page_title: 2018 Asian Para Games opening and closing ceremonies
section_title: Proceedings
hierarchical_section_title: 2018 Asian Para Games opening and closing ceremonies / Opening ceremony / Proceedings
caption_attribution_description: English: 2018 Asian Para Games flame lit-off
context_page_description: The 2018 Asian Para Games opening ceremony was held on Saturday, 6 October 2018 at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia. The closing ceremony was held exactly a week later; Saturday, 13 October 2018 at the nearby, far smaller Gelora Bung Karno Madya Stadium. Both ceremonies were started on 19:00 local time and ended around 22:00.
context_section_description: Before the ceremony commenced, visual effects video of Indonesian traditional batik art, featuring Indonesian wayang characters, objects, buildings such as the National Monument, flora and fauna found within Indonesia such as Komodo dragon was shown.
  The ceremony began with countdown projection on the floor of the stage when a whipping dancer performed on the stage with a row of drummers. Rosalina Oktavia, an Indonesian prosthetic model carried a candle onto the stage centre. After that, dancers wearing traditional costumes of different Indonesian ethnic groups came onstage in groups, perform traditional dances while carrying miniatures of various houses of worship found across the nation to represent the Indonesia's religious and cultural diversity. Two guests of honour, President of Indonesia Joko Widodo and president of the Asian Paralympic Committee Majid Rashed who arrived earlier at the stadium were introduced to the crowd.
  Then, children elementary schools from Jakarta and Bengkala, the deaf village from Bali, who wore school uniforms entered the stage riding cycle rickshaws and sat on the stage, with the projection of a school and the flag of Indonesia shown on the stage screen. Puan Maharani, chairwoman of the games' steering committee brought the Indonesian flag into the stadium, and the flag was raised by three Paskibraka youth troop. During the flag raising, traditional dancers and the school children's translated the "Indonesia Raya" lyrics into sign language. Surya Sahetapy and Reza Rahadian Matulessy delivered the message of Pancasila in Indonesian sign and spoken language, respectively. Two Filipino para dancers, Jun Julius Obero and Rhea Marquez performed a ballet number together, which represents the harmonious unity of a society that accepts each other, regardless of their differences. The song played during the ballet was a variation of the second lyrical music part used in the Ratoh Jaroe dance performed on the 2018 Asian Games opening ceremony.
  During the Parade of Nations, North Korean and South Korean teams marched together under one unified flag of Korea as they did at the Asian Games. As per tradition, Indonesia as the host nation entered last.
  A minute of silence to honour the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami victims was observed after speeches from the Organizing Committee chairman Raja Sapta Oktohari and President Majid Rashed of the Asian Paralympic Committee.
  President Widodo officially opened the games using sign language, on which he mistakenly spoke "Asian Games" instead of "Asian Para Games".
  A dance performance featured the fire, rain, ocean and fisherman was held which later revealed the word sign "DISABILITY" on the stage. It represents the challenges a disabled person faced in the society. A wheelchair girl named Bulan Karunia showed up at the stadium with a box containing the message of her and her friends to President Joko Widodo. The president, then, walked down onto the stage to meet her and opened the box which later revealed to contain the letter block that reads "Ability" in capital letters. Along with her and an archer named Abdul Hamid, he arched the giant capital letters "DIS" until it fell down, and left the word "ABILITY" to represents that disabled persons can also pursuing their dreams and do what normal people do also with their limited abilities. Martin Losu and Lil abilities dance troop then performed hip hop and break dance in front of the sign.
  Eight Indonesian athletes, including powerlifter Anto Boi carried the Asian Paralympic Committee flag into the stadium, and the flag was raised by ten Paskibraka youth troop as the Paralympic movement anthem was played. Indonesian table tennis player Banyu Tri Mulyo read the athletes' oath, table tennis judge Bayu Widi read the judges' oath, and swimming coach Dinda Ayu Sekartaji read the coaches' oath.
  Finally, the torch was relayed for the final time by Senny Marbun (president of the National Paralympic Committee of Indonesia), Imam Nahrawi (Youth and Sports Minister of Indonesia), Pribadi (general secretary of the NP
caption: Parade of Nations at the opening ceremony of 2018 Asian Para Games in Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.[9]
exif: {"Image Copyright": "Iranian Photojurnalist"}