of an Indonesian expression or place name. Oral tradition, a dearth of written records, the passage of centuries and a diverse mix of ethnic languages obscure the truth.

Mystery surrounds the spelling and etymology of the volcano Krakatoa, in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. In 1883, the volcano erupted, killing nearly 40,000 people, darkening the sky with ash and sending shock waves around the world. Many victims died in tsunamis generated by the explosion. In his book ‘’Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded,” author Simon Winchester discusses the name:

There is an early and linguistically alluring report by a French Jesuit priest, Guy Tachard, suggesting that it was an onomatopoeia. Tachard passed the island eighty years after the Dutch cartographers, and wrote in his log that “we made many Tacks to double the island of Cacatoua, so-called because of the white Parrots that are upon that Isle, and which incessantly repeat the name.” It sounds improbable, not least because of the difficulty that any mariner might experience trying to hear the call of land-based birds from high on the windy deck of a passing ship.

Others subsequently thought that Krakatoa, of the more common local form Krakatau, derives essentially from one of three words, karta-karkata, karkataka or rakata, which are the Sanskrit and, according to some, the Old Javan words meaning “lobster” or “crab.” Then there is a Malay word, kelekatu, which means “flying white ant.” Since crabs and parrots belong on the island—or since they did, at least, until that dire August morning in 1883—any one of the two last lexical explanations seems reasonably acceptable. White ants only occur in the eastern part of the archipelago, rendering this theory rather less credible; though perhaps rather more credible than the notion, briefly popular in Batavia, that an Indian ship’s captain had asked a local boatman what name was given to the pointed mountain he could see, prompting the local to reply Kaga tau, meaning “I don’t know.”

Ayam bertelur di atas padi

A hen that lays eggs in the rice field = Snug as a bug in a rug. Content with life.

Ensconced in a pile of rice husks, a hen has nourishment and a warm, secure place to lay eggs. The husks are called kulit gabah (rice skins).

In some shops and supermarkets in Indonesia, eggs are kept in wooden boxes filled with rice husks to keep them from breaking. The husks are a substitute for Styrofoam. Eggs are available in sealed plastic trays, but some Indonesians prefer to touch the eggs in the bed of rice husks, and pick them out one by one.

If someone is suffering in what appears to be an ideal environment, the following applies: “The chicken that lays eggs in the paddy starves to death, the duck that swims in water dies of thirst.”

Ayam tertelur di atas padi mati kelaparan, itik berenang di air mati kehausan.

Seperti ayam melihat musang

Like a chicken that sees a civet = Dumbstruck.

Like a deer frozen in a car’s headlights.

Civets eat fruit and seeds, but they’re also predators. Farmers fear the furry, mongoose-like creatures will raid chicken coops at night.

A rare coffee (kopi) was produced with the help of civets (musang), which gobbled coffee berries and excreted the partly digested beans. Farmers plucked the beans from civet feces and washed off the dung. Roasting yielded a gourmet brand known as kopi luwak. Luwak is the Javanese word for civet.

Some said the process became a marketing scam, and that kopi luwak was just an exotic brand name. It’s unclear how a civet’s digestive tract would enhance the coffee taste. Perhaps its stomach acids gave the bean an unusual flavor. Or maybe a civet picked the ripest berries.

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Civets were linked to the SARS virus that was first recognized in China and killed nearly 800 people worldwide in 2003. Scientists said a virus in civets resembled the virus that infected humans with SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. Civets and other wild animals are culinary delicacies in China, raising the possibility that the virus passed to humans through food.

Recent research suggested that a species of bat may have been the main source of the disease.

Musang berbulu ayam

A civet in chicken feathers.

A wolf in sheep’s clothing (serigala berbulu domba) is an equivalent expression from ancient Greek times. The wolf version is more popular than the civet one in Indonesia.

Farmers keep one or two chickens in the backyard at home, putting the docile birds within easy reach if it’s time to eat.

In villages, it’s cheap to buy a live chick and feed it scraps, eat its eggs and later slaughter the bird for meat. Only city dwellers buy a slaughtered, fully grown chicken for supper.

The civet has an image like that of the fox: slick, cunning and adept at slipping into a place where it’s unwanted. A chicken coop.

Seperti kerbau dicocok hidung

Like a water buffalo led by the nose = Like a “yes” man.

Such a docile creature is like a lackey under a boss’s thumb. A dumb, indecisive person who cannot think for himself.

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A powerful Javanese king sent his army to seize Malay land on neighboring Sumatra. The Malays knew they were too weak to win on the battlefield, so they challenged the Javanese to a fight between their strongest water buffaloes. The Javanese king dispatched his sturdiest beast to the contest, and the crafty Malays sent a famished calf with an iron spike bound to its nose. The calf thought the Javanese buffalo was its mother, and sidled up to it in search of milk. The spike gored the big buffalo, and the Malays kept their land.

The folktale ends with the Malays naming themselves Minangkabau (winning water buffalo) to commemorate their victory.

