today : 28 
Total Visitor : 15620 
visitors Online: 6
Lampung
Lampung, located on the southernmost tip of Sumatra is one of the most interesting and yet least known provinces of Indonesia. Separated from Java by the shallow Sunda Straits, than 30 km wide at its narrowest point.
Due to its location, Lampung has consequently been the area of Sumatra most influenced, socially and economically by the densely populated island of Java.
Like most of Sumatra, Lampung was very sparsely populated until the early decades of this century. Thanks to a flood of immigrants from Java, in recent years Lampung had one of the highest population growth rates in Indonesia, and is now the most densely populated province in Sumatra. In the past two decades, the population has grown from 2.3 to over 6 million living in area of 33,307 sq km.
Only one in ten of Lampung’s population is descended from the indigenous people, which comprised three distinct groups. First, the Orang Abung or mountain people, who practiced headhunting and remained in isolation until the 19th century. Second, the Orang Pubian who inhabited the eastern lowlands and third the Orang Peminggir or people of the south coast around Lampung and Semangka Bays, who probably came under suzerainty of Palembang based Srivijaya, and were later Islam zed through influence from Java.
According to local legends, all these people have a single ancestor, Si Lampung, from whom the province derives its name. their descendants today speak two closely related languages, Komering and Lampung, but due to the influx of migrants, even more people here no speak Sundanese or Javanese.
Life in Lampung was probably always unsettled especially along the coasts, which were susceptible to piratical slave raids.
Many settlements were protected by earthen ramparts and thorny bamboo hedges. Two inscriptions of the mighty Srivijayan empire attest to a direct involvement in the late 7th century, no doubt fostered by Lampung’s rich resources of sold and dammar, a valuable tree resin.
In the 16th century, the Islamic sultan of Banten of West Java gradually took control of the region, conferring the tittle of punggawa (representative) on Lampung chiefs in return for deliveries of pepper grown in the interior. This made Banten the largest and wealthiest pepper port in the archipelago at the time that the first Europeans arrived. The Dutch eventually took over this trade in the late 17th century.
The traditional culture of Lampung reflects indigenous beliefs overlain by Hindu Buddhist and Islamic influences. A strong megalithic tradition continued until fairly recent times, the pepadon or ritual throne used by Lampung chiefs appears to have had megalithic origins, and ancient stone sculptures show the ancestors with symbolic motifs that suggest sacrificial rites.
The influence of Dongson bronze kettledrums is also apparent in the spirals, curves and stylized human and animal figures of the sacred Lampung ship cloths. These ubiquitous fabrics played an important role in ritual and marriage ceremonies, and rank among the world’s most striking traditional textiles.
Over the past century rapid changes have taken place. Migrations were encouraged during the Dutch colonial rule as a means of relieving Java’s population pressures. This was stepped up in the 1960s and 70s through the Indonesian government transmigration programs. Today only about 20 percent of Lampung’s forests remain some, like Way Kambas Reserve, now designated as special wild life areas. Most areas of Lampung are cultivated with wet rice sawah or groves of oil palms, rubber, coconut, coffee and cloves.
All the three native peoples of Lampung are famous for a distinctive form of textile that commonly features geometric ship motifs. These extraordinary fabrics are collectively known as ship cloths and are prized the world over by textile collectors.
The production of these cloths dates back to an era when a lucrative pepper trade flourished in Lampung. The collapse of the pepper trade in the last century brought about the demise of many local traditions including the time consuming production of these ritual cloths, which have not been woven for over 100 years. Nowadays such fabrics are rare collectors items, costing a small fortune when they can be found at all.
By their form and function, the cloths may be divided into two categories tampan and palepai. The former are small and square in shape, measuring no more than a meter across, the latter are long and narrow, averaging 3 meters in length and half a meter in width. The ornamentation of the two is quite different tampan often have précis, even abstract motifs, whereas paella normally depicts solid, easily recognizable objects. The decorative style of both displays a clear affinity with Bronze Age designs found in Dongson kettledrums, especially the stylized double spirals, meanders and hook and key motifs on the borders.
Tampan and palepai were woven by identical techniques single colored supplemental wefts were applied to a plain weave foundation. The biggest job was to count out the threads needed for the intricate patterns before mounting them on the handloom.
Peminggir women made palepai as well as tampan Pubian and Abung women made tampan only.
The Peminggir are organized in patrilineal descent groups or suku. Four or more of these suku constitute a so called marga.
Their members have a number of titles, of which the Penyimbang, descendants of the founder of a suku or marga, are the most important representing an aristocratic class privileged to own palepai.
A number of small, clearly recognizable objects are often depicted on palepai standing astride the deck of the ship people, animals, trees and houses. A distinction is usually made between palepai having red ships. On very rare palepai having blue and those having red ships. On very rare palepai only rows of human figures are shown without any ship at all.
The designs of tampan are much more diverse and difficult to categorize. The skip motif is, as on the rare palepai, sometimes completely missing in which case the design may consist of a big bird or various small birds, a tree, or other more abstract motifs. Simple rows of human forms are also found on tampan.
The ship motif nevertheless predominates on all these cloths above all symbolizing transition and movement, a nation appropriate to the life cycle rituals in which they are used. Apart from this, the ship also expresses social structure. The person undergoing the rite finds himself on the border between two phases in life a time that is considered unsettling and potentially quite dangerous. He is helped along in the next stage by highly structured rituals, in which the society as a whole is represented as a ship carrying its members along.
During marriage rituals, for instance, the bridal couple is borne in a procession in the shape of a ship, in which all suku in the marga take up prescribed positions. In this way, the newlyweds are brought from a temporarily insecure position on the fringes of society to a secure and stable position within the social fabric.
Though it is possible to fly to Lampung from Jakarta in under an hour, an alternative of a 27 km ferry service is available crossing from Merak, at the northwestern tip of Java, to the new ferry terminal at Bakauheni at Sumatra’s southeastern extremity.
