The Baduy Tribe

Depending on how you measure it, Jakarta is one of the biggest cities in the world, and Java one of the most densely populated islands; so it came as something of a surprise to find that less than four hours travel away there exists a tribe that completely rejects the modern world. On a busy holiday weekend I crammed myself along with my companions into the packed public transport and headed south to visit the Baduy Tribe. Despite it being a holiday weekend, where every accessible green space close to Jakarta is overrun with people, there was hardly anyone there: people either don’t know about the tribe, or they don’t care.

There are two main areas, the inner Baduy and the outer Baduy; the inner being more pure, with the outer acting as buffer between them and the outside world. Very few people are allowed to visit the inner Baduy, and even fewer are allowed to live there: even if you were born in the outer Baduy, you may not live in the inner Baduy. Foreigners are certainly not allowed into any of the three inner Baduy, so I visited several of the thirty eight outer villages.

The Baduy people live a very traditional life, rejecting many of the luxuries that most people take for granted. Electricity is the most obvious example, but it’s the simpler things that surprised me; there is no glass, so no windows, or glasses to drink from, and no cutlery other than the small selection for use by visitors. Their income comes mainly from growing rice, which is sold across the rest of Java. Since this is taxable, the Baduy send a delegation to Jakarta once a year to pay the tax, and since transport is forbidden, the delegation walks the whole way!

A Baduy house is built from wood and bamboo, and the walls seem to be weaved together; they are very natural and beautiful creations, and although the doors are attached by metal hinges, and the occasional screw is in evidence, they are still remarkable. It takes three months, and about £1500 to build one of the houses. More remarkable are the bamboo bridges across the rivers. Built from bamboo poles lashed together, they only take three days to build and are truly a sight to behold, and yet they only sway as much as the Millennium Bridge in London.

Small signs of the modern world are the flip flops worn by some of the tribe, the ones that don’t have amazingly toughened and huge feet, very hobbit like! There is a small amount of rubbish around, probably left by visitors, as I saw no evidence of any of the tribe using anything that creates litter. This almost total lack of litter also seems to have another benefit: there were very few mosquitoes and other bugs and nasty things. The Baduy apparently don’t use soap to wash, but I did see some of the women using washing powder to clean their clothes in the river. The river serves several purposes: washing clothes, washing yourself, general socialising, and, as I didn’t find out until after I had finished swimming, going to the toilet.