Volcanic Pursuits

Across a Sea of Sand to the Mouth of a Fuming Volcano in Indonesia
 

- Sugato Mukherjee

From across a swathe of a volcanic desert in East Java, I watch the formidable Mount Semeru (12,060 feet). It is one of the Indonesian archipelago’s most active volcanoes. For the third time in 30 minutes, it belches out a thick volley of steam, which fades into the evening sky. Next to Semeru, Mount Bromo (7,641 feet) looks like the sidekick, sitting idly in the middle of a sandy plain of Laut Pasir, a Javanese term that means “sea of sand.” Mount Bromo’s oddly shaped summit—with its inverse cone—belies its violent nature. Inside its crater, the earth continuously spews off sulphurous smoke.

Tomorrow morning, I will go there.

Meanwhile, I contemplate the view from the lobby of my guesthouse in the village of Cemoro Lawang, perched on the fringe of this undulating stretch of fine volcanic sand. Sewak, my guide to this part of East Java, tells me that his ancestors came through this unearthly territory, also called the Tengger Sand Sea, 500 years ago.

Sewak’s sunburnt moustachioed face becomes animated as he recounts the story of Princess Roro Anteng, who fled here from the green plains of Central Java with her husband Joko Seger, to escape a band of marauding invaders. They crossed Laut Pasir on horses and mules, with their followers. They called their new barren kingdom Tengger, combining their respective surnames, and their descendants are known as the Tenggerese.