A taste of traditional rural life in Yogyakarta
Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Bantul
Are you tired of the glitter and bustle of city life? If you would like to rejuvenate your body and soul in a traditional rural atmosphere, try visiting Kampong Kebon Agung in Yogyakarta's Bantul regency.
The village, located 17 kilometers south of Yogyakarta city, offers rural tour packages complete with farm rituals and paraphernalia at the Tani Museum.
Located in the village near the Imogiri royal mausoleum, the farming museum displays various kinds of rare farming implements, wsome dating back hundreds of years, arranged neatly in showcases.
The objects can be seen while enjoying the natural rural setting. Visitors can participate in farming activities, from plowing the land, planting, and harvesting, all the while getting covered in mud and enjoying the wide outdoors.
The first agricultural museum in Yogyakarta was established a month ago at the initiative of local residents. All the exhibits on display were donated by the residents themselves. Dozens of farm tools are arrayed neatly under the traditional joglo-style building owned by Subandi, 54, such as the jodang (a fruit container used for the harvest ritual) that was made in 1921, a 1883 large earthenware bowl used to store unhusked rice, a 1927 luku (plow), a large metal vessel for steaming rice, a hoe and a sickle.
Various cooking utensils like the anglo (charcoal stove), dandang (rice or tiwul steamer), ceting bambu (bamboo rice bowl) are also displayed, including the lesung and pipisan (mortar and pestle for pounding herbs into traditional jamu concoctions).
Subandi said they had initially established the museum to preserve farming equipment from across the archipelago, so that they could be seen by future generations.
"We are trying to collect farm tools from across the nation to be preserved in the museum," said Subandi.
Kampong Kebon Agung, inhabited by around 900 families, has declared itself a tourist destination and has arranged farm 'adventure' packages for visitors.
"We provide all the nostalgia of living on a farm. We will provide water buffaloes for those who want to plow the land and also arrange for the wiwit (thanksgiving prayer and offerings) traditional ritual for visitors," said Kristya Bintara, 37, the pioneer who established Kampong Kebon Agung as a tourist village in 2000.
Apart from its green and vast rice fields, the village has its beautiful natural surroundings to offer. There is a lake for canoeing on the western part of the village. Guests can also enjoy moments at the Opak River, or visit the Imogiri royal tomb in the cool breeze of the countryside.
Kristya said that they also provided tours around the village. Hundreds of rented bicycles, which tourists can rent for Rp 5,000 per day, are on hand for them to go around the village and visit the Imogiri mausoleum.
The former village chief said that the early stages of turning the place into a tourist location was no easy matter. The hardest part was convincing villagers, who often wanted instant results.
Kristya and several village figures had tediously campaigned for a tourist village since 1997, and now most villagers were aware of the concept and readily participated in the activities.
Kristya acknowledged that many local and foreign tourists had stayed and participated in the adventures arranged by the village since 2000.
In 2004, the village even played host to 70 school principals from Jakarta who came to take part in a life-skills enhancement program.
Each guest is only asked top pay Rp 45,000 per day, which includes staying in a traditional residents' house, three meals and bicycle rent.
Hundreds of students from Jakarta's No. 71 Senior High School were seen enjoying their holiday at the village. "It's very exciting, like applying skin lotion, but now with mud," said Yunita, a sophomore at the No. 71 Senior High School in Jakarta during a visit to Kebon Agung recently.