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.