archaeology

by Gabriella Mihályi

Houses and fish pond in the Sundanese village of Kampung Naga, in West Java, Indonesia.
Photo: Gabriella Mihályi

Three hundred steps lead down to the Sundanese village of Kampung Naga. Here, in this valley of West Java, Indonesia, the people consciously maintain the knowledge of their ancestors and their traditional lifestyles in a close relationship with nature. This philosophy extends to their construction methods using local materials of timber, stone, bamboo, and palm leaves.

Path between houses.
Photo: Gabriella Mihályi

The first 100 steps are surrounded by large, leafy ebony trees. From the next 100, the rice fields on the valley floor are visible, along with glimpses of tiny white houses with black roofs. Descending the last 100 steps, the visitor, accompanied by a requisite guide, sees the everyday logic of valley life. The hills above provide the materials of village life — water, wood, and food — and below is the river that flows under the village and carries away waste.

The Sundanese village of Kampung Naga, in West Java, Indonesia.
Photo: Gabriella Mihályi

Kampung Naga, or Dragon Village, is one of the few Sundanese villages in West Java where the people steadfastly maintain traditions despite the proximity of modern influences. In their architecture, this means functional simplicity and a uniformity accented with small differences in details.

Here, the house is not only a building but the center of life. In the Sundanese language, the word for house, bumi, is the same as the word for Earth.

Kitchen with stove.
Photo: Gabriella Mihályi

Each house has the same several rooms: a kitchen, a visitor’s room, a central dining area, bedrooms, and a storage room. The kitchen and the rice-storage room — controlled by Dewi Sri, the goddess of rice — are female zones, which men can enter only briefly. The visitor’s room is considered a male zone, and the bedrooms and central dining area are neutral.

The wood for the kitchen fire is from the forest or from the bamboo gardens. It’s stored in front of the kitchen, which is also the place for drying fruits and spices. The bamboo-floored kitchen is the place for family meals, neighbor meetings, and early-morning warming.

Bamboo flooring.
Photo: Gabriella Mihályi

The visitor’s room is next to the kitchen. The entrance to the house is a wide stair about 20 inches (50 centimeters) from the ground, in front of the doors to the kitchen and visitor’s room. This porch is a favorite playground for the children.

 

House construction.
Image: Gabriella Mihályi
 Rules of Simplicity
 The materials are very light and cannot support heavy furniture or machines inside the house. By Western standards, the houses are basically empty. People use palm or bamboo mats for sleeping. They use no chairs, tables, or storage furniture. The heaviest item is the kitchen stove, and its base is placed directly on the ground.

Constructing the base of the floor of a house.
Photo: Gabriella Mihályi The major disadvantage of these natural materials is that they easily catch fire. This is why they use the "sasag" pattern for the kitchen walls and door. This pattern of weaving creates small gaps enabling anyone, inside or out, to detect unusually high flames. 
Otherwise, the exterior walls are covered with white lime, serving as a preservative and giving each house a clean appearance. The uniformity of the colors and shapes is dictated by the ancestors. These rules help to maintain a social equality. Yet in the ventilation spaces, doors, windows, and the weaving of the walls, it is possible to find unique, individual patterns.
 Constructing the floor of a house.
Photo: Gabriella Mihályi
 Sustainable Village Life

The villagers mainly eat rice, fish, fruit, and vegetables from their gardens. The rice and fish are cyclically connected. The rice from the field goes to the threshing-house, which sits over the fish ponds. The bran is thrown into the pond to feed the fish, which are caught by children and prepared by their mothers.

Woven wall.
Photo: Gabriella Mihályi
 The outlook and the mechanisms of everyday life in the village are strictly controlled by rules of the ancestors, which are taught to every generation and closely guarded by the villagers. This is despite a road to the city of Bandung being just a few hundred yards (meters) away from the top of their 300 steps.

The villagers of Kampung Naga recognize modern influences and accept them to the extent that they do not harm their traditions. Some recent architectural arrivals are concrete, glass, and furniture. The influence these elements will have on traditional building is difficult to predict. This community has been here for over 600 years, adapting to or rejecting many different influences.

Gabriella Mihályi is a sociologist living in Budapest, Hungary who lived in West-Java for two years, as a student in the Art History PhD Program of the Institut Teknologi Bandung.

Kitchen flooring of bamboo.
Photo: Gabriella Mihály