Devastating Krakatau eruption commemorated
Devastating Krakatau eruption commemorated
By Joko E.H. Anwar
SERANG, WEST JAVA (JP): Like many hotels around the globe that
use historical events to promote their premises, some resort
operators in the scenic Anyer Beach area turn to the events of
Aug. 27, 1883, when the devastating Mt. Krakatau eruption
occurred, to lure guests.
The packages Anyer Beach hoteliers offer differ, but most use
local traditions, beliefs and their own versions of the Krakatau
eruption in their brochures to attract customers.
The four-star Mambruk Hotel entertained dozens of guests,
including foreign and domestic tourists and local officials from
Serang regency, on the eve of Aug. 27 with orphans chanting
Shalawat Badar (a recital to Prophet Mohammad), a tantalizing
magic show and history-telling mixed with folklore, creating a
mystically charged atmosphere.
The show started at 7 p.m. From a distance, the silhouette of
Krakatau, which killed at least 21,000 people when it erupted 117
years ago, was visible.
A few minutes later, the sound of traditional drums hit by
three men and three women, all in their late teens and wearing
traditional costumes, mixed with the sound of waves on the beach.
The Rampak Bedug (traditional drum ensemble) show is a
traditional Banten performing arts show from West Java and was
originally developed from the local custom to hold a drum beating
competition at the end of the Ramadhan fasting month.
The event was opened by 20 orphans wearing discolored white
robes, who welcomed the guests with flaming torches in their
hands and chanting Shalawat Badar.
The orphans, aged between eight and 13 years old, ushered
guests to their seats on the beach.
The guests did not seemed very enthusiastic, until three young
men from a traditional art troupe, locally called debus, took to
the sand stage and forced some oversized needles through their
arms, cheeks and other parts of their bodies.
Strangely, no blood was drawn.
"No tetanus or any other infections. Guaranteed," the leader
of the troupe, Hasan Basri, 45, said.
The show continued with a man letting his colleagues put a
piece of burning fabric on his head and then proceeded to make a
sunny-side-up egg in a frying pan on his head.
The guests cheered.
The youngsters continued with more of the same hard-to-believe
performances, including dancing on broken glass and eating
burning wood.
Despite the daring performance by the troupe, leader Hasan
said that the local arts were hard to develop.
"Balinese and East Javanese dancers, for example, have had the
chance to perform aboard. Yet for us, it's still very difficult
to find audiences outside Java," Hasan said.
Hasan said the lack of local government help to promote local
arts had contributed to the slow growth of performing arts.
"This performing art gets almost no promotion. We can't do our
own promotions, we just don't have the funds," said Hasan, who
once worked at the Krakatau Steel factory in the regency.
He claimed that his group was the most popular among four
other troupes in the area.
"Ours does not run very well, imagine how the other four
cope," Hasan said.
His group performs every Saturday night at the Mambruk Hotel
and is paid Rp 500,000 a night.
"We have to share the income with 20 crew and we still have to
pay for transportation. On average, we earn some Rp 15,000 each a
week," Hasan said, adding that most of the group members were
high school graduates who could not find other work.
He said that local regency officials, under whose supervision
the group falls, had become an obstacle for the group to develop
further.
"Whenever we get a gig and don't tell them, they get mad at
us. But if we do tell them, it means that we have to give a
portion of our earnings to them," Hasan said, refusing to
elaborate.
Earlier in the afternoon, the manager of the resort, Adrian
BS, who seems obsessed with the history of Krakatau, took the
guests on a trip around the resort, relating the history of the
volcano and mixing it with folklore.
When Adrian was showing a miniature of the volcano, he eerily
uttered, "Some genes came from a big tunnel under Krakatau to
guide us to create the exact shape of a volcano."
The event ended with guests enjoying cocktails and a buffet
while the art troupe gathered nearby awaiting their pay.
The resort is one many similar recreational places which
occupy the vast Anyer Beach.
Vice Regent Taufik Nuriman said the local government would
suggest that all resorts slightly move back from the beach.
"The presence of the resorts bothers the locals because they
use the beach in many daily activities, such fishing," Taufik
told The Jakarta Post.
Taufik said the suggestion to hotels to move back from the
beach would be put forth after Banten was established as a new
province, separating it from West Java province.
House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung recently said
that Banten would officially become the country's 28th province
on Oct. 4.