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View all search resultsSunken graves: In Indramayu, even death has lost its space
Tidal flooding has swallowed homes, livelihoods and parts of Eretan Wetan’s cemetery, leaving residents struggling to live, and die, with dignity.
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Graves beneath water: A row of gravestones is partially submerged in Eretan Wetan, Indramayu, West Java, in this undated photo. (Magdalene/Purnama Ayu Rizky)
I
n Reza Rahadian’s much-acclaimed 2025 film Pangku, Eretan Wetan Village in West Java’s Kandanghaur district, Indramayu regency, serves as a backdrop for kopi pangku or kopi lendot (lap coffee). Dotted along the Pantura arterial highway on Java’s northern coast, the dimly lit roadside stalls serve coffee to traveling truck drivers and motorists, often by scantily clad women sitting on their customers’ laps.
But for local residents, the most striking sight is the cemetery slowly sinking beneath the water.
Covering two hectares, much of the public cemetery is now submerged. During a December 2025 visit, only the tips of gravestones were visible. Some stones leaned sideways, while others had disappeared, possibly swept away or submerged. Tall weeds obscured the boundaries between roads, land and graves. Several areas were filled with brackish puddles, with piles of trash scattered around.
That day, a villager had died and was about to be buried. Amid standing water, residents prepared to carry the coffin through floodwater, dig a grave that would soon be inundated again and bury the body in soft, waterlogged soil.
Simin, 40, lives about 30 meters from the cemetery. From his front yard, the burial ground is clearly visible. To enter his house, visitors have to walk around to the back, crossing several small wooden logs arranged loosely as stepping stones. The path is narrow, slippery and unstable.
It is a path Simin crosses every day. It is hard to imagine how difficult it must be for elderly people, children, pregnant women or people with disabilities. There is no alternative route unless they swim.
“Being an Indonesian citizen is hard, our living space is taken. Even after death, our space in death is stripped away.” — Supriyanto, Eretan Wetan resident
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