THE EXCURSION TO TAKOVO AND GORNJI MILANOVAC
NUSANTARA went on its September excursion to the freedom-loving region of Rudnik and Takovo – on Saturday, September 15th 2018, members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship travelled to Takovo and Gornji Milanovac!
That Saturday, the excursionists first visited the Museum of the Second Serbian Uprising in Takovo. About the Museum itself, as well as about the Second Serbian Uprising and its principal participants the visitors were told an inspired story by Mr. Milan Brajović, local curator. A visit to Takovo that wouldn’t include a tour of the famed wooden church would be inconceivable. Beside the wooden church, consecrated to St. George, members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship saw the illustrious stone on which duke Miloš Obrenović, native of the Rudnik region, announced the beginning of the Second Serbian Uprising on the religious holiday of Cveti in 1815.
The Vujan monastery was a real revelation to many that Saturday. Named after the nearby mountain, the monastery dating from 1805, erected by rebels, never demolished and never known to Turks, has been reputed for the miraculous bones of an unknown saint. The magical power of the relics of a monk-hermit from Vujan, whose name was not recorded, was also revealed to the late Serbian Patriarch Pavle while being a young monk. Members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship heard a true story about the recovery of Gojko Stojčević, young novice at that time, who had initiated his monastic life in 1944. Mr. Jovan Nikitović, archimandrite of the Vujan temple, showed the excursionists a cross carved by the late Patriarch Pavle as a sign of gratitude for his healing. The cross was carved in oak tree, contains a dedication in Church-Slavonic on the back and represents one of Vujan’s most valuable relics.
A scheduled visit to the House of Serbian-Norwegian Friendship was cancelled due to organizational negligence of the hosts, so members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship headed towards Gornji Milanovac. Accompanied by Mrs. Vesna Ćurčić, local guide, the excursionists toured downtown and in the back yard of the Church of the Holy Trinity heard a story about both the church itself and Gornji Milanovac, its history and the local state of affairs in the centre of the Takovo and Rudnik region.
The excursion was continued at the „Zavičaj“ ethno household in the Trudelj village on Rudnik, where members of the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship had a chance to taste local specialities for lunch and have some rest in untouched nature. As NUSANTARA celebrates 15 years of its foundation this year, the owner of the ethno household made a special cake for the Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship. In the presence of 12 guests from Indonesia, which has been the highest number of foreign guests taken on an excursion by the Association until now, the excursionists wished long years of existence, continuity and togetherness for themselves and the NUSANTARA Association of Serbian-Indonesian Friendship!
Biljana Đorđević