American Buddhist Net

A fairly large part of Indonesia's Aceh society feels ill-at-ease with the presence of transvestites. Religious circles even link them to the fable of Sodom and Gomorrah, a biblical story about the destruction of the towns because of their moral decadence, as indicated, among other things, by the emergence of transvestites, homosexuals and lesbians.

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BANDUNG: An Indonesian court jailed six people under the country’s anti-pornography law for performing an erotic dance at a bar in the early hours of New Year’s Day, a prosecutor said Friday.

The four female dancers, the show promoter and bar manager received a two and half months each for a performance in Bandung, West Java, which violated a controversial anti-pornography law that came into effect in October 2008.

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Sumba Island, between Bali and Australia, was once renowned for its vicious clan warfare, slave raids and headhunting.

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JAKARTA, Indonesia – Scores of Islamic students staged protests outside Jakarta's parliament and in at least three other major Indonesian cities on Friday against President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to this predominantly Muslim country.

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YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA: ILast August when the private Islamic University of Indonesia decided to build a library next to the mosque. In the two decades the university had occupied its 79-acre campus outside Yogyakarta, no temple had ever been found. But chances were high that they were around. By Dec. 11, a construction crew had already removed nearly seven feet of earth. But the soil proved unstable, and the crew decided to dig 20 inches deeper.

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FIVE people were killed and more than 30 remain missing after a landslide buried part of a tea plantation in Indonesia yesterday, an official said.

The landslide struck after heavy rains in flood-ravaged Bandung district south of the capital Jakarta, he said.

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The discovery of the bones of tiny primitive people on an Indonesian island six years ago stunned scientists. Now, further research suggests that the little apemen, not Homo erectus, were the first to leave Africa and colonise other parts of the world, reports Robin McKie

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JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia's leading clerics are considering a religious edict against riding a motorbike without a crash helmet to promote safety on the chaotic and deadly roads of the world's most populous Muslim country.

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TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Immigration office in Aceh Province questioned four US citizens for immigration violations, and planning to deport them soon. The four US citizens were caught by authorities giving free medical services in a region despite holding only tourist visa with no work permit.

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YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — As if on cue, the two Buddhist monks in saffron robes appeared one late afternoon recently, seemingly out of nowhere, to complete the picture of Indonesia’s religious past and present.

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YOGYAKARTA - INDONESIA arrested five alcohol peddlers after 13 people died from drinking methanol-laced liquor on the main island of Java, police said on Tuesday.

'They allegedly caused the deaths of people who have consumed their drinks,' Yogyakarta police chief detective Syaiful Anwar said.

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Just a reminder: Aspartame, which has recently been renamed and is now being marketed as a natural sweetener, upon ingestion breaks down into various residual components including formaldehyde and methanol, which is highly toxic to humans, as evidenced by the alleged deaths of the Indonesians and tourists in the story linked above. Robyn

Indonesia, the third-largest democracy in the world, may be facing gloomy days ahead. In December 2009, the late former president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid led a coalition of civil society organizations in filing a judicial review against the archaic blasphemy law (PNPS No. 1/1965). A move to abolish this problematic law would expectedly further consolidate Indonesia’s democracy, freedom and harmony.

Unfortunately there is strong resistance from the government and several religious and social groups against this move. Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali and Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar officially rejected this judicial review.

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A new analysis shows that a deadly mud volcano in Indonesia may not have been a natural disaster after all. The research lends weight to the controversial theory that the volcano was caused by humans.

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JAKARTA, Indonesia — A recently-erected statue of President Obama as a 10-year-old boy will be removed from a public park here, city officials said Friday, bowing to vociferous criticism on Facebook just a month before Mr. Obama is scheduled to visit Indonesia.

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An influential board of Muslim clerics Thursday demanded the Indonesian government ban a gory movie about a murderous, menstruating ghost, saying it would corrupt the young.

Indonesia's film censorship agency put the release of "Hantu Puncak Datang Bulan" or "The Menstruating Ghost of Puncak" on hold after receiving the request from the Indonesian Ulema Council.

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JAKARTA (AFP) - A new Indonesian horror movie about a menstruating ghost ran foul of the country's highest Islamic body on Thursday.

'Hantu Puncak Datang Bulan' (The Menstruating Ghost of Puncak) made its debut in Jakarta on Thursday and was quickly condemned by senior clerics in the mainly Muslim country.

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Indonesia is cracking down on tourists who wear skimpy clothes to the country's most popular attraction.

Visitors bearing too much skin at Central Java's famous Borobudur Temple will be asked to cover-up under new rules introduced this month.

