Indonesia's 600-year-old paddy-growing community has embraced modern lifestyle while preserving ancient traditions
WITH ITS own hydropower grid, food supplies to last a few decades and a TV channel for entertainment, Indonesia’s Ciptagelar community is in many ways both a model smart village of the future as well as a relic of the past.
The 16,000-strong Ciptagelar community, living in a village inside the Halimun Salak National Park, about 130 km southwest of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, consider themselves adat, a community that has adhered to traditional ways of life. They claim ancestral rights to this land, where they have resided for over 600 years. In accordance with Indonesia’s laws, they are allowed to plant rice and cut trees inside the protected area. Their fields are overflowing with manicured layers of rice paddies.
This story is from the July 16, 2018 edition of Down To Earth.
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This story is from the July 16, 2018 edition of Down To Earth.
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