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Jakarta Post

It’s a gravedigger’s life

In a hole: Gravediggers at Srengseng Sawah Cemetery make Rp 300,000 (US$31) per grave, but the money is divided between those who share the work

Nani Afrida (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, April 3, 2013

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It’s a gravedigger’s life

I

span class="inline inline-left">In a hole: Gravediggers at Srengseng Sawah Cemetery make Rp 300,000 (US$31) per grave, but the money is divided between those who share the work.Cemeteries in Jakarta today are not spooky like they used to be. The spaces have become instead playgrounds for children in the neighborhood or places to feel at “peace”.

At Srengseng Sawah Cemetery in South Jakarta, for instance, people are welcomed by a neat arrangement of graves and trees. The more than 15-hectare cemetery is also near Setu Babakan, the biggest lake in South Jakarta and a center of Betawi culture.

A paved road through the cemetery is often used by motorists as a shortcut to the Srengseng Sawah area from Lenteng Agung.

“Many people pass this road, so we’re never lonely,” Nana, a gravedigger, told The Jakarta Post recently.

Nana has been working as a gravedigger since 2000. He dedicates his life to the work because he didn’t have anything to do in his hometown of Krawang in West Java. His uncle introduced him to the life of a gravedigger.

There are around 60 gravediggers seeking out a meager income at Srengseng Sawah Cemetery, and they come from various areas of West Java.

They are divided into three groups in digging the graves. One group will work for seven days then the work will shift to another group for another seven days.

They work under the supervision of the parks and cemetery agency, the office near the cemetery. The office controls the gravediggers, including their shifts.

Tidy: Gravediggers tend to graves in their spare time, earning money from families who pay them to care for the grass and water it.
Tidy: Gravediggers tend to graves in their spare time, earning money from families who pay them to care for the grass and water it.
One grave is usually priced at Rp 300,000 (US$31) and the money is shared among the group members on duty. Sometimes, if the workers are “lucky”, more than two people will require gravesites in one day.

The gravedigger will dig a 1 x 2.5-meter hole with a depth of 1.5 meters. The work will be easier because they dig in turns. After the hole is dug, they wait for the body to arrive to complete the burial process.

It is usual to see people weep during burials. The gravediggers respect the families, but they are not personally involved in the sadness. They have observed similar scenes thousand of times, for the cemetery has more than 5,000 graves.

The gravediggers not only dig graves for those with mourning family members, they also prepare sites for those who have no one.

The bodies arrive by ambulance from several places, including Cipto Mangunkusumo Central Hospital (RSCM), the police hospital and nursing homes. Gravediggers often dig more than 10 holes at once for the unfortunate.

For those with no family the graves are situated in a special location behind the public cemetery. There are no names on the gravestones. There are only numbers.

If the dead come from the hospital, they are usually buried directly. But if they come from public nursing homes, they are usually wearing a shroud.

‘The bodies from the hospital are totally destroyed. Usually they are accident victims and no one recognizes their bodies,” Wanto, another gravedigger, said.

When the gravediggers have no work digging they tend to the graves by planting and watering grass. They receive Rp 20,000 a month from family members.
Humble: The homes of gravediggers at Srengseng Sawah Cemetery are constructed of coffin wood and body bags.
Humble: The homes of gravediggers at Srengseng Sawah Cemetery are constructed of coffin wood and body bags.

One gravedigger can tend around 30 to 40 graves. No one has more than that, for, as gravediggers, they have to share.

“For me, giving them a little incentive to take care of my father’s grave is OK because I want the grave to always be clean and well-tended,” Sri, a frequent visitor to Srengseng Sawah, told the Post, smiling.

She said that the gravediggers collected the money once every three or four months.  They usually go to her house.

“If we collect every month, it will be useless compared to how expensive the price of daily needs is now,” gravedigger Nana said.

The gravediggers live in huts behind the cemetery, still part of the cemetery complex.

There are dozens of huts built of the red boards of coffins. For the roofs they use body bags to avoid leaks. One hut is a residence for three gravediggers.

“The bodies from the hospital usually use coffins, and we take the coffins for our houses’ material,” Nana explained.

Are they being haunted because they use the coffins of the dead for their homes?

“Not at all, we are just fine,” Nana said with a smile.

He said that tales of ghosts, pocong (shrouded ghosts) and kuntilanak (female ghosts) were just imaginative stories. As a gravedigger who essentially lives at a cemetery, he said he has never personally
encountered disturbed souls.

“This cemetery is friendly. You can hear people going back and forth on their motorcycles, even in the middle of the night,” Wanto said

“Neither have I. Maybe ghosts are now more afraid of humans,” another gravedigger said.

 For the gravediggers, the happy periods are during Ramadhan and Muslim holidays. During that time many people come to the cemetery to visit their relatives’ graves.

It is a busy period for the gravediggers. No wonder they often ask their wives or children to come to Jakarta and help them out.

“In that time we receive more money from people after tending their families’ graves,” Nana said.

Being a gravedigger is hard, but for Nana and his friends this is the only opportunity they have to support their families.

— Photos by JP/Nani Afrida

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