Posts
Our journey in Turkey begins with our arrival at Istanbul airport on Saturady morning, 30 May 2009. From there we took a connecting flight to Adana in the south eastern part of Turkey.
The flight from Istanbul took almost one and a half hours, something like from KK to Kuching. We arrived at Adana airport late morning. It's just a small airport serving domestic flights, may be the size of the old Tawau or Sandakan airport.
From the airport, we headed straight to Tarsus, the birth place of St Paul (where he was known as Saul before his conversion). Hence, he was known as Paul of Tarsus. Because it was his birth place where he grew up, most Trail of St Paul pilgrimages begin here. It was about an hour's drive from the Adana airport on the tour bus.
Needless to say, Tarsus is an old and historic town; bearing in mind that Paul lived some 2,000 years ago. So I leave it to you to imagine what it must have looked like. I'll of course insert some photos later on, but not now in order to save time as images uploading is time-consuming. However, even though we are here, we still need a lot of imagination as the town during St Paul's time was buried a few meters below the present road level.
During St Paul's time, Tarsus was a university city surpassing even Athens and Alenxandria, named after Alexandra the Great. Cicero was the governor here circa 51-50 BC. So you can imagine how rich Tarsus's cultural and educational history is.
Upon arrival at Tarsus late Saturday morning, we headed straight for St. Paul's church. Rev. Fr. Fundes conducted our first Mass in Turkey there. It was refreshing and sentimental as Kadazan and Malay hymns were sung there. Imagine Kadazan and Malay hymns being sung half-way across the globe from Sabah! It made me homesick. As we entered the Church I felt as if I was filled with the holy spirit. I was humbled and overcome with awe and admiration and thanked God that I was actually there. However, despite its name, don't expect a big building. Just an ordinary-sized church or a chapel.
However, what saddened us what the fact that despite once being the bustling center of Christianity in Anatolia (as Turkey was known during Biblical times), only 3 (repeat three) Catholics remained in Tarsus today! Even then the trio are non-Turks. They are nuns from Italy! They were allowed to stay there by the Turkish government only to maintain it or to be caretaker especially for pilgrims. In other words it's a non-functioning church (there are many of these in Turkey). They exist only for tourists as the Turkish government certainly does not mind the huge revenue from tourism annually. By the way, 99% of Turkey's 70 million population are Muslims, so you can understand why. How come? Ask history! Blame history! And because there are no Turkish Christians remaining in Tarsus, the 3 nuns don't even wear their head dress/scarf when they go out of the church compound as otherwise curious eyes would be on them whenever they went. They would look like aliens to the Turks!
However, before you have a negative impression of the Turkish government, let me tell you this. Despite being a Muslim country, Turkey does not practise Syariah laws unlike in Malaysia. In other words, there is no Syariah court and every dispute goes to the civil court. For this, the Muslim Turks have to thank the father of modern Turkey, Ataturk, which sounds a bit like atuk (grandfather in Malaysia). This is appropriately so, as Ataturk is revered by the Turks and everywhere you go in Turkey you see hjis image or statutes at roundabouts. He is to Turkey what Mahatma Ghandi was to India and Dr Mahathir or our first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman is to Malaysia.
Before you have a negative image of the Turskih government too, let me also tell you this. Despite what I have said so far, there is no religious persecution in Turkey. The fact that there are only few Christians or Catholics remaining in Turkey today is not the fault of the present government or generation. As I have said, blame it on history and the complacency and disunity of Christians then. A fellow-pilgrim agreed with me that sometimes a little bit of persecution can be a blessing in disguise for it unites and strengthens the Christians or for that matter the Muslims if it's put the other way round.
Closer to home, a case in point is Sabah during Alliance-Usno time. To cut the long story short, in the 1976 state general election the majority of Christians in Sabah did not hesitate to give their votes to Berjaya, thus putting the 9-month-old party into power. In 1985, history repeated itself when the majority of Sabah Christians gave their votes to PBS thus putting this one-and-a-half month old party into power. But what happened after PBS was returned to power a second and third time? Its leaders and members began to be complacent and disunite until it was 'toppled' by a new government. I once served a politician who was a historian by training and he was very fond of saying "History always repeats itself". How true! What happened to Christians in Turkey or Sabah, it's all the same.
Coming back to the Turks, they are very liberal despite being Muslims, as they themselves put it; partly thanks to the civil laws and not syariah laws that they practise. Just imagine, our tour guide is a Muslim; our tour bus driver is a Muslim; and so on and so worth. Mind you, I think our Muslim tour guide knows more about the Bible and biblical history/sites than a lot of so-called Christians in Sabah! Even the garderner of the church we visited was Muslim! Can you imagine that happening in Malaysia?
