Where There Be Dragons: Indonesia - Community, Culture and Conservation Indonesia Program

Dragons Indonesia semester gap year program begins in the cultural and artistic heart of the island of Java, the city of Yogyakarta. Rising like a sentinel over the rice fields, it is said that the sacred volcano Mount Merapi is the source of a line of power that connects the Northern reaches of Yogyakarta to the gods of the sea off the southern coast. Between these two points lies the palace of Yogyakarta’s Sultan, a beloved figure who embodies the perspective of a people who practice a form of Islam that absorbed elements of early Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms. A dynamic center of cultural preservation and learning, the modern and the ancient mingle on Yogyakarta’s streets, where a diverse community from points all over Indonesia mix in a social world informed by the Javanese philosophy of living.