The Sunda Strait separating these two huge islands have a certain grandeur and historical significance, and from the ferry you can sometimes catch ominous glimpses to the south of the infamous Krakatau volcano, which erupted with devastating force in 1883 producing tidal waves that killed 35,000 people on both sides of the straits.
From Bakauheni, it is an easy 99 km and 2 hours to Bandar Lampung along a broad, fast road. If you have the time, you can break your journey at Kalianda, 38 km from the ferry to visit the old hot sulfur springs at Way Balirang, 3 km above the town. Constructed by the Dutch, each of its three pools has a different mineral content.
There are also two other hot spring pools in the town itself. Also here are the remains of an old fort from which the Indonesian national hero Raden Intan II (1830-1889) harassed the Dutch. His grave, an object of veneration, lies nearby.
The Kalianda area is dominated by Mt. Rajabasa (1,281 m), a dormant volcano whose slopes are dotted with yellow green clove trees. A scenic road encircles the volcano to the south of the town, passing along the coast through a series of lovely fishing villages.
From the village of Canti you can hop a small ferry to the offshore islands of Sebuku and Sebesi. Boats can also be chartered here for the choppy, 3 hour crossing to Krakatau. From Canti you can also climb up to Mt. Rajabasa’s Summit in several hours. Book a guide first at the Canti pier, register with the local police and get an early morning start. North of Kalianda, the main road to Bandar Lampung heads inland, but after 9 km a well marked side road to the left leads to a lovely beach at Merak Belantung, a sheltered cove off Lampung Bay. This sandy shore is ideal for swimming and sunbathing, and there are small cottages here for rent, and a restaurant offering meals by the beach.
Other beaches line the road much closer to Bandar Lampung, including Pasir Putih, 16 km south of the city, where you have spectacular views of Lampung Bay, several small uninhabited offshore islands, and Krakatau in the distance on a clear day small boats take you across to a white sand beach on Condone Island, which has food kiosks and is only 10 minutes away.
The provincial capital and university town of Bandar Lampung overlooks one of the most scenic bays in the whole of Sumatra.
The city was formed recently through an amalgamation of Tanjung Karang, the former colonial administrative center which lies up on a hillside overlooking the bay, and its adjacent port of Teluk Betung down by the water, terminuos of the southern Sumatra railway system. Good roads link the capital with all other parts of the province, there are many fine hotels here, and interesting side trips can be made using the capital as your base.
The city’s main attraction is the Provincial Museum on Jl. Teuku Umar, which has a good collection of kain tapis, embroidered cloth, local musical instruments and wedding customs. There is also a collection of archeological finds from Labuan Meringgai (on the east coast) and Suberjaya (in the north west), including Dongson bronze drums. Chinese ceramics and carnelian and glass beads all of which suggest that Lampung was involved in an extensive trading network linking it with eastern Indonesia, India and Indochina some 2,000 years ago.
In the evenings, the Pasar Mambo night market near the Teluk Betung harbor has delicious fresh seafood, while the open air terrace of the Marcopolo Hotel up in Tanjung Karang is the perfect place to sit and admire the view as you enjoy a drink.
An excursion to the east of Bandar Lampung leads to the elephant training station and nature reserve at Way Kambas, and can be combined with a stop at the fortified prehistoric site of Pugung Raharjo, 42 km to the northeast of the city . the latter covers an area of about 30 ha in the midst of pepper, clove and coffee plantation, and has remains dating from at least the 12th to the 17th centuries and probably earlier. Sights here include 13 prehistoric stepped temple mounds (punden berundak), a Buddhist statue and the remain of a fortified settlement. Legend has it that water from a spring at the site cures all ills and restores youth, and the area was once considered ‘haunted.’ It was uninhabited until transmigrants moved here in the 1950s, which is when the first artifacts were discovered.
To reach the site, take the road northeast from panjang (6 km south of Bandar Lampung). The road climbs away from a bay and across a broad plain to the Sekampung River valley. Shortly after crossing the river, a left-hand turn at the Jabang crossroad brings you 2 km north to the small site museum. Displays here include a 7th–century Srivijayan ‘ curse’ inscription discovered at the village of Bungkuk, and an unusual bodhisatva statue. A further 1 km along a paved road brings you to the archeological site.
The ancient settlement was defended by an impressive series of ramparts and ditches the remains of witch still run for 1,200m along the eastern perimeter of the site and for 300m along the west. Inside are a number of megalithic structures, including standing ancestor stones and ancient stepped pyramids, which were probably used in the Islamic religious ceremonies. Many scholars think that such prehistoric mounds, such as those in India, may have influenced the development of later Buddhist monuments such as Borobudur. Other stones found here include mortars, possibly used in rainmaking ceremonies, and several grooved batu bergores, the significance of which is unknown. Northeast of the complex is another small megalithic group, known as batu umpak (pedestals).
To continue on the Way Kambas, return to the main road and head east across a small range of hills to the coastal plain. Turn left at the T-junction and continue on past Jepara to Tridatu. The road to the reserve’s elephant school, which has 30 lumbering ‘pupils’, you can watch the elephants being trained and take a short safari around the park. To visit the nearby Way Kanan River, continue along the main road for another 13,3 km. There, you may hire a perahu to take you downriver to the simple guesthouse. Some 280-bird species live along the river.
Most people just can’t wait to hop on a bus to begin the long, arduous and often boring (especially in the south) journey up the Trans Sumatra Highway to Bukittinggi and Lake Toba.
In fact, many interesting sights lie in the vicinity of Bandar Lampung, particularly to the west of the city. Here the Bukit Barisan range meets the Indian Ocean and forms two huge bays Smangka and Lampung that creates a long and incredibly dramatic coastline. The remote and densely forested mountains at the southwestern Lampung, have recently been declared a national park known as Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. The park covers 3,568 sq km all up and down the west coast and mountains of Lampung province, and is the home of Sumatran tigers, honey bears, elephants, rhinos, bearded pigs, Argus pheasants, rare orchids, rafflesia and the Amorphophallus titanium the world’s tallest flower.
