Limestone, Gunungkidul's 'white gold'

Limestone, Gunungkidul's 'white gold'

Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta

Gunungkidul regency is a typically arid and impoverished area,
with a hilly and jagged limestone landscape that for decades
provided a subsistence living for residents.

However, all of this limestone, ignored for so long, has for
the last seven years provided residents with a living.
Gunungkidul is now a regency of sculptors, who are turning
worthless limestone into the means to support their families.

The lives of thousands of people have improved thanks to the
limestone handicraft industry, which has spread throughout
Gunungkidul.

Supriyanto, 40, who heads the Marsudi Rejeki handicraft
cooperative in the hamlet of Jlantir in Karangmojo district, said
the limestone that is so abundant in the regency was thought to
have no economic value until a Balinese man arrived in the area
seven years ago. Supriyanto said the man carved a sculpture from
a slab of limestone, launching the entire industry.

"The result were really good and the sculpture sold for
hundreds of thousands of rupiah. One by one other residents began
carving limestone sculptures and handicrafts, and you see the
results around you now," said the father of two.

Supriyanto, who has been involved in the industry for the past
four years, said the limestone was used to create all kinds of
items, including ventilation holes for homes, reliefs, ornaments,
statues and garden decorations.

"The market is wide open. All the items are purchased by
buyers in major cities like Jakarta, Bandung, Denpasar and
Surabaya," said Supriyanto.

The cooperative includes 18 craftsmen, who earn between Rp
700,000 (US$70) and Rp 1 million a month. "It is not bad money
for the work," said one of the craftsmen, Kiswanto, 45.

Before joining the cooperative, Kiswanto said he struggled
just to feed his family with the small plot of land on which he
grew rice and cassava.

"The price of cassava is always low during the harvest and the
money we made from selling gaplek (dried cassava) was not enough
to meet our daily needs and to pay the children's school fees,"
he said.

Supriyanto and Kiswanto said limestone craftsmen now needed an
integrated marketing system to help their business take off, for
example by setting up a showroom in the city.

"But we definitely cannot afford that because it would require
a lot of money," said Kiswanto.

Supriyanto said the cooperative's work was now sold through
brokers who placed orders with the group. While the orders have
continued to come in, the craftsmen know that the brokers are the
ones getting the largest share of the profits.

Despite this, the limestone handicraft industry has
drastically altered the very fabric of life in the regency.
Before the arrival of the Balinese man in the regency, people who
grew up in Gunungkidul could not wait to get out and try to make
better lives for themselves in the big city. Now after graduating
junior high school or high school, more young people are choosing
to stay at home and carve better lives for themselves out of
Gunungkidul's limestone.