But of course, it is the right of other Muslim countries including Malaysia to practise Syariah laws or be less liberal. What is good for Turkey is not necessarily good for others. What is applicable to Turks is not necessarily applicable to others. Afterall, the Turks are somewhere between Asians and Europeans, including their exotic looks; just as part of Istanbul is in Europoe and the other part is in Asia. But mind you, our tour guide is proud of the fact that he is Asian.
After Mass at St Paul's church, we walked to the nearby St Paul's well where he lived. There is water still from the well and as most pilgrims do, they washed their face with fresh water drawn from it. After which we went for lunch in the nearby Turkish restaurant. It was our first meal in Turkey and so evetrybody was excited to find out what's in store. Well, for our first meal, what's else did our host prepared for us if not Kebab! As our tour guide said, Turkey just like the Arab countries, is the Land of Kebab. Kebab is to the Arab world what the Roti Cenai and Pau are to Malaysians. It's their national dish. And what goes with the kebab? What else? Lamb!
We were told that the real Kebab comes with minced lamb. It can also come with others like chicken but then the taste wouldn't be as authentic or Turkish. For our sake, rice is included but of course don't expect the quantity or taste to be like ours. In order to persuade us to choose the lamb, our tour guide assured as that Turkish lamb is not as smelly as others in the world as they had taken their Turkish Bath before being slaughtered! Our tour guide is indeed a joker. He has to be. Otherwise imagine how dull the trip would be, not to mention falling asleep on the bus.
By the way, we had our lunch on the balcony of the first floor of a restaurant overlooking what's left of the old Tarsus of 2,000 years ago. We could still see a section of the old road and some ruins. But remember, those were a few meters below the present road level. The old road still looks good, it must have be built by the top contractor in those days!
After lunch, we embarked on a long and tiring drive to Antioch in the Hatay province, passing Iskanderun (formerly Alexandria or Alexanderetta named after Alexander the Great) along the way. Iskanderun is on the coast and if you remember your history, one of the many Alexander battles was fought here.
But I won't elaborate about Antioch. That would be the next chapter. Besides, got to get ready for breakfast and tour. I finally found the time and energy to blog, bearing in mind that travelling is tiring. It's now 6.30am Turkish time and I have had my netbook on my lap since 5am. I couldn't blog earlier partly due to technical problem. This is already our 3rd day (coming to 4th) and I'm only reporting the first day's visit. But it's better late than never.
Thank you for visiting.
The flight from Istanbul took almost one and a half hours, something like from KK to Kuching. We arrived at Adana airport late morning. It's just a small airport serving domestic flights, may be the size of the old Tawau or Sandakan airport.
From the airport, we headed straight to Tarsus, the birth place of St Paul (where he was known as Saul before his conversion). Hence, he was known as Paul of Tarsus. Because it was his birth place where he grew up, most Trail of St Paul pilgrimages begin here. It was about an hour's drive from the Adana airport on the tour bus.
Needless to say, Tarsus is an old and historic town; bearing in mind that Paul lived some 2,000 years ago. So I leave it to you to imagine what it must have looked like. I'll of course insert some photos later on, but not now in order to save time as images uploading is time-consuming. However, even though we are here, we still need a lot of imagination as the town during St Paul's time was buried a few meters below the present road level.
During St Paul's time, Tarsus was a university city surpassing even Athens and Alenxandria, named after Alexandra the Great. Cicero was the governor here circa 51-50 BC. So you can imagine how rich Tarsus's cultural and educational history is.
Upon arrival at Tarsus late Saturday morning, we headed straight for St. Paul's church. Rev. Fr. Fundes conducted our first Mass in Turkey there. It was refreshing and sentimental as Kadazan and Malay hymns were sung there. Imagine Kadazan and Malay hymns being sung half-way across the globe from Sabah! It made me homesick. As we entered the Church I felt as if I was filled with the holy spirit. I was humbled and overcome with awe and admiration and thanked God that I was actually there. However, despite its name, don't expect a big building. Just an ordinary-sized church or a chapel.
However, what saddened us what the fact that despite once being the bustling center of Christianity in Anatolia (as Turkey was known during Biblical times), only 3 (repeat three) Catholics remained in Tarsus today! Even then the trio are non-Turks. They are nuns from Italy! They were allowed to stay there by the Turkish government only to maintain it or to be caretaker especially for pilgrims. In other words it's a non-functioning church (there are many of these in Turkey). They exist only for tourists as the Turkish government certainly does not mind the huge revenue from tourism annually. By the way, 99% of Turkey's 70 million population are Muslims, so you can understand why. How come? Ask history! Blame history! And because there are no Turkish Christians remaining in Tarsus, the 3 nuns don't even wear their head dress/scarf when they go out of the church compound as otherwise curious eyes would be on them whenever they went. They would look like aliens to the Turks!