Ascenic road hugs the rocky western shore of Lampung Bay immediately to the southwest of Bandar Lampung, passing tiny coves and islets on the way to the village of Padang Cermin. About 33 minutes out of the city, you will arrive at the fishing village of Ketapang, where it is possible to hire motorboats to offshore islands. Be aware that this is also top secret Japanese pearl farming area, and security is tight in some places.
Another road heads due west of the city along the upper reaches of the Sekampung River to the town of Kota Agung, located at the head of Semangka Bay about 2 hours away. After 1,5 hours you can stop at the foot of Mt. Tanggamus (2,102 m), where a concrete stairway constructed during the Dutch times leads 1,100 m down to waterfalls formed by the Way Lalan River. Beyond the first fall, a second, grander fall awaits the visitor. Bring along your swimming suit.
From Kota Agung, it is possible to take a motorized perahu down the west coast of the bay to the village of Tampang, located at the southernmost tip of Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, a journey of about 5 hours. From Tampang you can hike across the peninsula through the jungle along a 32 km trail to Belimbing. Of historical interest is a 57 m lighthouse overlooking Belimbing Bay, built in 1879 by the Dutch. From atop the lighthouse you have dramatic views of the Indian Ocean, its powerful surf crashing against the coast, and of an unused airs tip built by the Japanese during the Second World War. Take a guide and plenty of food and water.
An alternative route into the park starts at Bukit Kemuning, 130 km north of Bandar Lampung on the Trans Sumatra Highway, and cuts westward through the mountains to the traditional fishing village of Krui, on the west coast. The road climbs up through the hills, affording magnificent views. At Simpangsari, about 30 km from Bukit Kemuning, turn off led to visit the megalithic complex at Sumberjaya, near the head waters of the Way Besai, a tributary of the mighty Tulangbawang River. Here rows of large upright ancestor stones and dolmens stand facing the nearby Mt. Abung. Imported Chinese ceramics from the 8th and 11th centuries (Srivijayan period), which may have been used in ritual ceremonies, have been recovered at Sumberjaya. Other megalithic completed can be seen in the immediate vicinity.
Further west, you will pass several dammar (resin) collecting villages. At Liwa, a side road forks north to beautiful Lake Ranau.
From Liwa the road descends steeply through a pass to the coastal village of Krui. Pisang Island, visible to the northwest, is where Lampung’s famous kain tapis are woven and can be reached by boat. Krui is also known for its pepper. During the British occupation of Bengkulu (1685-1824), a tiny outpost was established here.
In the old graveyard at Krui was a tombstone, which was once in English but had been rein, scribed in the Lampung script. It commemorated one Bob Brown, son of James Brown Esq, who was resident of Krui from 1809 to 1814. A translation of the Lampung script reads, this is the inscription of the grave of Bab Barawan, son of the Resident Masta Bab Barawan Iskanwayar, from a union with a Lampung woman. The dates are illegible but presumably in November of 1814.
Way Kambas is one of the oldest reserves in Indonesia, declared in 1937 by the Dutch during the colonial period. It covers a triangle of marshy lowlands along the eastern coast of Lampung, measuring some 1,300 sq km in area. The habitats at Way Kambas are different from those of other Sumatran parks, as they consist largely of freshwater swamps and include one of the few strands of lowland diptero carp forests in any Sumatran reserve. The coast is lined with mangroves, nipa palms and casuarinas. It was declared a reserve because its wildlife, and unfortunately most of the forests within the original park boundaries have been cut.
Commercial products such as dammar (a tree resin used I making varnish), timber, honey and animals are still being extracted.
In Way Kambas there is an elephant training program, which had been started in the mid 1980s, after much deliberation over what to do about southern Sumatra’s wild elephant problem. Over the last 20 years the forests of this region have been cleared to make way for plantations and transmigration settlements. Of all the animals displaced, elephants have posed the most persistent nuisance to the new settlers trampling crops and even attacking their homes. Villagers complained that while elephants had complete freedom to do as they pleased, they were not allowed to do anything to stop them, as elephants are protected species.
The solution seemed simple enough. In other regions of South and Southeast Asia, elephants are commonly captured and domesticated. In Sumatra, this practice died out hundreds of years ago but why not revive it. So in 1985, two Thai elephants and their mahouts were brought in to begin a training program, with the aim of taking animals from the wild and training them to become productive members of the tourism industry. Since it began, the program has dramatically raised the profile of the park from an obscure reserve to a popular place offering safari rides on elephant back across the park’s flat, open terrain.
In the West, there is a tendency to criticize the use of wild animals to provide amusement and labor for humans. But the alternative for these elephants would probably be a slow death after being caught in a poacher’s noose or being poisoned by villagers. They can instead serve a useful purpose in attracting tourists (and their money) to the region, providing jobs and helping to explain to people in concrete terms why there is a need for national parks and reserve areas.
The main access to Way Kambas is from the village of Tridatu, 10 km north of Jepara. The turn off the right is well marked. It takes about 2 hours to drive here from Bandar Lampung, and about 3 hours from the Java Sumatra ferry terminal at Bakauheni (7 hours altogether from Jakarta). Make sure you arrive during office hours, so that officials at the park office can issue you a permit.
It is estimated that there are over 300 wild elephants living in Way Kambas, and this is the best place in Indonesia to see them. After their capture from the wild, the elephants are given twice daily training classes, at 8 am and again at 3 pm. These classes at the same time provide training for local mahouts, each of whom is assigned his own elephant. It is hoped that looking after an elephant will become a source of pride and income for families in the area, with sons learning to take over from their fathers.
If you intend to stay overnight, there is a simple guesthouse at Way Kanan, 13.5 km past the park entrance. The road there is negotiable only by 4 wheel drive vehicles. The guesthouse at Way Kanan is very basic, and you must bring along all food and eating utensils and to be prepared to cook over an open fire. For most people it is better to make a day trip, timing your visit to coincide with one of the elephant classes at Kandangsari.
Other wildlife abounds in the reserve. Along the road to Way Kanan, agile long tailed macaques and heavier set pig tailed macaques watch you approach before dashing into the bushes, while families of pigs frequently trot across the road right in front of you. In the morning the wild calls of siamangs and dark handed gibbons ring out in a wonderful morning chores, adding to the natural concert of a whole host of birds.
