Last Sunday, 27th Dec 2015 I went to Pohsarang with my family (mom, sister and brother's family). It took around 30 minutes driving from Kediri city (10 km), located on the slopes of Mount Wilis with altitude of 400 meters above sea level. It's drizzling when we arrived, so we brought umbrella. It was the first visit for my cousins to the Catholic Sacred Place, Pohsarang, all of them looked very eager and excited.
Pohsarang church complex presented the Christian faith and Catholic places of worship in the local culture. The beautiful buildings is unique and a monumental work that deserves to be preserved and maintained. It's build by Henri Maclaine Pont who cared about the environment, so the building is very sustainable with the surroundings. All aspects including local cultural and religious philosophy incorporated in the form of architecture with highly aligned. Unfortunately there was no mass when we arrived, so the church was closed, anyway we still could see the altar from the fence. There was a cross ventilation on the ceiling which could make the sun shines through the room.
At the right side there was a set of "gamelan" to accompany the choirs during mass. My cousins racing to climb the stage to try beating the gamelan to provide sound. They were enthusiastic to try different tools, anyway we forced them to go down, as it's in sacred place, not for playing around.
We continued going down to the bigger mass area, where there was also an altar with bird form ventilation on the roof. It had bigger space for the people to join the ceremony, there was a podium made from wood to read the bible and for the pastor giving a sermon. My little niece was very cute, she was carried by her father to reach the high podium, closing her eyes and clasped her hands to pray seriously.
Mary cave which was popular as "Gua Maria Lourdes Puhsarang" as the main destination to make devotion to Mother Mary, people often praying with rosary. To reach this place we had to go through a path which has many stores on the left and right side of the path. Most of them were selling spiritual accessories, some of them also sold food or souvenirs. If you don't bring any bottle for the sacred water, you could buy jerry can in the store. Also candle for praying, all praying tools are available. Some benches were available at the park.
The Mary statue height was 3.5 metres, it's imitation of Mary statue in Lourdes. You could lit the candle right below of the statues and kneel or stand in front of them. My cousins liked to blow the candle as if the candles on the tart cake when they had birthday, so I had to keep them far from the candle, and informed them that it's for praying not for birthday cake :-) Beside the statue there were some water holy water which would come out based on motion sensor, anyway there were some normal taps if you would like the easier way. The water was very fresh and clean, it's nice to drink and wash our face with the water to refresh. You may also keep some of them in the water or jerry can to bring home. Most people believe that the holy water could heal diseases.
Stations of the Cross contains of 14 stops. Golden human-size statues at every station describing how Jesus suffered long time ago from death punishment until buried. In every station you could lit the candle in front of the statue. The place was hilly, many stairs to go, my cousins loved to run up and down, we were afraid that they could fall down, we had to warn them many times to be careful. Many big trees available, we could walk under the shade of the trees to avoid sun shine. A mausoleum provided for passed-away pastors, and a columbarium to keep the ashes of cremated Catholic bodies. If you would like to stay for meditation or praying, there is also some lodges around the area. This beautiful place is not only good for praying, but it's also a good place to reset the mood as they still keep maintaining the natural green place. Not only for Catholic people, but now it becomes the popular tourism place for public in Kediri.
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