Kebon Agung Village Resort

Rating :

3 ( 3 Voter(s) )

A. Overview

Fed up with hot, suffocating, and consistently squeezing urban atmosphere? You do not have to worry because in Bantul Regency, Yogyakarta, there is a tourism resort which could get you out of your saturation. It is Kebon Agung, a tourism village that was inaugurated by Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X in 2003. The village offers different sensation with its countryside life. Its vast rice farms provide a fresh atmosphere with a scenic view. The local people are warm. They are the reason why their local culture and tradition still persist.

The village history as a tourism resort begins with the initiative of Kristya Bintara, former Village Head of Kebon Agung from 1996 to 2004. The man, who was born May 25^th 1968, was the architect of the agricultural tourism village. He was concerned about the life of Indonesian farmers, especially in his own village, where so many farmers lived in poverty. Besides, he was also troubled by the new generation of Indonesian, both in town or in the village, who were keener to watch television or play PlayStation games than to farm. Thus in 1998, Kristya Bintara started to make some strategic moves to develop agriculture in his village, where most people are rice and palawija farmers and also cow and duck breeders.

For Kristya Bintara, founding a tourism village was not easy at all. When running his first program, inviting local students to his village for a tourism visit, he got nothing but jeers from neighbors and even his own relatives. They looked down on his efforts, thinking that there was no way that students would get into the farms. Firm in his belief, the 1992 graduate of the Institute of Teacher Training and Pedagogy of Yogyakarta finally managed to make students from other areas come to his village and teach them to plough the field and work on the farms using traditional tools.

The result was good. Kristya Bintara’s success moved his people that later on, no less than 60 percent of 900 households in Kebon Agung joined his efforts. Since then, the village started to attract tourists. The people then turned their houses into modest hostel. The women began to cook for the guests. They let tourists get into their farms and ride their bikes to get around the village.

To support Kebon Agung to be an agricultural tourism resort, Kristya Bintara also initiated the establishment of the Javanese Agricultural Museum. The museum occupies a land as wide as 1.000 meter square in Candran Hamlet and is shaped like a farmer’s house in joglo (Yogyakarta-style) architecture. Despite being modest, the museum keeps 260 collections of agricultural tools contributed by the local farmers. The construction of the museum also aims at providing an educative facility of agriculture for students and public, including foreign tourists. The work started in 1998, but the museum itself was not inaugurated until May 4^th 2007.

In 2001, Kristya Bintara received an award as the 2^nd Winner of the Provincial Environment Conservation Contest in 2001 for its success in cultivating VTB variety of rice. In 2004, the Candran-hamlet born man signed a contract of cooperation with tens of headmasters from Jakarta to make his village a tour destination for their schools.

Although he is no longer a village head, Kristya Bintara still works to develop Kebon Agung to be a model village by establishing cooperation with the local government. Up to now, the village has got a number of accolades in tourism. The most recent one is 3^rdplace award in the national village resort contest held in November 2010 by Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Kebon Agung is now widely known by people, including foreign tourists, which mostly come from Europe and America. Other than them, about 30 students from Qatar, the Middle East, visited the place some time ago to learn about Javanese agriculture.

B. Features

As an agricultural village, Kebon Agung has some attractions for tourists. There are guesthouses that enable tourists to observe and experience ploughing soils, planting rice, spraying pesticide, harvesting, pounding rice using pestle, and cooking rice through traditional method. Moreover, tourists can also get involved in shepherding and breeding cattle. The peaceful atmosphere and people’s warmness are something you could enjoy while you are staying in there.

Despite being famous for its agricultural tourism, Kebon Agong also has other attractions as follows:

