The Sultan's Palace... and Being Unmanned with the Bamboo Knife

So, its been a busy week, but I had to write about this story we got out of our trip to Yogyakarta last week.  In the middle of the town is the Sultan's Palace, one of the sights on Erin's must-see list.  We get to the palace and hire a tour guide.  We were a bit excited for this one, palaces and such can be pretty cool.  We soon learn that the Sultan who lives here is only in charge of the Yogyakarta area, so its not really a big deal of a palace.

As we are walking around the palace, the tour guide is giving us stories of the traditions and ceremonies that happen in each of the spaces.  First there is the covered public ballroom type area that hosts the annual after Ramadan celebration.  Showing us this area somehow turned into the tour guide giving us just a little too much information about his family (his wife is catholic, so he celebrates Ramadan and Christmas in his house, just in case you were curious).

We continue through the palace to a display of some mannequins dressed in traditional Sultan-wear.  Including the princely outfit and the sultan's guard uniforms (Beefeaters these were not).

Ok, so you get the idea, we are on a tour of a palace, getting the run of the mill descriptions from the tour guide.  That is when we come to the part of the tour which focuses on the circumcision celebration.  There is a room in the palace just for this, and the tour guide gives us the rundown.  Apparently the circumcision of a prince is a public event held in the palace when the prince turns 14- but this hasn't happened in a while because the illustrious Sultan has 5 daughters. Sounds awkward for everyone involved. But it gets worse...  the bombshell, this tour guide guy decides to proudly tell us that he himself was circumcised when he was 10.... WITH A BAMBOO KNIFE.

I couldn't tell you what happened the rest of the tour, and I am now in pain again just reliving that moment.

Seriously.... A BAMBOO KNIFE?????

Here is our faithful tourguide. Doesn't Dave look thrilled to be learning about the colors of the pillar?

This is the hall of public circumcision. 

He really needed a cold Bintang after the experience.