By Bambang Budi Utomo
There are just few archipelagic states in the world, and Indonesia is the largest one (1,9 million squares miles) with 17.508 small and large islands. Some of those islands are inhibited and some are not. With the population spread out across the islands varying in nature and environment, it is certain that the people living in the country are very diverse with various cultures. The diverse character of the Indonesian people can be seen as there are 19 customary law (adat law), 770 tribes, and 726 languages used by different local society.
The Indonesian archipelago has a strategic location on 6° North Latitude until 11° South Latitude, and 97° East Longitude until 141° East Longitude. Not only because it is situated between two continents, but also because this archipelago is situated between two oceans, the Pacific and Indonesian Oceans. Since the first millennium of AC, the Malacca strait had been a part of trade route which connected West Asia and East Asia. This position made Indonesia as a cross-cultural location of the region. Moreover, in the ancient times, this region was such a wilderness which challenged people from other regions to explore.
At the times when the trade among Europe, Middle-East, Indian, and Chinese were active, due to its strategic location, the diversity of Indonesian cultures was increasing. Several traditional tribes, especially those living in coastal areas, were influenced significantly by foreign cultures because they were highly exposed to those foreign people visiting. Meanwhile, people who live in inner part of the islands still hold their local cultures.
Culture can simply be defined as the result of creation, feeling, and intention which articulated in either tangible or intangible form. In the archipelago, the result of these various cultures fits well the condition of its natural environment and the influence of foreign cultures. These cultures are the nation‘s asset that can be “sold” as well as conserved, and if they are well-managed, it can strengthen the nation‘s character and be used for the country‘s development, for instance tourism. Indeed it refers to a sustainable one.
Sustainable tourism was originally conceived as the result of growing questions concerning developing tourism in a community that at the same time protects all of the important aspects that can be point of interest of the area. With the development of smart tourism, the aspect of developing the quality of local people‘s lives is more important than the aspect of economy.
One part of smart tourism which is now being developed is cultural tourism. The prospect of this kind of tourism is very lucrative nowadays. The main purpose of tourists is obviously to experience something unique that can be seen, enjoyed, as well as learnt. For the case of facility, infrastructure, or the scenery, it may not be different to where the tourists are from. However, history and culture are different for every place. Some countries and regions have great awareness of the power of this aspect as tourist attraction.
The existence of international tourism creates new institutions within Indonesian culture. Moreover, it also creates some dynamics in our culture because in many cases foreign tourists come to see and experience the uniqueness of Indonesian culture. In the Indonesian side, there is eagerness to rediscover the original Indonesian character. Tourism activity is also a powerful force for conserving local cultures, creating and developing art-work. The growing new art-creations that do not follow traditional-art mainstream are clearly the negative effect of tourism.
Cultural tourism is often linked with visiting ancient cultural heritage, such as mosque, church, temple, or stupa. These cultural heritages, particularly temple and stupa, are often found in Java, Sumatra, and Bali. Physically, either based on the material or the building itself, these cultural heritages are different from each other. Those in Bali and Java are better in shape than those in Sumatra, seeing that those in Java and Bali were made of river stones. Meanwhile, temples in Sumatra are made of bricks. This is because of different natural environment and background of its people. In Java and Bali there are a lot of decorations on the walls whereas there are hardly any decorations in Sumatra.
The Sumatran cultural heritage is not prominent to foreign tourists. There are only a few who know that in North Sumatra there are more than 10 temple complexes in Padanglawas; 5 temple complexes in Dharmasraya and Passaman; Muara Jambi temple complex in Jambi, and Bumiayu temple complex in South Sumatra. It is only tourists with special interest who come to those places, as to research purpose. Besides lack of promotion, the facility and infrastructure of these cultural heritages are insufficient. In addition, the distance from the city nearby is quite exhausting.
In the tourism world, it is common to differentiate between culture and art. This differentiation is actually incorrect because art is part of culture. Furthermore, arts that are mostly shown to tourists are dance or performance art. There are a lot of cultural missions carried on abroad that involve dancers or traditional musicians while only a few involve craftsman or sculptor. In contrast, Indonesia is very rich of hand-made art products that deserve to be promoted abroad. It is not only the products, but also the skill of the craftsman or sculptor.
Indonesia has a lot of craftsmen who preserve and develop cultural products made of local materials. However, some of them are almost extinct. Silver craftsmen could be found in Kotagede (Yogyakarta), Bali, and Kendari (South-East Sulawesi). The Kendaris silver craftsmen are not renowned because their selling area is limited to Sulawesi whereas the Kotagedes and Balinese craftsmen are already famous abroad.
In sculpting or carving arts, Bali has been well-known abroad. In other parts of Indonesia, besides Bali, there are also carvers or sculptors with peculiar art works, such as the Dayaks in Kalimantan, the Torajas in South Sulawesi, and the Asmats in Irian Jaya. The hand-made art products of the Asmat have been well-known abroad. Even a museum in New York has some collections of the Asmat carvings. Alongside the Sentani Lake, approximately 30 kms from Jayapura, the Sentani tribes; who have the skills of wood carving, painting on wood-skin, making glass beads, and making pottery; live. Their craft art is a match for those of the Asmat‘s. Because of lack of promotion, their craft art is not well-known. It is possible that the Sentani‘s craft arts are considered as the Asmat‘s because of the same materials they use.
The performance of wayang kulit, wayang golek, wayang beber, and wayang potehi is a intangible cultural product. However, the wayang (the puppet) itself is a tangible cultural product. In the recent wayang kulit performing art, there have been some sorts of deviation from the mainstream art, such as in the case of performance time and the language used. It is understandable that this deviation is intended for tourism. The length of the performance which normally lasts a whole night can be shortened to just a couple hours. This phenomenon is the result of tourism. In one hand, it can preserve the wayang performance, in the other hand; it can degrade the value contained in the performance art.
Foreign tourists, especially who come from Europe and Japan, are interested in the cultural diversity of Indonesia. Not only they sometimes come to see, but also to feel and experience the daily lives of several Indonesian traditional tribes. They often stay temporarily or even permanently with local family. We can also see their interest in local culture when there is a religious ceremony. Among the Balinese, there are two or three foreigners involved in the ceremony. At this point, they are no longer foreigners, but they are already part of the society or banjar. In order to develop and facilitate this kind of tourism, it has been developed a proper home stay program. Home stay program can easily be found in Bali and Yogyakarta because there is a lot of cultural tourism in both cities.
Other than arts, religious or traditional ceremony also attracts both foreign and domestic tourists. There are some examples of these kinds of ceremonies, such as Ngaben ceremony in Bali, funeral ceremony in Tana Toraja, Waisak ceremony in Borobudur, Sekatenan in Yogyakarta and Solo, and tabot or tabuik festive in Bengkulu and Pariaman. These ceremonies have a deep cultural meaning for the local people. The presence of foreign tourists is not on the local people‘s agenda. Nevertheless, their presence, especially the white tourists, can make the local people even prouder. As the result, the local people would hold the ceremony as completely as possible even if they have to spend a lot of money.
From the economic perspective, traditional ceremonies which are performed frequently by several tribes can be considered as consumptive act and that do not give benefit to the economic development of the local people who perform it. It seems illogical if the society is so proud of their culture that they are willing to spend a lot of money for the ceremony instead of for increasing their income and product. The local people are not immune at all to the economic influence of tourism. The more tourists come to the area to admire the culture, the more willingness of the local society to get maximum benefit from the tourists. Here lies the problem between tourism and culture.
Bambang Budi Utomo, is Kerani Rendahan at NRCA.
