Ibu Gedong Bagoes Oka: Founder of Gandhian Ashrams in Bali
Monday, June 25th, 2007 by Sidarta Wijaya“Let us live simply so that others may simply live”
M.K. Gandhi
The lifetime achievements of Ibu Gedong Bagoes Oka (1921-2002) are impressive and bear testimony to her unfailing faith in the teaching of Mahatma Gandhi. Mother of six boys, in her early married life she became a high school principal then a university lecturer in English. She served as an Member of Parliament in 1968 in the New Order parliament of Indonesia’s President Soeharto and again in 1999, at the age 0f 78, in the Reformation Parliament of President Abdurahman Wahid as the Hindu regional representative. She was a founding member and , eventually, honorary president of the World Council for Religion and Peace and a board member of several international and domestic social organizations. In 1994 her tireless work earned her Gandhi Peace Award of the Jamnal Bajaj Foundation in India for her ‘dedication to peace and promoting Gandhian ideals outside India’.
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