WANAGAMA

WANAGAMA, Piece of a Story about Reforestation and the Teak Wood Tree of Prince Charles

Wanagama covers four villages in Kecamatan Patuk and Playen, Gunung Kidul, which takes us one hour drive from Yogyakarta to get there. Along the trip, we can see the beautiful scenery of Yogyakarta city from the height. Arriving at the traffic light after Bunder Rest Area, there is a sign board with WANAGAMA written on it and an arrow directing to the right. YogYES turns right to take a narrowing but asphalted road. The gate written with HUTAN WANAGAMA seems to tell visitors that they have arrived at the forest that was established since 1964.

Reforestating critical land

Exploring Wanagama at present, we will think of the past condition of this area as a infertile and barn land. It was due to illegal logging.

The concern about the critical and barn condition of the location moved some academists from Forestry Department of Gadjah Mada University to reforestate the are. Then, the big project of reforestrating the area with reddish brown mediteranian soil began.

The reforestation project was pioneered by Prof. Oemi Hani'in Suseno and it began to be done since 1964. Using her personal finance, the professor who got Kalpataru Award (highest award in Indonesia for environment issues) planted Wanagama of which width was 10 hectares by that time.

The persistence of Prof. Oemi and her colleagues to plan the critical land attracted my parties such as the government and environment lovers. They cooperate to realize Wanagama to become 600 hectares of green area as seen today.

Forest miniature with various plants

In fact, forest offers strong sensation to return to nature. That is one of the things you will get when you make a tour to Wanagama. It seems like we are in the miniature of a forest with different plants from different areas when we are in Wanagama.

There are lines of trees accompanying our trip exploring the green Wanagama, started with acacia trees, which produce pulp as the primadona of many Industrial Plant Forest companies in Indonesia. Then, it is contined with eucalypti, which is famous for its eucalyptus oil to warm our body.

Besides, there is a line of pine trees (Pinus merkusii). This line of the trees that many of them are found in Central Sumatra is quite shadowy when the sun shines brightly.

Wanagama still has many other plants such as ebony (Diospyros celebica) the black wood from Sulawesi, sandal wood (Santalum album) the fragrant wood, murbei (Morus Alba) and teak wood (Tectona grandis).

In addition to plants, Wanagama also has another beauty namely three streams of water including Oya River, Sendang Ayu, and Banyu Tibo. All of these three offer freshness and coolness when you are weary after exploring Wanagama.

What Prince Charles left in Gunung Kidul

Wanagama has one tree that makes this tourism object known worldwide.

It is the teak wood tree (Tectona grandis) known as Jati Londo planted by Prince Charles when he paid a visit to Wanagama in 1989. It was told that there is a unique relationship between the famous tree and the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. When it was 1 meter high, this tree dried at the same time with the announcement of the separation of the English Royal couple. Did the teak wood mourn over the separation of the planter?

In addition to Jati Londo, Prince Charles also left a favorite route usually taken by visitors of Wanagama. The route starts from Wisma Cendana and ends at Hell Hill. The road is 50 meters long with many sandal woods along both sides.

Teak wood is one of the trees found most in Wanagama. This plant is famous for its durability and strength. The superiority of teak wood is so famous that English Marine takes special precaution with regards to this. The manual of English Marine suggested that they avoid China ships made from this kind of wood since they can destroy the steel of English Marine ships when they crash (Wikipedia).

Wanagama and the surrounding society

Wanagama does not only serve as a place for various plants to grow, but it is also a place for the surrounding society to make their living. Wanagama and the society cooperate closely to benefit both parties.

Raising cows is the livelihood lived by most of the people in the community around Wanagama. It is allowed for the society to plant kalanjana grass in between the vacant land in Wanagama. The grass serves as food for the cows owned by the society. In return, Wanagama gets organic fertilizer from the waste of the cows.

Besides, there are people from the surrounding area who sell honey. The honey is harvested from the bee farm to the north-east of Wanagama. Just like the plantation of the grass, the bee farm is also located among the thickness of Wanagama forest. Ussualy, during rainy season, stock of honey is abundant because at this time, flowers are blooming. If you want to take the honey home, you only have to pay IDR 80,000 per bottle.

