Lampung unites diverse ethnic groups
The Jakarta Post, Teluk Betung, Lampung
An old man hovers around eight people who are busy building a ship in the coastal village of Cungkeng, Kota Karang, West Teluk Betung. Once in a while he stops to discuss things with the workers, his hands busy gesturing while giving directions to the workers. Once in a while, he picks up a hatchet and splits a small log into pieces.
The old man is Hartaslim, 60, a resident of Cungkeng, a coastal village of around 1,000 people located off the Sunda Strait.
Nearby, a young man is busy cleaning dozens of plastic drums used to make a bagan, or scaffolding, to trap fish. Some women bake fish for lunch.
The site is a typical coastal village in Indonesia. Cungkeng is filthy. It does not reflect modern Bandar Lampung, which is only about a 15-minute drive away. The whole village is littered with garbage, and no one seems to mind. Many of the houses are unpainted and some of stand on high pillars like Bugis houses in South Sulawesi. A few are designed in the joglo style of Central Java. There are several elementary schools and mosques and many, many kiosks. There is a small kiosk for every block.
Despite its desolate appearance, Cungkeng is a peaceful place where people from various ethnic backgrounds have made it their home. It is a miniature of Lampung, home to various ethnic groups including the Rawas, Pasemah, Semedo, Sunda, Java, Dayak, Balinese and Bugis. The settlers make up 75 percent of the total population.
Traditionally, Lampung's population has been divided into two groups, the peminggir who live in coastal areas and the pepadun who live in the hinterland. Most settlers build their new homes in areas that resemble their place of origin. The coastal people, for example, settle in coastal areas and maintain their old trades. Shared skills and love of their profession unite the various ethnic groups in their new home.
Cungkeng is a typical coastal community built by settlers from coastal areas. Hartaslim, for example, is one of the ethnic Bugis settlers who arrived in Lampung in 1970 and who maintains the South Sulawesi shipbuilding tradition. The Bugis people are known for their mastery in building wooden ships, Phinisi, without using a single piece of metal.
Hartaslim's employees come from Banten and Cirebon, West Java, from the northern coastal areas of Java.
Most of the villagers are fishermen. In a good season, they can earn up to Rp 3 million one night, but in bad times Rp 180,000 is the most they can collect from a night's catch, mostly of ikan teri (tiny sea fish).
This time of year is the low season and the fishermen pass the time cleaning their fishing gear, fixing broken nets or building new bagan.
Like the shipbuilding business, bagan construction also involves the whole village, everyone contributing their skills and experience to the process.
It may sound a simple, common thing, this bagan and shipbuilding business. But the people of Cungkeng village have shown that ethnic and professional differences should not create problems.
Rather than produce conflict, the differences help build a community whose members rely on each other for survival. United in needs and dreams, the villagers have created a legacy of harmony that serves as a good example to the rest of the nation.