Glossary

The Geni Lintang vocabulary

Terms that recur across Geni Lintang's writing, from Javanese philosophy to the integrated wellbeing view. A reference that grows alongside the essays.

Memetri Jagad: Memetri means to tend, care for, and honour; jagad means the world or cosmos. Memetri Jagad is the disposition of tending and honouring the earth, the foundation of Geni Lintang's view that humanity and nature cannot be separated.
Integrated wellbeing: A way of seeing health, environment, food, and economy as one inseparable fabric, from local practice to national, regional, and global vision, rather than as standalone sectors.
Hamemayu Hayuning Bawana: From ayu, beauty or good order. The Javanese philosophy that the world was created beautiful, and the human task is not to save what is broken but to keep the whole from being defiled. One of three philosophies in the UNESCO inscription of the Cosmological Axis of Yogyakarta (2023).
Sangkan Paraning Dumadi: The origin and destination of all that exists: where life comes from and where it returns. One of the three philosophies of the Cosmological Axis of Yogyakarta.
Manunggaling Kawula Gusti: The union of servant and Lord, the harmony between the human and the divine. One of the three philosophies of the Cosmological Axis of Yogyakarta.
Pranata Mangsa: The traditional Javanese seasonal calendar that guides farmers: when to plant, store seed, and harvest. Tested against rainfall data, its accuracy is surprising (Zaki et al., 2020).
Selapan, Selapanan: A selapan is a 35-day cycle in the Javanese calendar, the seven-day week combined with the five-day pasaran. Selapanan is the publishing rhythm of Geni Lintang's essays, one long piece each selapan.
Eling lan Waspada: Counsel from Ronggowarsito's Serat Kalatida. Eling: active spiritual awareness; waspada: critical vigilance. Neither saving the world nor despairing of it, but watching on while remembering what the watching is for. The authentic seventh stanza uses lawan, not lan.