Exploring Wanagama compares to the satisfaction that we obtain. We will be astonished by this reforestation masterpiece

Sultan Palace

Sultan Palace

It lies between Tugu as the north border and Panggung Krapyak as the south border, between Code River in the east and Winongo River in the west; between the Merapi Mountain and the South Sea. In the mind of the Javanese community, kraton is defined as center of the world that is described as center of the universe.

History of the Sultan Palace

After the Giyanti Agreeement, Yogyakarta territory was given to Pangeran Mangkubumi. To run his governance, he built a palace in 1755 in Hutan Beringan area; such a good place flanked by two rivers that protect it from being flooded. The first king of Yogyakarta Palace was Pangeran Mangkubumi with the title Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono I (HB I).

Naming and Meaning of the Lay Out

Karaton, Keraton or Kraton, originates from the word ke-ratu-an that means the place where the queen/king lives. Simple explanation of its broader meaning is that all structures and buildings in the Kraton area have significant meaning related to essential Javanese philosophy of life, namely Sangkan Paraning Dumadi that means the origin and the destination of human being.

In general, the Kraton area stretches 5 kilometers southwards to Krapyak village and 2 kilometers northwards until the Tugu monument. In this imaginary line, there is a reversed dualism linear line that tells symbolical philosophy: the direction from south to north symbolizes the birth of human being from the high place to the perishable world, and the opposite direction symbolizes the return of human being to the Dumadi (God in Javanese philosophy). Kraton is physical symbol and the King is the symbol of the real soul that presents into the physical body.

The direction from the Palace to the Tugu monument represents the road of life that is full of temptations. Beringharjo market symbolizes women temptation and temptation of power is symbolized by Kepatihan building. The straight street connecting the Palace to Tugu monument symbolizes close relationship between human being and the Creator (Sangkan Paraning Dumadi).

In short, Tugu monument is a symbol of lingga (male sex organ) and Krapyak symbolizes yoni (female sex organ) and kraton is physical blend of the two.

The Meaning of Yogyakarta Space Arrangement

Hit by the earthquake in 1867, the Sultan Palace was severely damaged. During the reign of HB VII in 1889, the building was renovated. The lay out being retained, the shape of the building was changed to the current look.

Tugu monument and Manguntur Tangkil hall or Bangsal Kencana (where the king is seated), are straight in a line. This means that while sitting on his throne and looking toward the Tugu monument, he will always remember his people.

In general, the space arrangement of the current Sultan Palace is similar to the one of Mataram Dynasty. The center of the Palace is the so called Bangsal Kencana that is adjacent to Bangsal Prabayeksa as the place to keep sacred weapons (in this room, there is an oil lamp called Kyai Wiji that is kept lit by the Palace servants). This hall is surrounded by Kedhaton yard so that people must go through layers of the yard that seem like waves in order to reach the center.

This special arrangement of the Palace looks similar to constellation of mountain and Jambu Dwipa land that is considered to be central archipelago of the universe.

From north part to west part of the Palace area, there are North Square, North Siti Hinggil, North Kemandhungan, Srimanganti, Kedhaton, Kemagangan, South Kemandungan, South Siti Hinggil and South Square (the yard that is protected by high walls).

In order to reach all of the places, there are nine gates (called regol) that must be passed through, namely: gerbang, pangurukan, tarub agung, brajanala, srimanganti, kamagangan, gadhung mlati, kemandhungan and gading.

Brongtodiningrat sees the significance of this number, as the highest number to describe excellence. This is related to nine holes in human beings, commonly called babahan hawa sanga.

The sacredness of each Palace building is indicated by the frequency and intensity of Sultan activities in the location.

Sultan only visits the Square, Pagelaran, and Siti Hinggil three times a year, namely during the events of Pisowan Ageng Grebeg Maulud, Sawal and Besar and other very special, incidental events such as coronation of the Sultan and the crown prince or Pangeran Adipati Anom.

Yogyakarta Sultan Palace is an old building that was once damaged and restored. In general, it looks like other Kingdom buildings. When we understand the philosophy of them deeper, however, we will understand the symbolical meaning of life philosophy, human nature, how the nature works and human beings live their lives and various symbols of life existence in them