BANGKOK - CELEBES - BORNEO - JAVA

Last but not least

The Guitar: a New Wave Hits Indonesia

- Does Nardyao prison remind you of anything?, a young doctor at the French embassy in Bangkok asks me.

Indeed, I have heard of it: that 's where western drug addicts are incarcerated.

- Well, one of your colleagues, "Baba", is being held there as we speak, since his guitar caught the eye of customs officials at the airport. He was transporting a few grams of heroine. He 's therefore been sentenced to 36 years in prison.

- From then on, the person either has to be rich, or have rich parents! In those cases, he is constantly solicited for money. Once he is released, there might very well be other authorities waiting for him, ready to put him back in prison because he doesn 't have a visa. In other words, they milk him for all he 's worth. In "Baba"'s case, however, he doesn 't have any well-to-do connections, and therefore no hope of getting out. With your help, perhaps we can at least manage to give him a guitar.

Years later, thanks to well-organized solidarity on his behalf, "Baba" would obtain an instrument, countless music scores, and a fiancée from Toulouse who, upon finding out about his predicament, began corresponding with him on a basis which was obviously to become quite fruitful.

*******

This tour of the Far East ends with a stay in Indonesia.

In the Celebes, the Torajas are mourning a major figure. The deceased paid for this lavish ceremony, which is to last one month, himself. Countless buffalo will be sacrificed, couples married, and large quantities of palm beer drunk. The jubilation is amazing. This person, like all Torajas, achieved his goal: he died. Life was merely a long preparation for the great beyond. End of life does not mean end of existence. The end is not an ending. Westerners dread death. Others dread the lack of offspring. In this case, the revered deceased left many descendants behind. Songs and spectacular dances accompany the "madabong", which is the name given to all of these festivities. Naturally, teen-agers bring their guitars along.

In Borneo, an oil company lends me a helicopters to avoid having to contend with inaccessible rivers. Dayaks live together in large communes, called "longhouses". In the morning, an ancestral ritual is used as a wake-up call. Two instruments are used for this purpose: the valiha, which looks exactly like its Malagasy predecessor- having made the 6,000 km journey unchanged- and, of course, the guitar.

Java- island of sensuality, refinement, elegance, warm temperaments, grace, and scents

The wayang-orang, a pantomimed ramayana, is accompanied by gentle flute music, and sultry voices. The tempo is sometimes slowed down, to bring about a delicious sense of suspense and curiosity on the part of the listener. Young people, who are also present, flock to the guitar. This enthusiasm is merely the reflection of the west's appeal. There aren't many parallels between the guitar and traditional Javanese music, which is based on idiophone timbres and pentatonic scales.

A bit overwhelmed by the talented musicians that I meet, I arrange for some of these students to come to France. Not surprisingly, after a taste of western culture, they have a tough time readjusting to the lifestyles of their native country when they return there.

******

In Jojakarta, I am utterly amazed by the temple of Borobudur. Aside from the fact that it is one of the greatest masterpieces of Buddhist architecture, its allegorical symbols are also highly conducive to meditation.

The base of this colossal monument is a representation of the khamadhatu. That is the name given to the world of desires and concupiscence- the first level of Man's evolution. One hundred sixty bas-reliefs depict good and evil being committed during this stage of development. This includes certain well-known scenes which are meant to be interpreted figuratively, for, out of context, they are likely to shock and horrify prudish visitors who lack intellectual curiosity.

At the second level, quadrangular platforms evoke the intermediary period, referred to as rapadhutu. Man is freed from desire, but remains attached to the material world.

As for the next level, it consists of three circularplatforms. Sixty-four Buddhas are meditating in "stupas", which resemble bell-shaped nooks. This stage represents wisdom which completely transcends the material world

A giant stupa sits at the top of this monument. It is empty. It represents the "arapadhatu"- nirvana, the world wherein the spirit is freed of the body. This rise to purity is a way of life

"Pure" is the word that best describes music, irresistible. Not so pure, unfortunately, is the professionalism which  all too often tends to go with it. The stupa is surrounded by the base. Art, when it becomes a profession, confronts people with a paradox: it is both a source of pleasure and of incomes. A price is put on beauty. This process is obviously very contradictory in nature. Only material detachment can purify a career. Today, however, the artist's life -- interstitial -- does not fit any template. Anguish is nevertheless accepted as being the motivating factor, guaranteeing creative fertility, as opposed to the amateur, whose production is softened by a pampered lifestyle. The west enjoys feeding its fantasies with grief and anguish

As far as I'm concerned, however, music is not a marginal refuge. Sometimes, I am even suspicious of being just normal. This ambiguity and confusion perplexes me. I've managed to walk a fine line, which has enabled me to make my dreams a reality. Now, however, I hesitate between purpose and direction, reassurance and satisfaction -- in short, between the end and the means.

Africans, for instance, "experience" music, which is simultaneously a source of deliverance and alienation. "He who knows the essence of his lute (vina), who masters musical intervals (shrutis) and who understands rhythmic cycles, effortlessly has his spirit set free.", Indians like to say. Spinoza 's thoughts on the subject were even more drastic: "To play the violin is to get closer to God"

OVER TO YOU.