Padang (ANTARA) - Dozens of youth from various countries participating in the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Art and Culture Scholarship Program (BSBI) will study the Minangkabau culture for three months in Padang City, W. Sumatra.
Head of Culture of W. Sumatra Gemala Ranti in Padang, Tuesday, said that during their stay in W. Sumatra they would be introduced about the variety of Minangkabau traditional arts and culture at Syofyani Studio in Air Tawar, Padang City.
In addition to learning art and culture they will also visit a number of tourist attractions and expose them through social media and make reports on every activity carried out.
According to her, the arrival of dozens of young people from various countries will provide many benefits for W. Sumatra, because their presence will further introduce tourism objects and the variety of Minangkabau culture to international.
These dozens of young people are from Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, India, Bulgaria, Portugal, Poland, Bosnia Herzegovina, Australia, PNG, Fiji and Indonesia. They will be in W. Sumatra from May to August 2019.
Whenever they are in their countries, they will certainly promote the realm of Minang and its culture to others.
"While they are still here, they have been exposed through social media, if there are 12 participating countries, the tourism potential of W. Sumatra will spread everywhere," she said.
From the recognition of the participants, there were three people who had long hoped to be able to visit W. Sumatra, and they were very happy because their wishes had been fulfilled through this program.
One of the participants of BSBI program from Australia, Isabelle Eva Torrier said that she had wanted to see the realm of Minang for a long time, because all this time she had only seen the beauty of W. Sumatra from the television screen.
“Finally, now I am in W. Sumatra, I will expose the beauty of nature and the variety of unique traditional arts," she said.
The BSBI program is a regular scholarship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which has been running since 2003 and has produced as many as 776 alumni from 69 countries in the world.
This year is the 17th program with the theme "Mosaic of Indonesia". This year there are 72 scholarship recipients from 42 countries, and six of them are from Indonesia.
The 72 scholarship recipients were distributed to various regions in Indonesia, and in W. Sumatra there were 12 people.
During the next three months these participants will feel life in W. Sumatra, join in celebrating the 74th anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia, celebrating religious holidays such as Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Vesak holidays, and others. (*)
Translated by: Internship student of ANTARA SUMBAR 2019
Dozens of youth from BSBI programs learned about Minangkabau cultural arts
Dozens of participants in the Indonesian Arts and Culture Scholarship Program (BSBI) took photos together on the open stage of the W. Sumatra Cultural Building in Padang. They will be in Ranah Minang for three months to study Minangkabau arts and culture. (Antara Sumbar /Mutiara Ramadhani)