However, before you have a negative impression of the Turkish government, let me tell you this. Despite being a Muslim country, Turkey does not practise Syariah laws unlike in Malaysia. In other words, there is no Syariah court and every dispute goes to the civil court. For this, the Muslim Turks have to thank the father of modern Turkey, Ataturk, which sounds a bit like atuk (grandfather in Malaysia). This is appropriately so, as Ataturk is revered by the Turks and everywhere you go in Turkey you see hjis image or statutes at roundabouts. He is to Turkey what Mahatma Ghandi was to India and Dr Mahathir or our first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman is to Malaysia.
Before you have a negative image of the Turskih government too, let me also tell you this. Despite what I have said so far, there is no religious persecution in Turkey. The fact that there are only few Christians or Catholics remaining in Turkey today is not the fault of the present government or generation. As I have said, blame it on history and the complacency and disunity of Christians then. A fellow-pilgrim agreed with me that sometimes a little bit of persecution can be a blessing in disguise for it unites and strengthens the Christians or for that matter the Muslims if it's put the other way round.
Closer to home, a case in point is Sabah during Alliance-Usno time. To cut the long story short, in the 1976 state general election the majority of Christians in Sabah did not hesitate to give their votes to Berjaya, thus putting the 9-month-old party into power. In 1985, history repeated itself when the majority of Sabah Christians gave their votes to PBS thus putting this one-and-a-half month old party into power. But what happened after PBS was returned to power a second and third time? Its leaders and members began to be complacent and disunite until it was 'toppled' by a new government. I once served a politician who was a historian by training and he was very fond of saying "History always repeats itself". How true! What happened to Christians in Turkey or Sabah, it's all the same.
Coming back to the Turks, they are very liberal despite being Muslims, as they themselves put it; partly thanks to the civil laws and not syariah laws that they practise. Just imagine, our tour guide is a Muslim; our tour bus driver is a Muslim; and so on and so worth. Mind you, I think our Muslim tour guide knows more about the Bible and biblical history/sites than a lot of so-called Christians in Sabah! Even the garderner of the church we visited was Muslim! Can you imagine that happening in Malaysia?
But of course, it is the right of other Muslim countries including Malaysia to practise Syariah laws or be less liberal. What is good for Turkey is not necessarily good for others. What is applicable to Turks is not necessarily applicable to others. Afterall, the Turks are somewhere between Asians and Europeans, including their exotic looks; just as part of Istanbul is in Europoe and the other part is in Asia. But mind you, our tour guide is proud of the fact that he is Asian.
After Mass at St Paul's church, we walked to the nearby St Paul's well where he lived. There is water still from the well and as most pilgrims do, they washed their face with fresh water drawn from it. After which we went for lunch in the nearby Turkish restaurant. It was our first meal in Turkey and so evetrybody was excited to find out what's in store. Well, for our first meal, what's else did our host prepared for us if not Kebab! As our tour guide said, Turkey just like the Arab countries, is the Land of Kebab. Kebab is to the Arab world what the Roti Cenai and Pau are to Malaysians. It's their national dish. And what goes with the kebab? What else? Lamb!
We were told that the real Kebab comes with minced lamb. It can also come with others like chicken but then the taste wouldn't be as authentic or Turkish. For our sake, rice is included but of course don't expect the quantity or taste to be like ours. In order to persuade us to choose the lamb, our tour guide assured as that Turkish lamb is not as smelly as others in the world as they had taken their Turkish Bath before being slaughtered! Our tour guide is indeed a joker. He has to be. Otherwise imagine how dull the trip would be, not to mention falling asleep on the bus.
By the way, we had our lunch on the balcony of the first floor of a restaurant overlooking what's left of the old Tarsus of 2,000 years ago. We could still see a section of the old road and some ruins. But remember, those were a few meters below the present road level. The old road still looks good, it must have be built by the top contractor in those days!
After lunch, we embarked on a long and tiring drive to Antioch in the Hatay province, passing Iskanderun (formerly Alexandria or Alexanderetta named after Alexander the Great) along the way. Iskanderun is on the coast and if you remember your history, one of the many Alexander battles was fought here.
But I won't elaborate about Antioch. That would be the next chapter. Besides, got to get ready for breakfast and tour. I finally found the time and energy to blog, bearing in mind that travelling is tiring. It's now 6.30am Turkish time and I have had my netbook on my lap since 5am. I couldn't blog earlier partly due to technical problem. This is already our 3rd day (coming to 4th) and I'm only reporting the first day's visit. But it's better late than never.
Thank you for visiting.
3 comments:
Well done tobpinai for covering and updating us through your blog. Keep us updated of your St. Paul's trail as, I am sure, your readers are closely following it through your eyes.
Convey my regards to Rev. Fr. Fundes.
Excellent commentary. Keep it up!
I remembered the sumazau dancing in Israel years ago hahaa
tobpinai,how was your chucap today.uchikoloi!
Post a Comment