Surakarta, Indonesia News

Last month I travelled around Jakarta with a troupe of classical javanese dancers and a gang of groupies, all hoping to help conserve the capitol's last Wayang Wong classical Javanese Dance theatre - the Bharata Purwa, on the road to Ancol.

In an era of must-have-this-now-at-the-cheapest-price-who-cares-about-the-country-of-origin-and-how-their- -labor-laws-coerce-workforces-to-crank-out-products-for-shockingly-low-cost-as-fast-as- inhumanely -possible, Ethnotek is an infernal bonfire of ethics, integrity and respect.

Leave it to the sun: Fabrics are spread to dry after they are boiled. Photo by Fahmi Anhar/The Jakarta Post The hand-painted batik designs of Lasem, a small district in the coastal regency of Rembang in northern Central Java, may not be as popular as those of Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Pekalongan, Cirebon or Madura.

In Central Java, Surakarta's rich Javanese culture is manifested, among other ways, in the city being the center of the Batik industry.

'Fire Flower' is part of the new exhibition "Isnia - Symbols of Nature & Man: A Journey of 40,000 Years" on display at The Island Gallery in May.