Today, the traditional headdresses of Minangkabau women, and the corners of thatched roofs of their traditional houses, arch upward like buffalo horns.

The Minangkabau region is the cradle of Malay culture. Millions migrated centuries ago to Malacca and other places in the archipelago. Their descendants reside in what is now Malaysia. Their language is slightly different from that in their ancestral homeland, Sumatra. Many expressions in Indonesian and Malay, the official language of neighboring Malaysia, come from the Minangkabau region.

Seperti cacing kepanasan

Like an overheated worm = Somebody who has the fidgets, or is losing his mind.

Coldblooded worms get restless when they pop above ground. Their thin skins heat up and they try to wriggle back into the earth to escape the sun.

Politicians who waffle on policy are also cacing kepanasan.

The term describes someone who craves a cigarette and will light up anywhere, or lovers who become cranky and restless when deprived of each other’s company.

Kebakaran jenggot (your beard is on fire) is another expression for an agitated person. It also implies anger or rage.

Seperti katak di bawah tempurung

Like a frog under a coconut shell = Someone with a narrow view of the world. Like a frog in a well.

A frog grew up under a coconut shell, and one day a fly crawled into the shell. It said to the frog: “What are you doing here? Go out and see the world.” The frog replied: “Go where? This is the world.” The exasperated fly told the frog to jump. The frog did so, toppling the shell. He discovered that there was a world beyond his own.

“A frog that wants to be an ox,” is katak hendak jadi lembu. He’s too big for his boots. He has lofty dreams. Regardless of his talents, he cannot fulfill them because they are unattainable.

Malu-malu kucing

Shy cat = Warning: appearances can be deceiving.

Don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s not easy to get close to a cat, but it quickly becomes clingy and affectionate when it warms up to you. A tongue-tied girl with a crush on a boy is too shy to say a word, but she opens up once he talks to her.

The complete saying is Malu, tetapi seperti malunya kucing (shy, but only as shy as a cat).

Jinak-jinak merpati

Tame pigeon = A coy person, especially in courtship.

A woman beckons a suitor, but flutters away when he approaches. After a while, she gestures again. The ritual repeats itself.

The expression also refers to arranged marriages, which were common in Indonesia until the 1960s. Jinak-jinak merpati is a woman who agrees to the arrangement, but laments it in her heart.

The complete saying is Jinak tetapi jinaknya merpati (docile, but only as docile as a pigeon).

Pigeons are depicted as lovebirds. Merpati ingkar janji (when a pigeon breaks its promise) refers to a spouse who commits adultery.

Hangat-hangat tahi ayam

Hot as chicken shit = Fickle.

Steaming excrement exits the chicken, splatters on the ground and quickly loses its heat. If you launch yourself into a project with gusto and lose interest, then you are hangat-hangat tahi ayam.

The complete saying is hangat, tapi hangatnya seperti tahi ayam (It’s hot, but only as hot as chicken shit).

Bagaikan pungguk merindukan bulan

Like an owl that misses the moon = Pining for your lover.

A swooning teenager writes this old-fashioned expression in a letter to the girl he adores. Youths say it in jest to lampoon a pair of lovers.

Cinta monyet

Monkey love = Puppy love. An adolescent crush.

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Indonesians think monkeys are as foolish as starry-eyed lovers. People mimic the sounds and gestures of monkeys if they want to act stupidly. On television, comedians launch into monkey sounds to make someone look stupid.

Monkeys mesmerize onlookers in street shows, sometimes riding miniature bicycles. The animal usually answers to a common male name, Sarimin, and wears a cheap, glittery skirt. The handler bangs a small drum and calls: Sarimin pergi ke pasar (Sarimin goes to the market). The monkey mimics a woman putting on a hat, carrying a basket and taking produce from a seller while handing over money. Sometimes Sarimin passes the money back and forth with its owner or onlookers, making it look as though it is haggling over the price.

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Lutung Kasarung is the nickname of a prince who fell under a curse that transformed him into a big, black monkey.

A Sundanese folktale from West Java begins with the prince’s mother fussing about how long it was taking him to find a bride. He joked that he could find no one as beautiful as her. She said: “Do you wish your mother to become your bride? That’s a despicable act. You’re like a big monkey.”

The gods agreed, and struck her son with a bolt of lightning. Black fur sprouted from his skin, and he turned into a monkey (lutung). A booming voice in the heavens said the boy was doomed to wander the forests (kasarung means “being lost somewhere”) until he found true love. Only then would he recover his original form as a handsome prince.

During his travels, Lutung Kasarung met a princess who had been banished by her eldest half-sister in a power grab in a nearby kingdom. The older sister had cursed her sibling, transforming her into an ugly, deformed girl. The lutung fed the exiled princess, gave her a potion to restore her beauty and helped her regain her kingdom. His loyalty won her heart.

Another bolt of lightning flashed when she introduced the monkey to her family. The lutung turned back into a prince. The couple married.

