I love reading. One of my favourite writer is Dewi Lestari (Dee). She is an Indonesian brilliant writer. I started to read Supernova when I was in High School (about 2001) and I always wait the next chapter of Supernova. The last series was published last year. It was so long, right? But, worthed to wait.

Thus, I can say that I grow up with Supernova. When Dee had a son and named Keenan Avalokita Kirana, suddenly I was in love with the name of “Avalokita”. The meaning was affection. I made it as my facebook account name. Hahaha. Sound silly? Yes!

Later, I knew that Avalokita was one of Buddhist name. In Chinese it is sometimes associated with Kwan Im, the Goddes of generousity and affection.

Someday, when I wanted to go to Karimunjawa, I decided to visit Semarang, which closed to it. I found out that there was a Pagoda Avalokitesvara. Wow, I must visit it for the sake of my facebook account name. Thanks God, my travel mates were agreed.

We rode a bus from Surabaya to Solo, then continued to Semarang. Actually there was a bus from Surabaya to Semarang directly, but we did not get it. Since it was holiday season.

The pagoda was located at Perintis Kemerdekaan Street, Watugong, Semarang. The three of us did not know exactly the location. Therefore, we asked the bus conductor to let us knew if we had already in the area.

When we were googling, from Solo the pagoda was located outside Semarang. If we had already come at Semarang city, meant that we missed the pagoda. We can not back, because there was no time anymore. We should catched the boat to Karimunjawa on the next morning. Hence, when in the area, I stared to search the pagoda. Fortunately, because of the height, I can see it from far away. I was glad we did not miss it.

The pagoda was located in a vihara complex. Because of the high building and the red colour, the pagoda was eye catchy. It was the highest pagoda (45 metres with seven levels) in Indonesia based on Indonesian Record Museum (MURI). In the yard, I saw the Buddha statue under the bodhi tree. Some people prayed there.

Beside that, there were many statues in this pagoda. The highest was Kwan Im Goddes in the middle of the room. It was the center of attraction and of course for praying. Therefore we should be careful if we wanted to take picture.

In the outside pagoda, there were many Buddha statues around. If you have a special prayer, you should pray in the right Buddha. For example, if you want to have a daughter, pray in the Buddha that brought a baby girl. Mostly, people who prayed in here was asking for a mate, because you know what was Avalokitesvara meant.

After visit the pagoda, I felt more attached with Avalokita. Even my reason sounds silly to come to this pagoda, I do not care. There was no reason, not to travel.

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