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s the sun was slowly drifting to the West on the afternoon of Idul Adha, a crowd of women and their children gathered under a tree in the middle of Grogol Kemanggisan Cemetery, a public graveyard in the heart of densely populated Kemanggisan Pulo, West Jakarta.

They were not there to visit the grave of a departed relative; instead, they were having a barbecue with their ration of beef and mutton they got from the morning sacrifice ceremony at a nearby mosque. While the women were sticking the marinated meat onto skewers and preparing the fire, a flock of children were playing with balls and running around happily between the rows of headstones.

“This graveyard has become a backyard for the locals,” Encin, 59, the graveyard’s gardener, said while sitting under the shade of a small food and beverage stall in the far corner of the graveyard. He was settled restfully on a narrow bamboo bench, with his cup of hot tea sitting on a gravestone by his feet.

Encin, who has been tending the graveyard since the 1970s, said communal activities were a daily routine at the graveyard. In the afternoon, children would come to the cemetery to play. At night, the youngsters would come down there to hang out, often until way past midnight.

“The graveyard is a lit up venue every Saturday night. There are a lot of lamps here, and we are surrounded by houses, so hanging out here is never eerie at all,” he said.

The locals had even staged some fun games to celebrate Independence Day among the graves last week, Encin said. “We had a dancing competition for mothers and other fun games here,” he added, laughing.

With Jakarta being home to more than 10 million people on only 662 square kilometers of land, the cemetery doubling as public space is just another symptom of the shortage of space in the mega city.

In 2015, then-governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama started his Child Friendly Integrated Public Space (RPTRA) project to ensure communities have safe open spaces for children and mothers to play in. At least 290 RPTRAs have since been opened across the city. However, the current city administration has decided to stop building RPTRAs by the end of 2018.

Encin said Grogol Kemanggisan Cemetery was the only open space in the crowded neighborhood. The nearest RPTRA is 1.5 km from the neighborhood, and there is no public park anywhere nearer.

“Of course, the locals choose the nearest option. When there are a lot of people here, it is not morbid after all,” Encin said.

Not only people, cars and motorbikes also occupy space in the cemetery, as locals park their vehicles among the dead.

Jepri, 23, who owns one of those motorbikes, said it was very easy to procure a motorbike but very hard to afford a house with a garage.

“You can go to a showroom with Rp 300,000 (US$20.55) and bring home a new bike,” he said.

He pointed at a row of houses beyond the eastern wall of the cemetery. All have back doors that lead directly to the cemetery on top of the wall. All of the back doors are connected to the cemetery by ladders. Five motorcycles were parked among the headstones near the ladders.

Jepri said the cemetery management did not allow parking one’s vehicle, but locals could get around that rule with a little bribe.