After we were refused entry to the Yadnya Kasada Festival, we searched for alternative activities, since we could not enter the festival boundaries. The local guide asked permission for us to attend the Reception Night, where East Java governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa, the first woman governor in Java, would be attending. She was being inaugurated as an Honorary Citizen of the Tengger Tribe Community, and performed various duties bestowed as governor including handing out money to the poor and thanking politicians. Unfortunately, we were told it would be a dance festival… which it was definitely not…

In Indonesia, the elected governors are treated like kings, so she had a long procession of cars following her, wherever she went, including when she was staying at the same hotel where we stayed. She was an hour late arriving, so everyone had to just sit and wait for her to finally appear.

It turned out that the Reception lasted 90 minutes: 80 minutes of speeches by government officials, and only 10 minutes of the dancing by University students that we had expected to watch.

Burt, Dave and the local guide wore the obligatory “udeng” head dress, and there were a horde of photographers capturing every moment of the event (lower-left).

The day before the event, we did a walking tour of the village of Tengger, which is surrounded by other Hindu villages in the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in Eastern Java. 95% of the people in this area is Hindu, with some Christian, Buddhists, and muslim.

We were invited to see the interiors of a couple of Tanggerese homes, to watch them make offerings for the upcoming Festival. Inside the homes, they still cook with coal and wood, though a few homes do have television. Goats and other animals live with the family (lower-right).

In the village, people return after working in the field. There is a group of retired Tanggerese who spend their entire time just sitting on the steps and downtown and watch people (lower-right).