Naskah:Fatris MF/Foto:Nicko Angra http://garudamagazine.com/travelnotes.php?id=295 Many children living in Dieng miraculously have dreadlocked hair, despite the fact that their parents have straight locks. Fatris MF and photographer Nicko Angra paid a visit to the source of this great mystery. “We don’t ever cut their hair. In fact, even tidying it up is forbidden. It is a prohibited act,” explained Nurofik upon my arrival at Dieng in Central Java. Several of the children that I encountered in the little alleyways of Dieng were not the same as their peers. Their hair doesn’t grow as expected but instead sprouts in dreadlocks, a bit like Bob Marley’s. Why do some of the youngsters here have dreadlocks? Nobody knows, however the parents of these children have straight hair. “These children are followed by the spirit of Mbah Tumenggung Kolodite. Why this is so, I don’t really know.” This is indeed what the parents of these dreadlocked youngsters believe. At certain times, when they cannot get what they want, these follicular miracles behave strangely and their hair stands up as if a high-voltage electrical current is being passed through it. To get proper answers to my questions, I go and see an old man by the name of Rusmanto. “Why did you come to see me while the people here do not like to do so?” Rusmanto asked coldly when I visited him in his house. People call him mbah, meaning “grandfather”. I explained to him the purpose of my visit: to glean information about Dieng and also about those unusual junior dreadlocks. Mbah Rusmanto finally smiled. “No one, let alone a young person like yourself, has ever wanted to visit me before to get this kind of information,” he said in a flat tone.
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