From Way Kanan, take a boat down stream to the coast, and ask the driver to turn the motor off so you can drift quietly with the current and see more wildlife. Monitor lizards frequent the riverbanks, slipping into the river at the slightest disturbance. Giant squirrels and monkeys quickly scamper up trees along the banks, and stork billed kingfishers with yellow head and red bill take flight in a streak of bright turquoise.
For birders with more time, an alternative route into Way Kambas is via the port of Labuhan Meringgai, south of the park. From the port it is a 4 hour boat ride up the coast to the Way Kambas estuary. The river is then navigable for 25 km upstream, and from the boat you can see colonies of herons, storks and waders. During the wet season (November to March), higher water levels offer an excellent opportunity to explore swamps areas, which are normally inaccessible by canoe.
The name comes from an old Sanskrit word, karkata, meaning crab (perhaps referring to the shape of atolls once formed by the volcano’s caldera). It lies in the middle of the Sunda Strait, right on the unstable elbow where the range of volcanic mountains forming Sumatra turns abruptly eastward to form Java. Ancient Javanese chronicles tell of a mountain here called Kapi, which in about AD 416 burst into pieces with a tremendous roar and sank into the depths of the earth, and the water of the sea rose and inundated the land. Whether Kapi was Krakatau we call never knows, but geologists have shown that at least one massive eruption of Krakatau took place in pro-modern times.
At the end of the 19th century, Krakatau was a fertile and pleasant island, though one which had long been deserted by human inhabitants. Tropical jungle clothed the slopes of its three peaks Rakata (830 m), Danan and Perbuatan. This was the spot where European mariners once filled their larger with giant sea turtles, as well as the occasional supplies of pepper and rice, which they purchased from small villages along the shores.
The eruption of Krakatau was unheralded. Beginning in early June 1883, tremors shook the town of Anyer on the west coast of Java for several days. By the middle of June puffs of steam and ash were visible above cone of Perbuatan but on an island where the earth regularly trembles and dozens of volcanoes frequently emit smorek, few took special notice.
By the end of June, however, Krakatau presented s fearsome sight. Two columns of steam rose from the island, now blanketed with grey ash, and only the bare trunks of large trees remind of the once luxuriant jungle. The waters surrounding the island churned and heaved, while here and there floated carpets of pumice so thick a man could walk on them. A party of sightseers from Batavia reported a fiery purple glow, appearing every 5 to 10 minutes, from which a fire rain felt.
This overture to one of nature’s greatest known cataclysms lasted for 2 months. Finally, early in the afternoon of August 26th, 1883, Krakatau exploded with a series of road heard round the world from Rangoon, Burma to Perth, Australia. A pillar of ash and pumice lowered 26 km into the sky. Rock and dust rained over the surrounding region, forming a blanket cloud, which turned day into night for 130 km in every direction. Ash from the eruption gradually spread throughout the atmosphere, creating spectacular sunsets across the world for two years.
The finale came the following morning, when a gaping maw in the earth’s crust hollowed out by the expulsion of 18 cubic km of ash and rock collapsed on itself, the sea rushed in and began to boil immediately upon contact with the molten rock, throwing up tsunamis (tidal waves) 10 meters high. The waves could still be detected a day and a half later when they finally rolled against the coast of France.
The devastation around Krakatau was of incredible proportions. All coastal villages facing the Sunda Strait were obliterated. No one knows the exact toll in human lives, though a common figure cited is 35,000. Eye witnessed described a wall of water taller than a palm tree sweeping away everything in its path. In Teluk Betung (now Bandai Lampung), the funnel effect of the narrow Lampung Bay lifted the waves to a high of 30 meters, carrying a Dutch gunboat more than 2 km inland.
When the waves subsided and the dust dispersed, three quarters of Krakatau was gone. The peak of Rakata was still close to its original height, but its northern half had disappeared sliced off as if by a knife, leaving a sheer cliff plunging 300 m to the sea below. Two islands, Panjang and Sertung, had been totally reshaped, while debris from the eruption merged to form islands farther away.
Krakatau remained in a state of geological flux for sometime. The new islands disappeared within a few years, but volcanic activity continued below the surface, and in January 1928 the rim of a new crater rose close to where the vent of Perbuatan had first erupted. Since then, Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatau) has continued to grow, and now stands 150 m high. This baby island gives scientists a fascinating opportunity to observe the colonization of plant and animal species on new soil.
To see Krakatau you need only travel on the ferry from Java and along the southeastern coasts of Lampung. As long as the air is clear, the old peak of Rakata will be visible on the horizon a low, symmetrical cone about 50 km offshore. Although most people approach the volcano from Java’s west coast, an excursion is also possible from Canti, a fishing village not far from the Java-Sumatra ferry, lying along the scenic road that encircles Mt. Rajabasa just south of Kalianda. Choose a sturdy boat and a reliable crew the return journey can take 6-8 hours and the narrow straits can be dangerous in rough weather, especially December to April.
Visitors land at the island’s southern corner, where pine like casuarinas, hardy colonizers of the shoreline, offer welcome shade. Walk north along the beach until the vegetation thins out, and then strike uphill. The succulent plants of the shore quickly give way to clumps of tough grass, but even these only survive on the first few hundred meters.
The slope looks gentle but the going is tough. The fine, black volcanic sand, hot under the tropical sun, gives way underfoot, causing the trekker to slide backwards with each step. Twenty or thirty minutes bring you to the crest of a ridge the outer edge of Anak Krakatau’s crater. From here the view is spectacular. The smoldering cone is in front and a dark skirt of recent lava flows on either side while behind behinds you the slope you have just climbed spreads out like a fan, delicately edged with young, green vegetation and fringed with a line of surf. The older islands of Rakata, Sertung and Panjang hover in a circle like ladies in waiting.
