\'Klampok Tempo Doeloe\', a Revival of Past Traditions

KOMPAS/MEGANDIKA WICAKSONO

Participants of The Old Town Festival, which is held under the theme Klampok Tempo Doeloe in Klampok Village, Purwareja Klampok district, Banjarnegara, Central Java, on Saturday (28/4/2018).

The Old Town Festival under the theme of Klampok Tempo Doeloe (Old-Time Klampok) in Banjarnegara, Central Java, has successfully revived the city’s history and past traditions.

Amid the old Dutch-styled buildings and houses, a revival of historical memories and past traditions was underway in the Festival Kota Lama (Old Town Festival) under the theme of Klampok Tempo Doeloe (Old-Time Klampok) in Banjarnegara, Central Java. Gateways designed like old-time fort entrances welcomed visitors into the festivities. Traditional snacks were offered at stalls with straw roofs. In many corners, local artisans showcased their skills in painting batik, weaving bamboo products, making iron tools and performing traditional harvest dances.

Klampok is a village in Purwareja Klampok district, Banjarnegara regency, Central Java. Dozens of teenagers were seen wearing old-time attire at the festival. People wearing Javanese attire beskap, kebaya and jarik were abound. Some dressed like Dutch landlords with their white suits and trousers. Some carried firearm replicas like freedom fighters.

Many old-time means of transportation were on display, including old bicycles, classic jeeps and 1951 Plymouth Cambridge P23-1 cars with 3,570-cc, six-cylinder engines made by United States-based Chrysler Corporation. The cars were a favorite selfie spot for visitors.

Pocong pari

In the festival’s opening on Saturday (28/4/2018), dancers performed the traditional pocong pari dance. Six female dancers wore kebaya and carried woven bamboo baskets with their shawls. Meanwhile, six male dancers wore white shirts, Javanese lurik cloths and bamboo conical hats. Some brought hoes and others brought carrying poles. The carrying poles were made of bamboo and carried bunches of harvested paddies wrapped like pocong (wrapped ghost).

KOMPAS/MEGANDIKA WICAKSONO

Dancers perform the Pocong Pari dance at the Old Town Festival, which is held under the theme Klampok Tempo Doeloe in Klampok Village, Purwareja Klampok district, Banjarnegara, Central Java, on Saturday (28/4/2018).

“There was no sack to carry harvested paddies. People used to carry the paddies on carrying poles,” said Sutejo, head of The Copok community that performed the pocong pari dance. Copok, an abbreviation of “Community Pemuda Kreatif Desa Kalimandi, Kecamatan Purwareja Klampok”, is a local creative youth community.

Apart from the 12 dancers, the dance performance also involved four persons who dressed like scarecrows and carried gunungan. Scarecrows are dolls shaped like farmers and used to scare rice-eating birds. The scarecrows wore tattered clothes and necklaces of used cans, which are rattled to scare away birds.

The five-minute pocong pari dance was accompanied with the “Lesung Jumengglung” traditional song played on speakers. The dancers deftly performed moves that symbolized farming, including loosening the soil with hoes, fertilizing, sowing paddy seeds, harvesting them with harvesting knives and carrying the harvests back home. The paddies are then winnowed with a bamboo winnow.

A form of gratitude

Sutejo said the dance is rarely performed these days, as the mimiti ritual in welcoming the harvest season is disappearing. The mimiti ritual involves several offerings, including young coconut, traditional snacks such as jipang, kue apem, clorot and gethuk, as well as seven types of flowers, cigarettes and incense. “The goal of mimiti is to express one’s gratitude to the creator. The tradition also has values of togetherness, mutual assistance and communal solidarity,” Sutejo said.

In another corner, several housewives were weaving bamboo. They were making piti, a woven bamboo product used to wrap fried gethuk or rice and condiments in events. “I can make between 40 and 80 piti in a day. Collectors take the piti and sell them to Sokaraja, Banyumas,” said Sarinah, 60, from Pagak village.

KOMPAS/MEGANDIKA WICAKSONO

The Old Town Festival, which is held under the theme Klampok Tempo Doeloe in Klampok Village, Purwareja Klampok district, Banjarnegara, Central Java, on Saturday (28/4/2018). Various forms of art, traditional snacks and classic vehicles were featured at the festival.

Beside her, Supin, 68, sat while forging an iron machete. “I have been a blacksmith for 50 years. I can make 30 machetes in a day to be sold at Mandiraja market,” Supin said.

In another corner, Inah Musfiyatun, 58, with other local mothers of Kalimandi village sold their traditional snacks inside clear glass jars. She sold marning, binten jahe, sempeleo, sagon jagung, tamarind candy and sengkarut or sundried rice. “The jars belong to my grandma. I just borrow it. We all make the snacks,” said Inah, who has six children and seven grandchildren.

Festival head organizer Ernanto Widyo Hapsoro said the festival involved the Ikatan Kakang-Mbakyu Banjarnegara (Banjarnegara Youths’ Association) and residents of eight villages, including Klampok, Kaliwinasuh, Kalimandi, Kecitran, Pagak, Sirkandi, Kalilandak and Purwareja. “The festival is held to understand our history better. This place has never been a battlefield. It has always been a center of economic activity with the Klampok sugar factory,” Ernanto said.

According to him, despite having been named a cultural heritage, the Purwareja Klampok district has around 200 old, Dutch-styled buildings that date back to around 1867. Notes on the photographs on display at the festival show that the sugar factory was established in 1912 and closed in 1930 due to crisis.

Ernanto said at the time, many locals worked on sugarcane plantations and sugar factories owned by the Dutch. This has long-term effects still felt today: many local workers lack initiative and need constant monitoring from their superiors. However, locals are highly polite and respectful toward their superiors.

Banjarnegara regency secretary Indarto said the administration appreciated the locals for organizing the festival. He said he hoped the festival would be an annual event to support local tourism. “Hopefully the festival can revive people’s initiatives in Banjarnegara and encourage other villages to establish new tourism destinations,” Indarto said.