Volcano Spirits Trusted More Than Scientists
Fabio Scarpello

YOGYAKARTA, May 26 (IPS) - Mount Merapi, one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, has been wheezing, belching and threatening to blow its top for the last few weeks. Yet, while scientists call for mass evacuation, most of the locals have stayed put, trusting to centuries-old mystical traditions to calm the spirits of the mountain.

"When I listen to Merapi, I don't hear any danger. Merapi will not hurt the residents, but they must look after the mountain and not take everything they want greedily," Maridjan, volcano 'gatekeeper' and medium between the residents and the mountain spirits, told reporters when asked why he was not abandoning the volcano's slopes.

If Maridjan does not move, neither do the people as officials anxious to evacuate the locals to safer zones have realised.

Seismologists, not wanting to take chances, have said that they would not consider lowering the alert level for another week or two. What worries them most is a fragile lava dome teetering on Merapi's peak that could collapse at any time, possibly setting off a full eruption.

The experts' warnings have been heeded by the authorities, who have put in place an evacuation programme. Their effort has however been hampered by the mysticism that remains pervasive in Central Java.

Over the past week, some of the 2,000 people who were put up in temporary shelters were moving back to their homes on the fertile slopes of Merapi.

At the highest point of danger, of the estimated 33,000 people living in the so-called danger zone, fewer than 10,000 had actually left their homes. The rest trusted in their ancient belief, a mixture of Hindu-Buddhist and animist that over time has come to co-exist with Islam.

Arriving peacefully in the archipelago via Arab merchants seven hundred years ago, Islam is today the religion practised, at least nominally, by 85 percent of Indonesia's 230 million people.

The world has about 500 active volcanoes. More than half are in the Pacific Ocean, along the 40,000 km ‘Ring of Fire'. Scientists say that 90 percent of all the world's earthquakes and 81 percent of the world's largest earthquakes occur along this Ring of Fire.

Indonesia's 17,000 lie on the Ring of Fire, and with its 70 active volcanoes, the archipelago is the country with the most active volcanoes in the world. Among them, the 2,695 metre tall Mount Merapi, which straddles the provinces of Yogyakarta and Central Java, is one of the most active.

Mount Merapi literally translates into ‘Mountain of Fire', a name the volcano has earned from at least 68 major eruptions recorded. The most deadly one, in terms of human lives, occurred in 1672, when an estimated 3,000 people died. Another notable eruption occurred in 1930, when over 1,300 people were killed. In more recent times, sixty people died in 1979 and another 60 -- all members of a wedding party -- were killed by the scorching ash and gas of a pyroclastic flowing from the Merapi in 1994. The latest two victims of Merapi's fury died in 2001.

The recent tremors were first noticed by the scientists at the Merapi Volcano Observatory (BPPTK) in Yogyakarta in August 2005. The activity has increased during the last few weeks, and last Saturday, when lava spilled from its crater, indicating that a major eruption could be just a matter of time, Merapi was put on the highest level of alert.

In the last few days, things have calmed down slightly, but according to seismologists' reports, the volcano still produced 49 lava flows and four heat clouds traveled 2.5 km down the mountain in the first six hours of Monday. On Sunday, the mountain spewed a total of 170 visible lava outflows and 44 heat clouds.

Antonius Ratdomopurbo, head of the BPPTK, told IPS that a Merapi eruption is normal and inevitable.

''This is actually a very normal natural occurrence. Merapi indeed must explode. Merapi is a very active volcano with a resting period of between two to seven years. So, this kind of event will reoccur in the future in probably three or four years," he said, adding that an explosion does not necessarily have to be vertical and highly explosive.

But local residents trust the judgment of Maridjan an 80-year-old chain-smoker, who inherited the one-dollar-a-day job of 'Merapi gatekeeper' from his father, when the late Sultan of Yogyakarta, Hamengkubuwono IX, personally appointed him.

Maridjan, who is addressed as 'Mbah', an honorific epithet meaning grandfather, and is spoken to in a high form of the local language reserved for people of status, has the duty to make sure that the rituals to appease the spirits are properly carried out..

Locals believe that, four centuries ago, the founder of the current dynasty of the sultanate of Yogyakarta, Panembahan Senapati, struck an alliance with the mythical Queen of the Southern Sea.

The complicated deal requires that, in exchange for the spirits' protection, the sultan's descendents must perform certain rituals and offerings at specific times throughout the year in the four abodes of the spirits. One of those abodes is Mount Merapi.

''Merapi is the heart of the universe. The smoke is like the breath of the universe,'' Maridjan said.

In the last few weeks, Maridjan has defied the officials' call to evacuate the area and has carried on with his duties, which included ceremonies to seek divine protection.

Besides the various mass prayers and offerings of rice cones stuffed with vegetables and fried chicken, Maridjan hiked closer to the peak, completing two nights of meditation at the sacred spot of Kendit before leading the 'Tapak Bisu' (Silent Walk), an all night ritual march through various villages, to calm the mountain, on May 18.

''All I can do is ask almighty God that if Merapi erupts, the debris will not endanger the community,'' the elderly spiritual leader said on that occasion.

The fact that Merapi has calmed down, and that there have not been any casualties, is viewed by locals as a sign that the spirits of the mountain are heeding Maridjan--for now. (END/2006)