The truly enthusiastic can venture further, down into a scorching hot valley where giant misshapen lumps of lava lie as they fell from the sky, and up a rocky path on the other side past sulphur fumaroles to the edge of the inner crater. The view is no better from here, but there is an awe inspiring sensation in standing next to avoid that leads straight to the underworld
Due to its location, Lampung has consequently been the area of Sumatra most influenced, socially and economically by the densely populated island of Java.
Like most of Sumatra, Lampung was very sparsely populated until the early decades of this century. Thanks to a flood of immigrants from Java, in recent years Lampung had one of the highest population growth rates in Indonesia, and is now the most densely populated province in Sumatra. In the past two decades, the population has grown from 2.3 to over 6 million living in area of 33,307 sq km.
Only one in ten of Lampung’s population is descended from the indigenous people, which comprised three distinct groups. First, the Orang Abung or mountain people, who practiced headhunting and remained in isolation until the 19th century. Second, the Orang Pubian who inhabited the eastern lowlands and third the Orang Peminggir or people of the south coast around Lampung and Semangka Bays, who probably came under suzerainty of Palembang based Srivijaya, and were later Islam zed through influence from Java.
According to local legends, all these people have a single ancestor, Si Lampung, from whom the province derives its name. their descendants today speak two closely related languages, Komering and Lampung, but due to the influx of migrants, even more people here no speak Sundanese or Javanese.
Life in Lampung was probably always unsettled especially along the coasts, which were susceptible to piratical slave raids.
Many settlements were protected by earthen ramparts and thorny bamboo hedges. Two inscriptions of the mighty Srivijayan empire attest to a direct involvement in the late 7th century, no doubt fostered by Lampung’s rich resources of sold and dammar, a valuable tree resin.
In the 16th century, the Islamic sultan of Banten of West Java gradually took control of the region, conferring the tittle of punggawa (representative) on Lampung chiefs in return for deliveries of pepper grown in the interior. This made Banten the largest and wealthiest pepper port in the archipelago at the time that the first Europeans arrived. The Dutch eventually took over this trade in the late 17th century.
The traditional culture of Lampung reflects indigenous beliefs overlain by Hindu Buddhist and Islamic influences. A strong megalithic tradition continued until fairly recent times, the pepadon or ritual throne used by Lampung chiefs appears to have had megalithic origins, and ancient stone sculptures show the ancestors with symbolic motifs that suggest sacrificial rites.
The influence of Dongson bronze kettledrums is also apparent in the spirals, curves and stylized human and animal figures of the sacred Lampung ship cloths. These ubiquitous fabrics played an important role in ritual and marriage ceremonies, and rank among the world’s most striking traditional textiles.
Over the past century rapid changes have taken place. Migrations were encouraged during the Dutch colonial rule as a means of relieving Java’s population pressures. This was stepped up in the 1960s and 70s through the Indonesian government transmigration programs. Today only about 20 percent of Lampung’s forests remain some, like Way Kambas Reserve, now designated as special wild life areas. Most areas of Lampung are cultivated with wet rice sawah or groves of oil palms, rubber, coconut, coffee and cloves.
All the three native peoples of Lampung are famous for a distinctive form of textile that commonly features geometric ship motifs. These extraordinary fabrics are collectively known as ship cloths and are prized the world over by textile collectors.
The production of these cloths dates back to an era when a lucrative pepper trade flourished in Lampung. The collapse of the pepper trade in the last century brought about the demise of many local traditions including the time consuming production of these ritual cloths, which have not been woven for over 100 years. Nowadays such fabrics are rare collectors items, costing a small fortune when they can be found at all.
By their form and function, the cloths may be divided into two categories tampan and palepai. The former are small and square in shape, measuring no more than a meter across, the latter are long and narrow, averaging 3 meters in length and half a meter in width. The ornamentation of the two is quite different tampan often have précis, even abstract motifs, whereas paella normally depicts solid, easily recognizable objects. The decorative style of both displays a clear affinity with Bronze Age designs found in Dongson kettledrums, especially the stylized double spirals, meanders and hook and key motifs on the borders.
Tampan and palepai were woven by identical techniques single colored supplemental wefts were applied to a plain weave foundation. The biggest job was to count out the threads needed for the intricate patterns before mounting them on the handloom.
Peminggir women made palepai as well as tampan Pubian and Abung women made tampan only.
The Peminggir are organized in patrilineal descent groups or suku. Four or more of these suku constitute a so called marga.
Their members have a number of titles, of which the Penyimbang, descendants of the founder of a suku or marga, are the most important representing an aristocratic class privileged to own palepai.
A number of small, clearly recognizable objects are often depicted on palepai standing astride the deck of the ship people, animals, trees and houses. A distinction is usually made between palepai having red ships. On very rare palepai having blue and those having red ships. On very rare palepai only rows of human figures are shown without any ship at all.
The designs of tampan are much more diverse and difficult to categorize. The skip motif is, as on the rare palepai, sometimes completely missing in which case the design may consist of a big bird or various small birds, a tree, or other more abstract motifs. Simple rows of human forms are also found on tampan.
The ship motif nevertheless predominates on all these cloths above all symbolizing transition and movement, a nation appropriate to the life cycle rituals in which they are used. Apart from this, the ship also expresses social structure. The person undergoing the rite finds himself on the border between two phases in life a time that is considered unsettling and potentially quite dangerous. He is helped along in the next stage by highly structured rituals, in which the society as a whole is represented as a ship carrying its members along.
During marriage rituals, for instance, the bridal couple is borne in a procession in the shape of a ship, in which all suku in the marga take up prescribed positions. In this way, the newlyweds are brought from a temporarily insecure position on the fringes of society to a secure and stable position within the social fabric.
Though it is possible to fly to Lampung from Jakarta in under an hour, an alternative of a 27 km ferry service is available crossing from Merak, at the northwestern tip of Java, to the new ferry terminal at Bakauheni at Sumatra’s southeastern extremity.
The Sunda Strait separating these two huge islands have a certain grandeur and historical significance, and from the ferry you can sometimes catch ominous glimpses to the south of the infamous Krakatau volcano, which erupted with devastating force in 1883 producing tidal waves that killed 35,000 people on both sides of the straits.
