Disaster Proof Housing in Kampung Naga

  It was so exciting for me that finally I could do an out of mainstream research in Public Policy and of course finally I update this such catharsis baggage after couple of months, haha, hey my blog, hope you are doing good these days. Okay, back to my topic, usually, public policy researchers in Indonesia do research in organization, human resources topics and western theories. For me, that�s boring. Believe it or not, some Indonesian social researchers would say its always difficult to analyze data and facts in Indonesian context with western theories. Western theories may make you keep �WowWowing� when your partner presents his western analysis. But, sometimes, we can�t practice it. I used to be like that, I ll say, I was having some kind of Postcolonial Inferiorism Syndrom problems, I thought that everything comes from west is always better than ours. In fact, sometimes western theories have nothing to analyse Indonesian phenomenon. Okay, I think I�ve been talking around the bushes. You must ask; whats the relevance between those anti-mainstream topics and Kampung Naga? Whats Kampung Naga anyway?

 Kampung in Bahasa Indonesia was defined as a village, rural area that the community lives in communal and traditional values. Naga is the name of the ancestor of that place. Kampung Naga located in Tasikmalaya, West Java, Indonesia. The community in Kampung Naga lives without any modern values or goods. They don�t even use electricity. Their home were made from timbers and fibers. My friend said that they are such a primitive tribe. I don�t agree with that. I think �primitive� is inappropriate idiom to call them, it makes you feel that you have higher custom than them. But for me, just because they refuse any modern values, it doesn�t mean we have higher custom than them. In fact the custom in Kampung Naga saved the community from 7, 3 mag earthquake happened in Tasikmalaya. They have local wisdom values related to disaster and climate change. I focused at disaster local wisdom. Actually, my boss has been holding an independent research program for his employes since last year. So, every year, every employee competes to be accepted as a participant in the program. It will train our research capability. This year my proposal accepted as one of the participants, my theme is about local wisdom in disaster and it relevance to disaster policy making in Government of West Java Province. Last week was my initial observation. Most of the community are farmers. They do organic farming.

 I talked to Pak Sarjan, one of the habitants of Kampung Naga, he told me that when an earthquake measuring 7.3 mag are concentrated in Tasikmalaya, in September 2009 none of the custom house in Kampung Naga is collapsed or damaged. This is because the concept of home construction using the concept of ancient Sundanese. Sundanese people believe that home is like human body, there are foot, body and head, all should stand on the ground, no planted foundation. Sundanese people will not be separated forever from timber and bamboo, because the concept of building more homes using tools from good quality timber and bamboo.

 Nearly all construction was put on the roof of bamboo is not only home but also to use bamboo matting walls without any nail. The result was remarkable as strong as concrete house, even stronger. The habitants of Kampung Naga also believe that if they against the ancestor�s warnings, they will get punishment like earthquake. My impression when 1st time I touched down in this place after stepped down almost 500 stairs to downhill is� This place was amazing!! I can�t believe in the modern era like now, this kind of custom is still exist and they survive. I heard that the government has a plan to disseminate that type as house as a kind of disaster proof housing prototype. Luckily, therefore the good old days return. The traditional art of living counts again, and it is all about respecting to local wisdom, skills and reflexes instead of simple power.