Jemparingan: Javanese archery

Once you have been accepted into a jemparingan group, in order to gain some skills you should practice regularly. I would say that each person develops his own technique, you are taught the grounds yet it is up to you to choose what technique or style suits you the best. When you start getting confident and familiar with the practice, eventually you will be invited to join a Gladen . A Gladen or competition is carried out at some sasana's court or a field adapted to it. They are various all around Jogjakarta and surroundings. Each gladen has rules, however between the basic ones are: The distance to the target is up to 30 meters. The bandul or target has 3 parts with different score: the upper red part (molo): 3 points; middle yellow part (neck/leher): 2 points; the white part (body): 1 point. Only four arrows can be shot. The number of rounds is 20. Contestants should use (sometimes mandatorily) traditional javanese clothes (blangkon, sufjan, jarik). Smoking while picking the arro...

Sooner or later if you are a consistent searcher you will find what you were looking for. After asking and walking around Jogjakarta I easily found jemparingan communities all around the city. In Tamantirto, at Sasana Wisangeni I started to practice it. When I moved out to other neighborhood, I found another place (sasana): Sasana Marto (Manunggal Rasa Tamtama). If you are wondering how can you join to these communities, it is indeed quite easy: you only need to come to a practice place and talk with the person in charge. Sometimes you do not even have to pay a little amount for registration, and if you do, it is only once time payment. Members of the community will teach you the technique and provide you with a bow and arrows for you to practice. If you are engaged to this activity and start enjoying it, you can acquire your own gendewo (bow) and anak panah (arrows). They will help you to get them at a reasonable prize: around 700 thousand rupias for the bow, and 300 thousand rupias f...

Beyond the Bullseye Jemparingan is more than just hitting the target. During these few months I have been exploring the symbolism embedded in this ancient art. The court, the target, the archer's position and movements, the bow and arrows, etc., have a deep meaning. At the beginning, I used to focus on the technique, acquiring a good technique to shoot arrows and get the target or the area close to the target. After a while, I realized that the disposition the shot arrows is a radiography of yourself: of your state of being, your expectations, your inner feeling, how calm you are, how focused you are... More important than getting on the target, became the idea of that all my arrows (4 of them in a round) should be targeted on only one spot. It shows you the level of your concentration and calmness of your heart. Breathing is essential: before releasing the arrow, you have to get one with the target (bandul), hold your breath and connect your heart ( manah ) with the target. It is ...