From Bakauheni, it is an easy 99 km and 2 hours to Bandar Lampung along a broad, fast road. If you have the time, you can break your journey at Kalianda, 38 km from the ferry to visit the old hot sulfur springs at Way Balirang, 3 km above the town. Constructed by the Dutch, each of its three pools has a different mineral content.
There are also two other hot spring pools in the town itself. Also here are the remains of an old fort from which the Indonesian national hero Raden Intan II (1830-1889) harassed the Dutch. His grave, an object of veneration, lies nearby.
The Kalianda area is dominated by Mt. Rajabasa (1,281 m), a dormant volcano whose slopes are dotted with yellow green clove trees. A scenic road encircles the volcano to the south of the town, passing along the coast through a series of lovely fishing villages.
From the village of Canti you can hop a small ferry to the offshore islands of Sebuku and Sebesi. Boats can also be chartered here for the choppy, 3 hour crossing to Krakatau. From Canti you can also climb up to Mt. Rajabasa’s Summit in several hours. Book a guide first at the Canti pier, register with the local police and get an early morning start. North of Kalianda, the main road to Bandar Lampung heads inland, but after 9 km a well marked side road to the left leads to a lovely beach at Merak Belantung, a sheltered cove off Lampung Bay. This sandy shore is ideal for swimming and sunbathing, and there are small cottages here for rent, and a restaurant offering meals by the beach.
Other beaches line the road much closer to Bandar Lampung, including Pasir Putih, 16 km south of the city, where you have spectacular views of Lampung Bay, several small uninhabited offshore islands, and Krakatau in the distance on a clear day small boats take you across to a white sand beach on Condone Island, which has food kiosks and is only 10 minutes away.
The provincial capital and university town of Bandar Lampung overlooks one of the most scenic bays in the whole of Sumatra.
The city was formed recently through an amalgamation of Tanjung Karang, the former colonial administrative center which lies up on a hillside overlooking the bay, and its adjacent port of Teluk Betung down by the water, terminuos of the southern Sumatra railway system. Good roads link the capital with all other parts of the province, there are many fine hotels here, and interesting side trips can be made using the capital as your base.
The city’s main attraction is the Provincial Museum on Jl. Teuku Umar, which has a good collection of kain tapis, embroidered cloth, local musical instruments and wedding customs. There is also a collection of archeological finds from Labuan Meringgai (on the east coast) and Suberjaya (in the north west), including Dongson bronze drums. Chinese ceramics and carnelian and glass beads all of which suggest that Lampung was involved in an extensive trading network linking it with eastern Indonesia, India and Indochina some 2,000 years ago.
In the evenings, the Pasar Mambo night market near the Teluk Betung harbor has delicious fresh seafood, while the open air terrace of the Marcopolo Hotel up in Tanjung Karang is the perfect place to sit and admire the view as you enjoy a drink.
An excursion to the east of Bandar Lampung leads to the elephant training station and nature reserve at Way Kambas, and can be combined with a stop at the fortified prehistoric site of Pugung Raharjo, 42 km to the northeast of the city . the latter covers an area of about 30 ha in the midst of pepper, clove and coffee plantation, and has remains dating from at least the 12th to the 17th centuries and probably earlier. Sights here include 13 prehistoric stepped temple mounds (punden berundak), a Buddhist statue and the remain of a fortified settlement. Legend has it that water from a spring at the site cures all ills and restores youth, and the area was once considered ‘haunted.’ It was uninhabited until transmigrants moved here in the 1950s, which is when the first artifacts were discovered.
To reach the site, take the road northeast from panjang (6 km south of Bandar Lampung). The road climbs away from a bay and across a broad plain to the Sekampung River valley. Shortly after crossing the river, a left-hand turn at the Jabang crossroad brings you 2 km north to the small site museum. Displays here include a 7th–century Srivijayan ‘ curse’ inscription discovered at the village of Bungkuk, and an unusual bodhisatva statue. A further 1 km along a paved road brings you to the archeological site.
The ancient settlement was defended by an impressive series of ramparts and ditches the remains of witch still run for 1,200m along the eastern perimeter of the site and for 300m along the west. Inside are a number of megalithic structures, including standing ancestor stones and ancient stepped pyramids, which were probably used in the Islamic religious ceremonies. Many scholars think that such prehistoric mounds, such as those in India, may have influenced the development of later Buddhist monuments such as Borobudur. Other stones found here include mortars, possibly used in rainmaking ceremonies, and several grooved batu bergores, the significance of which is unknown. Northeast of the complex is another small megalithic group, known as batu umpak (pedestals).
To continue on the Way Kambas, return to the main road and head east across a small range of hills to the coastal plain. Turn left at the T-junction and continue on past Jepara to Tridatu. The road to the reserve’s elephant school, which has 30 lumbering ‘pupils’, you can watch the elephants being trained and take a short safari around the park. To visit the nearby Way Kanan River, continue along the main road for another 13,3 km. There, you may hire a perahu to take you downriver to the simple guesthouse. Some 280-bird species live along the river.
Most people just can’t wait to hop on a bus to begin the long, arduous and often boring (especially in the south) journey up the Trans Sumatra Highway to Bukittinggi and Lake Toba.
In fact, many interesting sights lie in the vicinity of Bandar Lampung, particularly to the west of the city. Here the Bukit Barisan range meets the Indian Ocean and forms two huge bays Smangka and Lampung that creates a long and incredibly dramatic coastline. The remote and densely forested mountains at the southwestern Lampung, have recently been declared a national park known as Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. The park covers 3,568 sq km all up and down the west coast and mountains of Lampung province, and is the home of Sumatran tigers, honey bears, elephants, rhinos, bearded pigs, Argus pheasants, rare orchids, rafflesia and the Amorphophallus titanium the world’s tallest flower.
Ascenic road hugs the rocky western shore of Lampung Bay immediately to the southwest of Bandar Lampung, passing tiny coves and islets on the way to the village of Padang Cermin. About 33 minutes out of the city, you will arrive at the fishing village of Ketapang, where it is possible to hire motorboats to offshore islands. Be aware that this is also top secret Japanese pearl farming area, and security is tight in some places.