Tegal Reservoir. The reservoir contains water from Opak River. It was built in 1997 and meant only for irrigating farmlands. But later on, Bantul Tourism Agency in cooperation with the local government of Kebon Agung developed the place for tourism. Here, tourists can enjoy the view while getting around the reservoir by boats called perahu naga. On occasions, they can also see rowers practice for boat contest, which is often held here too.
Cultural activities, such as:
- Kenduri, which is a feast held to celebrate special occasions like when somebody just moves to a new house, seventh month of pregnancy celebration, and prayers or tahlilan for somebody who just passes away.
- Wiwit or labuh, which is a ceremony in which offerings containing crops are delivered as a form of gratitude to God Almighty for the blessings. In this ceremony, the people also wish for abundant crops.
- Traditional art performances. Tourists can enjoy or learn various art performances as follows:
- Karawitan/gamelan, a Javanese musical art performance played with traditional instruments such as siter, kendang, gong kemodhong, kempul, siyem, bonang, rebab, gender, gambang, celempung, bamboo flute, and so on.
- Macapat, a kind of Javanese song or poem. Macapat is a contraction of the Javanese phrase diwaca papat-papat (read four by four), referring to the way the singer reads the lyrics. Every sentence in macapat is called gatra, and each gatra contains a number of syllables called guru wilangan which ends in a rhythmic vocal called guru lagu. Besides its exotic melodies, Macapat also contains educative lyrics.
- Solawatan/shalawatan, prayers sung and addressed to God the Creator. It is usually performed to celebrate Muhammad’s birth by 10-15 men with the accompaniment of some musical instruments such as kendang (drum), peking, and small kenthongan (wooden drum). The song is in Javanese and contains advices about good traits.
- Jathilan/kuda kepang, a combination of dance and martial art. The performance starts with a musical ensemble of gamelan instruments like saron, kendang, and gong. During the performance, some of the dancers will be possessed by spirits that will make them lose consciousness. Then, spectators will be amazed by the action of the dancers as they eat sharp objects like razor blade or a piece of glass without drawing blood or getting hurt. The performance will intensify as the dancers are lashed by a dukun, local shaman. Amazingly still, they will not get any blister from that.
- Gejok lesung, a musical art performance using mortar and pestle which is hit based on certain rhythm, resulting in pleasing beat of percussion music. This is usually performed to welcome tourists.
Handicrafts. This is included in the package tour offered by Kebon Agung. Tourists can learn craftsmanship here, such as:
- Tatah sungging, handicrafts made of cow or goat leather. The leather is made into fan, puppet, painting, hat, and many others. Tourists can buy and learn how to make these crafts.
- Batik tulis (hand-painted batik), aside from watching the process of making batik, you can learn making it using traditional tools such as canting, wax and wok, and also a small hearth for tempering the wax.
- Ceramic batik, batik which is painted on ceramics, pottery, or glass items such as cups, plates, pots, and so on.
- Batik Mask Woodcraft, wood made into wooden-ornament or mask is then carved with batik motifs according to the related figure.
- Culinary, one thing you cannot miss in your visit. In Kebon Agung you can enjoy and learn how to make Javanese special food such as tongseng, lamb curry, gethok pisang, tiwul, apem, sele pisang, cassava, tape ketan, gudeg gori, gudeg manggar, kripik tempe, and many others.
Museum. The village has a museum, an agricultural one in Candran. It is Museum Tani Jawa (The Museum of Javanese Agriculture). In the museum there are various Javanese traditional tools of agriculture you might rarely find these days, like ani-ani (handheld blade for harvesting), jodang, luku (plow), ganco, tlenyem, garu (harrow), singkal, kejen, and gosrok. Some tools kept in the museum are hundreds of years of age. A jodang, for instance, was made in 1921 and a luku (plow) was in 1921. Here, you can find a large pot for containing rice grains which was made in 1883.
The museum does not function only as a place for keeping various Javanese traditional tools of agriculture, but most importantly, to provide education and knowledge for young people about their ancestors. The museum also keeps some traditional kitchen utensils such as hearth, kejen, brazier, pot made of clay, cutting board, wooden spatula, and pipisan (a stone pot for making jamu).

The museum which is led by Kristya Bintara often holds festivals like Ngliwet (Cooking Rice) Festival and Memedi Sawah (Scarecrow) Festival. Festival Ngliwet is a festival of cooking rice and other dishes using hearth and clay pot and cooked with firewood. What is unique is that the participants, who usually come from different areas, are only allowed to spend a certain amount of money and time, which is 1.5 hours. What is scored in this festival is teamwork, cleanness, cooking process, serving, uniqueness, and the rice taste and texture. The objective of this festival is to remind people of traditional cooking methods.

During the Memedi Sawah Festival, hundreds of scarecrows in many kinds of figures and expression are placed in the rice fields, starting from the one like usual farmer figure, mouse wearing suit, to the one that is shaped like red dragon. The festival is joined not only by farmers, but also students and people. With this festival, it is expected that people will be moved to practice again the agricultural method of their ancestors which has been proved to be environment-friendly.

With these programs, the village was chosen as a tourism-based pilot project of the National People Development Program (PNPM) Mandiri for 2010 along with 10 other villages.

C. Location

Administratively, Kebon Agung Village lies in Imogiri District, Bantul Regency, Special Province of Yogyakarta, Indoensia.

D. Ticket

There is no admission charge in Kebon Agong. Tourists will get charged only when using the facilities.

E. Access

Kebon Agung Village is 17 kilometers south of Yogyakarta or about 3 kilometers from Imogiri. The location can be reached using car or motorcycle from Yogyakarta within 25 minutes more or less.

F. Accommodations and Other Facilities

The village facilities are quite complete. Until June 2010, the guesthouses add up to 130 in number, spread in 60 local houses. Every guesthouse can contain 6 people with a tariff of Rp 100,000 per day for a person. This includes three meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The other facilities are public conveniences and information center. There are also snack stores which have Javanese special food such as bakpia, apem, and brown sweets. A wide parking lot is available here, having enough space for 50 cars, 200 motorcycles, and 4 buses.

Text: Samsuni

Photo(s): Collection of Jogjatrip.com

Translation: Reza Daffi

(Primary data and various sources)

Read : 5749 time(s).

If you are from outside Yogyakarta and want to visit this place by travel agency services,
please contact:

Maharatu Tour and Travel

Jl. Sisingamangaraja No. 27 Yogyakarta.
Telp. +62 274 8373005. Fax. +62 274 379250
Email : maharatu@maharatu.com -maharatu257@yahoo.com
Website : www.maharatu.com

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