Why Indonesians Marry Stones (5 photos)

In West Java, in Majalengka, there is a mountain where… stone weddings are regularly held! Locals have been holding them regularly since 2012.





There are about five stone tents here, do they get married in five?

What do you think, is this some kind of local belief of the people under the mountain? Like, if you marry the stones, they will stick together and Mount Tilu will not collapse?

In fact, this is a modern invention to praise "Bhineka Tunggal Ika". This is an Indonesian concept that means unity in diversity. Sometimes in Indonesia there are conflicts due to beliefs, and so the stone wedding should be available for unification of all residents, regardless of beliefs. After all, there can be no disputes over geology.



Celebrating a wedding under Mount Tulu

How the stone wedding goes

It all starts with a bamboo orchestra, where the local population plays bamboo. To its accompaniment, all visitors collect stones, many bring stones from their regions to marry them at a common stone wedding.

They even come with their own stones from Iceland to make an “inter-stone” marriage of two islands.

The main principle is that after the wedding ceremony, different groups and dance troupes perform. All with one goal – to create such beauty that the hearts of even stones can soften.





The stones brought are laid out in two piles at the edges of the altar for the ceremony

Since everyone was allowed, very soon this festival became a platform for contemporary arts and groups. Can you imagine, you can just show up on a mountain with your band and everyone will listen to you? No new band would refuse that.

So the almost "primitive" tradition of marrying things was transported to a contemporary art festival. How flexibly they did it.

A Frank Saying about Java



National Dancers Came to Perform at a Wedding

By the way, if there is a funny saying in Java. Usually everyone says about their country that when God created it, he created it as if for himself and in general it is the best.

In Java, they say:

"When God created Bandung, he smiled. But when he created Majalengka, he was in a hurry." It's funny. It means that to get any mineral, any natural resource, you have to work very hard here, dig into the mountains, dig up the mountain, nothing comes easy. "We are rich in natural resources, but they are all raw," say the locals.

In general, Indonesians marry stones for "unity in diversity", and also because they think it's cool. No one there really believes that all sorts of spirits live in stones.



And in India, for good weather, they marry frogs. In general, if you want a wedding, you can marry anyone!