“In the future, my children and grandchildren, if you are able, please preserve what has been taught by me, and don’t lose it. … That will remind you later on about who you actually are.”

So was the final wish, or ninggal wekas, of Mbah Sampun, the founder of Sumberbendo kampung in Malang regency, as repeated by the pioneer’s great-grandson and current village head, Imam Safi’i.

To honor this request, the 1,000-odd residents of the kampung, in Kucur village in the regency’s Dau subdistrict, about 25 kilometers west of Malang city, created the annual Sumberbendo Cultural Tourist Kampung Festival, now in its second year.

Through the festival, which this year ran from July 23 to 27, the community rediscovers its original
culture and packages it as a tourist attraction.

“The community wants to preserve the original culture of this remote area, and at the same time introduce it to the outside community,” said Imam Safi’i. “Not just customary law, but original dishes, community games, clothing – every aspect of life in the Sumberbendo remote area community, a community which wants to be revived and introduced to other people.”

But in their efforts the community, located at the edge of the forest in the foothills of Mt Kawi, has had to go it alone.

“We asked for government support [from the Malang regency government] but there was no response. We all kind of expected that government interest would turn out like that,” said Suprianto, head of the cultural festival committee. “We carried on regardless. The important thing for the community here is maintaining harmony.”

The community sealed its reputation as self-supporting by raising its own funds for the festival. Donations ranged from Rp 5,000 (50 US cents) to Rp 10 million ($1,000).

During the festival, the kampung atmosphere was designed to create reminders of the past. For an entrance fee of Rp 2,000 per person, visitors had the opportunity to take part in the daily activities of the beautiful kampung.

They received an authentic insight into the rural culture, as community activities continued as normal. The older people tended the herds of cattle and went to the rice fields. Some women ground coffee beans and corn seeds using traditional stone-grinding techniques, while others pounded rice in a mortar to make flour. The children played as usual.

As the day ended and the light changed, the village ambience was maintained by lighting with kerosene lamps. The lamps were hung alongside the road and outside houses, replacing electricity.

During the festival days, residents either wore sandals made from old tires or went barefoot.

They also dressed in the older style. The men wore black potong gulon (a collar-less shirt) and black trousers called unjuk-unjuk.

Boys wore shirts in the same style as the men, but with a different style of trousers. Children wore elastic-bottomed black trousers, and teenagers wore panjenan (trousers 8 centimeters below the knee). Adult women and female teenagers wore kemben (a sarong wrapped around the body) combined with the traditional women’s blouse, the kebaya.

Traditional performing arts and games, rarely seen these days, were also revived. These included the Nyi Juwut, a kind of séance or game invoking spirits using a jailangkung; cu’u, a village children’s game that is rarely played; jaranan, which is similar to a hobby horse; the traditional martial art pencak silat; walking on stilts, or egrang; a kind of village drama about the origins of area called lerok; tayub, a dance performance by a ronggeng dancer; and wong ireng art, in which people are painted black.

“This is a unique tourist attraction and really authentic,” said Made Sutama, a 52-year-old from Denpasar who visited the festival with his family while on holiday in Malang. “I have never seen anything like this in Bali.”

Made Sutama was particularly interested in the tools used to grind coffee and corn in the traditional fashion. He gave it a go — and then asked to take home his own set of coffee grinders made from stone, available for Rp 75,000 a pair.

Nor did he pass by the foods. All sorts of special kampung foods, long since gone from daily meals, were made available.

Among them was dawet, a drink made from the essence of tubers such as taro; the local people know it as ganyong or Indian shot (Canna edulis Ker).

“All of these are natural, sir,” Sunarni, a fifth-generation Sumberbendo resident who was selling the dawet, told the tourist. “Nothing here is made from flour. All these foods have been made by us. The sugar is palm sugar, also with no added sweetener.”

The community also introduced cukil or gonje, which are drinking vessels made from bamboo used instead of glasses or jugs.

And to replace plastic buckets or jerry cans when drawing water from the village well, people used a gumbeg, which is a long hollowed-out piece of bamboo.

Suprianto said the event had two purposes: to remind the kampung’s children of their history and origins, and to earn money by packaging it as a tourist attraction.

“This is the richness of our village community culture,” he said. “This doesn’t belong to any other kampung. We’re proud of our village culture.”

And, he continued, the community was taking their task very seriously, working to prepare the kampung so it would appeal to tourists from overseas.

In all, the committee raised Rp 50 million for the event — all without any government aid. Even those residents with no spare money helped by donating food or labor.

“These are actually our values: the feeling of togetherness and caring for all community members
in this kampung,” said Imam Safi’i. “I’m proud to be the head of the area here.”

The secret to their success was that the residents’ coherent ideas about their plans to attract tourists won the support of ProFauna, an NGO that works to protect the environment and wildlife.

According to Rosek, the chairman of ProFauna International, the NGO wants to “empower the village community”.

“This is so they can be creative and sell their own products without forgetting their identity,” said
“At the moment, the Indonesian tourist industry only sells goods from the past, but there aren’t many who sell the daily lives of a kampung community as a tourist attraction,” said Rosek.

The village is easily reached from Malang city by public transportation. Visitors can rent a room at the Petungsewu Wildlife Education Center (P-WEC), not far from Sumberbendo, for a reasonable price. The community plans to hold the festival every year, and each festival is expected to be a little different.

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