Cultural Landscapes of the Tengger Highland, East Java

Abstract

Although cultural landscapes are known to be important in supporting human prosperity, they remain infrequently studied in Indonesia. In this chapter, the Tengger Highland is examined, as it represents an important cultural landscape in Indonesia. Results indicate that ecologically, the Tengger Highland has huge biodiversity. The findings reveal that the local people and nature are closely related, particularly in terms of sites of religious, natural, and cultural performance. Some parts of the highland are governed by taboos and protected by the local people. These rules of good conduct contribute to the conservation of biodiversity. This chapter further describes the agricultural system in the highland as an essential component of the cultural landscape. The Tengger Highland has characteristic agricultural practices on the steepest land, which potentially affect soil erosion and land disturbance. In some areas of the highland, however, the local people have developed agroforestry and terrace systems as a farming strategy to protect the land and ecosystems on the steepest parts. This chapter argues that the Tengger Highland is under serious threat owing to poor planning, ecosystem disturbance, reduced appreciation by local people, and human disturbance. Under such circumstances, planning how to maximize the highland’s resources and minimize its threats is urgently needed. More recently, however, the number of tourists to the highland has increased significantly, and it is proposed that this tourism should be able to support a conservation program. Therefore, appropriate sustainable tourism planning should consider the Tengger Highland as an integral cultural landscape where nature, people, and culture are strongly linked to each other. This means that enhancing and promoting the participation of local people in planning is urgently needed.