Another road heads due west of the city along the upper reaches of the Sekampung River to the town of Kota Agung, located at the head of Semangka Bay about 2 hours away. After 1,5 hours you can stop at the foot of Mt. Tanggamus (2,102 m), where a concrete stairway constructed during the Dutch times leads 1,100 m down to waterfalls formed by the Way Lalan River. Beyond the first fall, a second, grander fall awaits the visitor. Bring along your swimming suit.
From Kota Agung, it is possible to take a motorized perahu down the west coast of the bay to the village of Tampang, located at the southernmost tip of Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, a journey of about 5 hours. From Tampang you can hike across the peninsula through the jungle along a 32 km trail to Belimbing. Of historical interest is a 57 m lighthouse overlooking Belimbing Bay, built in 1879 by the Dutch. From atop the lighthouse you have dramatic views of the Indian Ocean, its powerful surf crashing against the coast, and of an unused airs tip built by the Japanese during the Second World War. Take a guide and plenty of food and water.
An alternative route into the park starts at Bukit Kemuning, 130 km north of Bandar Lampung on the Trans Sumatra Highway, and cuts westward through the mountains to the traditional fishing village of Krui, on the west coast. The road climbs up through the hills, affording magnificent views. At Simpangsari, about 30 km from Bukit Kemuning, turn off led to visit the megalithic complex at Sumberjaya, near the head waters of the Way Besai, a tributary of the mighty Tulangbawang River. Here rows of large upright ancestor stones and dolmens stand facing the nearby Mt. Abung. Imported Chinese ceramics from the 8th and 11th centuries (Srivijayan period), which may have been used in ritual ceremonies, have been recovered at Sumberjaya. Other megalithic completed can be seen in the immediate vicinity.
Further west, you will pass several dammar (resin) collecting villages. At Liwa, a side road forks north to beautiful Lake Ranau.
From Liwa the road descends steeply through a pass to the coastal village of Krui. Pisang Island, visible to the northwest, is where Lampung’s famous kain tapis are woven and can be reached by boat. Krui is also known for its pepper. During the British occupation of Bengkulu (1685-1824), a tiny outpost was established here.
In the old graveyard at Krui was a tombstone, which was once in English but had been rein, scribed in the Lampung script. It commemorated one Bob Brown, son of James Brown Esq, who was resident of Krui from 1809 to 1814. A translation of the Lampung script reads, this is the inscription of the grave of Bab Barawan, son of the Resident Masta Bab Barawan Iskanwayar, from a union with a Lampung woman. The dates are illegible but presumably in November of 1814.
Way Kambas is one of the oldest reserves in Indonesia, declared in 1937 by the Dutch during the colonial period. It covers a triangle of marshy lowlands along the eastern coast of Lampung, measuring some 1,300 sq km in area. The habitats at Way Kambas are different from those of other Sumatran parks, as they consist largely of freshwater swamps and include one of the few strands of lowland diptero carp forests in any Sumatran reserve. The coast is lined with mangroves, nipa palms and casuarinas. It was declared a reserve because its wildlife, and unfortunately most of the forests within the original park boundaries have been cut.
Commercial products such as dammar (a tree resin used I making varnish), timber, honey and animals are still being extracted.
In Way Kambas there is an elephant training program, which had been started in the mid 1980s, after much deliberation over what to do about southern Sumatra’s wild elephant problem. Over the last 20 years the forests of this region have been cleared to make way for plantations and transmigration settlements. Of all the animals displaced, elephants have posed the most persistent nuisance to the new settlers trampling crops and even attacking their homes. Villagers complained that while elephants had complete freedom to do as they pleased, they were not allowed to do anything to stop them, as elephants are protected species.
The solution seemed simple enough. In other regions of South and Southeast Asia, elephants are commonly captured and domesticated. In Sumatra, this practice died out hundreds of years ago but why not revive it. So in 1985, two Thai elephants and their mahouts were brought in to begin a training program, with the aim of taking animals from the wild and training them to become productive members of the tourism industry. Since it began, the program has dramatically raised the profile of the park from an obscure reserve to a popular place offering safari rides on elephant back across the park’s flat, open terrain.
In the West, there is a tendency to criticize the use of wild animals to provide amusement and labor for humans. But the alternative for these elephants would probably be a slow death after being caught in a poacher’s noose or being poisoned by villagers. They can instead serve a useful purpose in attracting tourists (and their money) to the region, providing jobs and helping to explain to people in concrete terms why there is a need for national parks and reserve areas.
The main access to Way Kambas is from the village of Tridatu, 10 km north of Jepara. The turn off the right is well marked. It takes about 2 hours to drive here from Bandar Lampung, and about 3 hours from the Java Sumatra ferry terminal at Bakauheni (7 hours altogether from Jakarta). Make sure you arrive during office hours, so that officials at the park office can issue you a permit.
It is estimated that there are over 300 wild elephants living in Way Kambas, and this is the best place in Indonesia to see them. After their capture from the wild, the elephants are given twice daily training classes, at 8 am and again at 3 pm. These classes at the same time provide training for local mahouts, each of whom is assigned his own elephant. It is hoped that looking after an elephant will become a source of pride and income for families in the area, with sons learning to take over from their fathers.
If you intend to stay overnight, there is a simple guesthouse at Way Kanan, 13.5 km past the park entrance. The road there is negotiable only by 4 wheel drive vehicles. The guesthouse at Way Kanan is very basic, and you must bring along all food and eating utensils and to be prepared to cook over an open fire. For most people it is better to make a day trip, timing your visit to coincide with one of the elephant classes at Kandangsari.
Other wildlife abounds in the reserve. Along the road to Way Kanan, agile long tailed macaques and heavier set pig tailed macaques watch you approach before dashing into the bushes, while families of pigs frequently trot across the road right in front of you. In the morning the wild calls of siamangs and dark handed gibbons ring out in a wonderful morning chores, adding to the natural concert of a whole host of birds.