...A Buddhist temple built around 1200 years ago, Borobudur is Indonesia's single most visited tourist attraction.

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JAKARTA - A tiny Indonesian lizard has become big business for impoverished villagers in Indonesia, where growing Asian demand for reptile-based traditional medicines has driven a boom in gecko farming.

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It is Saturday night, and the streets of Banda Aceh are packed. Cars and motorcycles jostle for space on the roads, while "Bentor" taxis - motorcycles attached to wheelbarrows - scout for passengers.

Like any big city in Indonesia, Banda Aceh comes to life at the weekends. It is hard to believe that this city was once a devastated wasteland, laid to ruin by the powerful tsunami that destroyed everything in its trail just five years ago.

But it is not just the brand new roads and fancy buildings that are different about this place now. There are also the Sharia police. They were set up in Aceh in 2003 but only started their operations in Banda Aceh after the tsunami.

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The hothouse environment of Indonesia is ground zero for a potential bird flu pandemic. But a fight over ownership of flu genes is blocking the efforts to track deadly infections on the move.

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Patent law is another area where the law is grossly out-of-step with the times, with new knowledge. Allowing patents on genes was mostly just a legal mistake. The ways that patent laws on GMO crops are being used against farmers is clearly wrong. Yet it is hard to change those laws now that they are on the books. Another area where the weakness of the law is very clear is the recent Supreme Court decision on corporate "free speech." Five misguided dunderheads change everything for 300 million Americans, and by extension, the rest of the world. Five people who were disagreed with by their four colleagues. Basically, one person decided all of that. This is not a good way to move into the 21st Century. We are supposed to be a nation of laws, but our laws are grossly outdated. ABN

JAKARTA — Indonesian authorities said Monday they are considering a petition to tear down a statue of US President Barack Obama as a boy, only a month after the bronze was unveiled in Jakarta.

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Muslim women in Surabaya, East Java, have flatly rejected a fatwa recently issued by local clerics, who said women changing the color and form of their hair using the rebonding technique is haram (forbidden under Islam).

"Hair coloring and straightening are just a matter of fashion, and have nothing to do with one’s level faith,” university student Ulfa Damayanti, 19, told The Jakarta Post on the weekend, after undergoing a rebonding treatment at a stylist in Surabaya.

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An excursion by local school children in historic Yogyakarta unearthed evidence that could indicate the existence of a temple that local legend holds was called Ngablak, archeologists said on Thursday.

Indung Panca Putra, head of a task force established by the Yogyakarta Archeological Preservation Agency, told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday that they were analyzing hundreds of samples of stones, some of which appeared to be relief panels, or carved stones.

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TIMIKA, Jan 20 (AFP) - Indonesian police have been authorised to take action over a tribal feud in restive Papua province in which three people have been killed with arrows, police said Wednesday.

Police have previously not usually intervened in matters seen as part of the traditional culture in the remote eastern region.

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Archaeologists in Indonesia have uncovered a 1,000-year-old temple that could shed light on the country's Hindu past.

The intricately carved statues and reliefs are some of the best preserved in Indonesia, but the dig is being conducted under tight security to protect the site from well-organised relic thieves.

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AFP -- This photo taken on January 10 and released on January 12 by Media Indonesia Newspaper shows former businesswoman Artalyta Suryani, convicted last year for bribing prosecutors, sitting in her prison cell at a jail for women and children in Jakarta. The Indonesian government - which has promised to stamp out corruption - was embarrassed by revelations that rich and connected prisoners were living in luxury behind bars.

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Religious figures in Indonesia have expressed regret about rampant corruption in the country and have warned corrupt religious donors to clean up their act.

“People involved in corruption are also most likely to engage in spiritual laundering by being the biggest financial contributors to churches and mosques,” Rev. Albertus Patty from the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) told a discussion recently.

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PHUKET, Thailand -- Five years after a massive tsunami swept across East Asia, it's still hard for survivors to come to grips with the death and destruction it wrought.

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BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — She wears a helmet and drives her scooter slowly through the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province, but Yuli is still stopped by the sharia police. Her crime: wearing tight jeans and a blouse deemed "un-Islamic".

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Banda Aceh. Aceh’s Religious Affairs Office has moved to distance itself from its controversial decision to prevent the barongsai , or Chinese lion dance, from being performed during commemorations for the 2004 tsunami by the Chinese Buddhist community in Banda Aceh last Sunday.

“We never banned it,” office head A Rahman TB told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday. “But for Aceh there needs to be an introduction. We need to determine the right time when it can be performed in Aceh, because it’s something new and should first be introduced to the people.

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