Creating Safety and Beauty in the World Starting from Humans

Cultural Wisdom and Natural Disasters in Yogyakarta

Abstract

Cultural wisdom has a role in disaster management. Yogyakarta is situated in the Ring of Fire, prone to earthquake, tsunami, and eruption of nearby Mount Merapi. For centuries, people have been aware of the “bio-detectors” and “geo-detectors” that signal the approach of a disaster. However, such cultural wisdom is obscured by the rise of modern technological knowledge. The traditional Javanese cosmology positions humans as subordinate to the universe and its powerful forces. The traditional rulers of Yogyakarta strove to maintain harmony between human and human, human and nature, and between human and God. This cultural value is embodied in the ceremony of Labuhan, performed as a symbol of human gratitude towards God, nature, and the universe. Old manuscript accounts of fatal eruptions attribute the death toll to the failure of humans to respect their relations to God and nature. They also recount the efforts of past rulers to create harmony between the spirit of the sea, the spirit of the mountain, and the region of Yogyakarta through their own respect for nature and through management of their own attitude through meditation. By analogy, such attitude management on the part of everyone can achieve a more effective management of disasters in the present day. The watchword of Yogyakarta carried down from the past to the present is “creating safety and beauty in the world starting with humans.”