humiliate others in public, whatever the circumstances. Humiliation tarnishes “face,” or honor, like a smear of charcoal.
Many Indonesians think a daughter who gets pregnant out of wedlock has smeared her family’s face with charcoal.
Jangan coreng mukaku (Don’t smear my face) means: Don’t humiliate me.
Malu means shy or ashamed or embarrassed, and implies a loss of face.
“I am so ashamed. I’ve lost face. Where could I put my face?” whimpers a husband whose wife has embarrassed him in front of his boss.
Saya malu. Saya kehilangan muka. Muka saya mau taruh di mana?
“Wanting face” = Horny. Turned on.
Young people use this expression to indicate sexual desire.
Nowadays, mupeng refers to desire for anything, including inanimate objects:
“Look at him and that latest WiFi laptop. He has such a wanting face.”
Lihat dia dan laptop wifi terbaru. Mupeng banget.
Mata (Eyes)
Eye playing. Flirting/checking out/winking.
Mata ijo are green eyes, a sign of yearning. Indonesians associate green with greed. The term combines Indonesian (mata; eyes) and Javanese (ijo; green), an example of how ethnic languages mix with the national language.
A more common expression for greed is mata duitan (money eyes). It describes a man or woman who seeks a rich lover or spouse.
Mata gelap (dark eyes) indicate violent anger, or possession by an evil spirit. Mata hati is heart’s eye, or conscience.
Someone who ogles an object of desire, often sexual, is mata keranjang (basket eyes). He shops with his eyes, just as a shopper with a basket peruses market produce. The term suggests that the basketsized eyes of the beholder can hold lots of people in their gaze.
The expression sounds like mata ke ranjang (from the eyes to the bed), a possible reference to the come-hither look that lures sexual partners into the sack.
A troll with a voracious appetite in folktales on Java and Bali is Buto Ijo, green giant in Javanese.
Three kinds of buto symbolize the ills of the world: Buto Ijo represents thievery and corruption, Buto Kala (time giant) stands for lust, and Buto Cakil (fanged giant) is a symbol of rage.
Buto Ijo is a villain in a folktale about a girl called Timun Mas (Golden Cucumber). The giant gave a magical cucumber seed to an old couple, telling them it would yield a baby girl if planted. The giant bestowed the gift on the condition that he could eat the girl when she turned 17 years old. The couple planted the seed, and it grew into a big cucumber. Out popped Timun Mas.
When Buto Ijo returned for his prize 17 years later, the couple urged their beautiful girl to flee, and gave her a small bag to assist her escape.
With the giant in pursuit, Timun Mas drew a handful of salt from the bag and flung it, turning hard ground into water. The giant floundered across. Then the teenager tossed chili pepper seeds from the bag, and a thorny bush briefly entangled the giant. Timun Mas hurled some cucumber seeds, and a cucumber field sprouted instantly.
Tired and hungry, the giant sat down to chew on the cucumbers. Soon he gave chase again, and Timun Mas lobbed terasi (shrimp paste) from the bag. The paste turned the ground into quicksand that swallowed up Buto Ijo.
Timun Mas returned to her parents and lived happily.
Each ethnic group in Indonesia has its own set of monsters in its own language, and Buto Ijo goes by different names elsewhere.
Another giant, Buto Kala, overheard the gods talk about amerta, the elixir of immortality. He disguised himself as a god and joined the gods as they sipped the holy water. After Buto Kala tasted the magic water, a god realized he was an impostor and cut off his head. The immortal, empowered head fell in love with the moon goddess, Dewi Ratih. She refused him, and Buto swallowed her in a jealous rage. Ratih escaped through Buto’s severed neck, but the stubborn giant wouldn’t give up, and he chases the goddess to this day. Balinese and Javanese say an eclipse of the moon signals that he has swallowed her, but not for long.
Buto Cakil, a giant with fangs that jut from a protruding lower jaw, makes regular appearances in traditional puppet shows. A typical performance features a battle between a knight and giants led by Buto Cakil. The good knight slaughters Buto Cakil in a triumph of good over evil.
“Eyes asleep, the pillow awakes” = When the cat’s away, the mice will play.
The expression refers to a husband or wife who has an affair while the spouse is off guard. The saying was originally meant for a wife who cheated on her husband, but now it applies to both genders.
Lost in the eyes, don’t lose in the heart.
Hopefully, absence makes the heart grow fonder. This expression warns against the dangers of out of sight, out of mind.
“Don’t forget me, sweetheart,” singers croon.
Hilang di mata, di hati jangan, sayang.
The expression is old. A more up-to-date version is jauh di mata, dekat di hati (far from the eyes, close to the heart).
Hidung (Nose)
Cut nose, ruin face.
Shame your family, and you shame yourself. The nose is similar to your family: one is in the center of your face, and the other is in the center of your life.
“Like having a child with big nose” (seperti beranak besar hidung) means you are conceited because you’re always flaunting what you have.
Many Indonesians worry that their noses are small and flat. Some mothers pinch their babies’ noses upwards so they don’t suffer the fate of kids deemed to have ugly, flat noses.
Haji Djedje, an elderly paranormal with blow-dried hair and a love of colorful shirts, turned the flat noses of his clients into Roman ones. Supposedly aided by special powers, he massaged a nose with the tips of his fingers over the course of several visits to his clinic. He also applied a nose clip padded with two rolls of cotton wool. Djdje claimed the result—a pointed, assertive nose—needed a touchup after two years. He also sold lotion that lightens the skin. His client base included many transvestites, who made him the guest of honor at a cross-dressing show in Jakarta in 2002.
West Javanese believed the nose indicated character, saying:
“You are how your nose is.”
Jalma mah kumaha irungna.
West Javanese traditional puppets are divided into broad-nosed giants who are mean and evil, and pointy-nosed knights who personify goodness.
At a mass prayer in West Java during parliamentary elections in 2004, Indonesian Muslim preachers asked God to curse the anfun kabir, Arabic for si hidung besar (big nose)—those who will lead Indonesians astray. The preachers appeared to refer to abstract evil, rather than an individual