A song from this story was a favorite of Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno. Decades later, some Indonesians complained that the tale implied that a woman always needs a man’s help to get out of a jam.

Sepandai-pandai tupai melompat, sekali akan gawal juga

However deftly the squirrel jumps, once in a while it falls down = Even maestros make mistakes.

Anjing menyalak takkan menggigit

A barking dog won’t bite = All bark and no bite. All talk and no action.

A widely told story in Indonesia explains why a dog’s nose is always wet. During the Great Flood, a dog tried to secure passage on Noah’s Ark, but turned up late for boarding. There was only room on the open deck, and the shivering hound caught a cold. The dog’s offspring and descendants inherited the sniffles.

Bagai anjing menyalak di ekor gajah

Like a dog that barks at the elephant’s tail = Like banging your head against a wall. A fruitless exercise.

This expression can refer to someone who lacks responsibility or credibility, and has little sense of value. The person tries in vain to impose an opinion or achieve a goal.

Other expressions about futility are menggarami laut (putting salt in the ocean); menjaring angin (netting the wind); and bagai mencincang air (like chopping water).

Kuman di seberang lautan tampak, gajah di pelupuk mata tak tampak

A germ across the sea can be seen, an elephant in front of the eyelid can’t = It’s easy to spot the mistakes of others, but not your own.

Gajah sama gajah beradu, kancil mati di tengah-tengah

When two elephants collide, the mousedeer between them dies = When leaders fight, the little people suffer. Caught in the crossfire.

The tiny mousedeer is a cunning survivor. A staple of Malay folktales, it outsmarts bigger, ferocious creatures such as the tiger and crocodile. It’s like Brer Rabbit, the “catch me if you can” protagonist of folktales that originated in Africa and were collected in the American South in the 19th century. Another equivalent is the crafty coyote of Native American tradition, and the mischievous Anansi the Spider, which dodges the fish and falcon in Ashanti tales from West Africa.

The mousedeer has big, piercing eyes and keen hearing. Its long canines resemble fangs. In some rural areas, it’s a pest because it eats crops.

Bangkai gajah bolehkah ditudung oleh nyiru?

Can a dead elephant be hidden by a flat woven basket? = You can’t hide a bad deed.

Or, “No matter how well you wrap it, a rotten thing will smell right through.”

Sepandai-pandainya membungkus, yang busuk berbau juga.

Gajah mati meninggalkan gading, harimau mati meninggalkan belang, manusia mati meninggalkan nama

A dead elephant leaves its ivory, a dead tiger leaves its stripes, a dead man leaves his name = Man must build a good reputation. He is remembered only by his deeds.

Nyamuk mati, gatal tak lepas

The mosquito dies, the itch doesn’t go away = Memories are forever. You can never get over some things. Stewing in your own juice.

Indonesia is obsessed with obat nyamuk (mosquito medicine): oils, coils, sprays, lotions and electric mats.

Vendors sell traditional medicines billed as cures for the symptoms of malaria and dengue fever. They tout jambu kelutuk, a sweet, red-fleshed guava, as a treatment for dengue, and the leaves of sambiloto, a plant with anti-inflammation properties, as malarial medicine.

Dengue is widespread in Indonesian cities and rural areas during heavy rains. An outbreak in 2004 killed 670 people and sickened nearly 60,000. Malaria is a threat in many areas outside major cities.

The mosquito has a foothold in folklore. A children’s tale ends with the rain telling the gecko that it must let each animal do its job. If rain doesn’t fill potholes in the road with water, then the mosquito won’t have a home. And if the mosquito has nowhere to live, then the gecko won’t have anything to eat.

Cacing telah menjadi ular naga

The worm has turned into a dragon = Rags to riches.

Bagai cacing hendak jadi naga (the worm seeks to be a dragon) refers to a poor person who aspires to be rich.

Chinese revere the dragon as a symbol of prosperity. The beast also symbolizes wealth in Indonesian mythology, which tells of dragon-like creatures that rule the earth and the underworld.

The naga of Javanese lore is a dragon that rules the underworld and hoards immense treasures.

Batak lore from Sumatra tells of an upper world where the Gods rule, a middle-earth for men, and an underworld that is the home of a dragon called Naga Padoha.

The serpent was banished to the underworld after it lost a battle with the Gods. Carvings on the gables of traditional Batak houses depict the story of Naga Padoha.

Indonesia has the real thing: Komodo dragons, giant lizards armed with toxic saliva that serve as a major tourist attraction. Stories about these reptiles circulated among Chinese traders and Dutch sailors centuries ago. The carnivores are solitary, but they gather to feast on a big carcass. They eat snakes, rodents, wild pigs and water buffalo. Sometimes they eat their own. They are efficient eaters, consuming just about every scrap of their prey. They can survive for weeks without a large meal.

It is said that a Swiss baron disappeared during a tour of Komodo island in 1974. He was presumed eaten.