From Way Kanan, take a boat down stream to the coast, and ask the driver to turn the motor off so you can drift quietly with the current and see more wildlife. Monitor lizards frequent the riverbanks, slipping into the river at the slightest disturbance. Giant squirrels and monkeys quickly scamper up trees along the banks, and stork billed kingfishers with yellow head and red bill take flight in a streak of bright turquoise.
For birders with more time, an alternative route into Way Kambas is via the port of Labuhan Meringgai, south of the park. From the port it is a 4 hour boat ride up the coast to the Way Kambas estuary. The river is then navigable for 25 km upstream, and from the boat you can see colonies of herons, storks and waders. During the wet season (November to March), higher water levels offer an excellent opportunity to explore swamps areas, which are normally inaccessible by canoe.
- KRAKATAU
The name comes from an old Sanskrit word, karkata, meaning crab (perhaps referring to the shape of atolls once formed by the volcano’s caldera). It lies in the middle of the Sunda Strait, right on the unstable elbow where the range of volcanic mountains forming Sumatra turns abruptly eastward to form Java. Ancient Javanese chronicles tell of a mountain here called Kapi, which in about AD 416 burst into pieces with a tremendous roar and sank into the depths of the earth, and the water of the sea rose and inundated the land. Whether Kapi was Krakatau we call never knows, but geologists have shown that at least one massive eruption of Krakatau took place in pro-modern times.
At the end of the 19th century, Krakatau was a fertile and pleasant island, though one which had long been deserted by human inhabitants. Tropical jungle clothed the slopes of its three peaks Rakata (830 m), Danan and Perbuatan. This was the spot where European mariners once filled their larger with giant sea turtles, as well as the occasional supplies of pepper and rice, which they purchased from small villages along the shores.
The eruption of Krakatau was unheralded. Beginning in early June 1883, tremors shook the town of Anyer on the west coast of Java for several days. By the middle of June puffs of steam and ash were visible above cone of Perbuatan but on an island where the earth regularly trembles and dozens of volcanoes frequently emit smorek, few took special notice.
By the end of June, however, Krakatau presented s fearsome sight. Two columns of steam rose from the island, now blanketed with grey ash, and only the bare trunks of large trees remind of the once luxuriant jungle. The waters surrounding the island churned and heaved, while here and there floated carpets of pumice so thick a man could walk on them. A party of sightseers from Batavia reported a fiery purple glow, appearing every 5 to 10 minutes, from which a fire rain felt.
This overture to one of nature’s greatest known cataclysms lasted for 2 months. Finally, early in the afternoon of August 26th, 1883, Krakatau exploded with a series of road heard round the world from Rangoon, Burma to Perth, Australia. A pillar of ash and pumice lowered 26 km into the sky. Rock and dust rained over the surrounding region, forming a blanket cloud, which turned day into night for 130 km in every direction. Ash from the eruption gradually spread throughout the atmosphere, creating spectacular sunsets across the world for two years.
The finale came the following morning, when a gaping maw in the earth’s crust hollowed out by the expulsion of 18 cubic km of ash and rock collapsed on itself, the sea rushed in and began to boil immediately upon contact with the molten rock, throwing up tsunamis (tidal waves) 10 meters high. The waves could still be detected a day and a half later when they finally rolled against the coast of France.
The devastation around Krakatau was of incredible proportions. All coastal villages facing the Sunda Strait were obliterated. No one knows the exact toll in human lives, though a common figure cited is 35,000. Eye witnessed described a wall of water taller than a palm tree sweeping away everything in its path. In Teluk Betung (now Bandai Lampung), the funnel effect of the narrow Lampung Bay lifted the waves to a high of 30 meters, carrying a Dutch gunboat more than 2 km inland.
When the waves subsided and the dust dispersed, three quarters of Krakatau was gone. The peak of Rakata was still close to its original height, but its northern half had disappeared sliced off as if by a knife, leaving a sheer cliff plunging 300 m to the sea below. Two islands, Panjang and Sertung, had been totally reshaped, while debris from the eruption merged to form islands farther away.
Krakatau remained in a state of geological flux for sometime. The new islands disappeared within a few years, but volcanic activity continued below the surface, and in January 1928 the rim of a new crater rose close to where the vent of Perbuatan had first erupted. Since then, Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatau) has continued to grow, and now stands 150 m high. This baby island gives scientists a fascinating opportunity to observe the colonization of plant and animal species on new soil.
To see Krakatau you need only travel on the ferry from Java and along the southeastern coasts of Lampung. As long as the air is clear, the old peak of Rakata will be visible on the horizon a low, symmetrical cone about 50 km offshore. Although most people approach the volcano from Java’s west coast, an excursion is also possible from Canti, a fishing village not far from the Java-Sumatra ferry, lying along the scenic road that encircles Mt. Rajabasa just south of Kalianda. Choose a sturdy boat and a reliable crew the return journey can take 6-8 hours and the narrow straits can be dangerous in rough weather, especially December to April.
Visitors land at the island’s southern corner, where pine like casuarinas, hardy colonizers of the shoreline, offer welcome shade. Walk north along the beach until the vegetation thins out, and then strike uphill. The succulent plants of the shore quickly give way to clumps of tough grass, but even these only survive on the first few hundred meters.
The slope looks gentle but the going is tough. The fine, black volcanic sand, hot under the tropical sun, gives way underfoot, causing the trekker to slide backwards with each step. Twenty or thirty minutes bring you to the crest of a ridge the outer edge of Anak Krakatau’s crater. From here the view is spectacular. The smoldering cone is in front and a dark skirt of recent lava flows on either side while behind behinds you the slope you have just climbed spreads out like a fan, delicately edged with young, green vegetation and fringed with a line of surf. The older islands of Rakata, Sertung and Panjang hover in a circle like ladies in waiting.
The truly enthusiastic can venture further, down into a scorching hot valley where giant misshapen lumps of lava lie as they fell from the sky, and up a rocky path on the other side past sulphur fumaroles to the edge of the inner crater. The view is no better from here, but there is an awe inspiring sensation in standing next to avoid that leads straight to the underworld