4th April at Sanya:
(photo: once upon a time in 1990)

Selain tata cara masak, leluhur kita juga mewariskan tata cara memakan makanan, dan setelah makan.

Our ancient traditions are rich in many fields of life including how to cook and how to eat. We have already spoken many times about how to cook properly. Now we talk about how we should eat.

Different societies have their different dos and don’ts. Different societies have their own different ways to eat and drink. The more educated societies, will behave in a proper way and the less-educated societies will behave in a friendly and in a happy manner. They will have another behaviour, where they enjoy in a more innocent way. That is also very good. The more educated societies will do in a proper way and sometimes the way to behave is also quite complicated. The non educated societies enjoy in a good, simple and lovely way.

For example, in some of our societies you should eat or drink with sound. If you don’t make any sound, it might mean that you are not enjoying the food or you are insulting their tradition. It’s a good lovely society.

The more educated society would have their proper ways in how to eat such as how to sit, where to sit, which direction to face while sitting etc. Another example of this tradition from this type of society is that you cannot eat after coming from the toilet, or if you move your bowels, you need to take a bath properly, sit in front of the food and then pray to God, only then can you eat. You should not eat with the clothes that you have used in the toilet. If so, it will be an insult to the tradition. During eating you should not talk, not make noise, eat food with no sound and with your mouth closed. There are many more points to remember before eating.

After eating, you cannot just leave your seat. You should say a prayer and you should wash your own plate and dishes instead of leaving them in the kitchen. It is believed that it will lead to poverty if you do not wash your plate after you eat. Your mouth and hands should be washed with water after you eat.

The most important is to always thank God and pray to God that you and other living beings will always get food in life. When you are eating, be together with the food, because food is a blessing from God and food is God. Food needs to be respected. For example, if the prime minister is here in front of you, you will leave everyone just to be with him. We should apply this as well to food when we are eating. Just be with the food with a calm and peaceful mind, and…. of course without mobile…