14 DAY TRIAL // In these times of economic turmoil, there are still people who are completely unaffected by the market price drop and soaring gasoline prices. The Baduy population, living only a few miles of Indonesia's capital city of Jakarta, is an example of such a group. Their life style is archaic, to say the least, and their only concern about the next day is to get enough food from the forests around.
In Western Java, beautiful hills shelter the estimated 5,000 to 8,000-large population, which lives in total harmony with nature. Modern habits are unknown to them, and, as a whole, they still believe that the world revolves around their territory, literally. For the Baduy, these hills are the center of the Universe, and the Sun spins around it.
Their territory is only 50 sq km (20 sq mile) large, and their leader, called pu'un, safeguards a long list of taboos, or things the members of the community are not allowed to do, under the most severe penalties. Among these taboos, Western observers noted that the group was not allowed to wear shoes, to make glass, nails or alcohol, go to school, or rear beasts of burden. All these factors make their lives very difficult.
But so many interdictions forced them to become very sensitive to the way the environment reacts to their actions, so overtime they developed ways of practicing a form of sustainable agriculture that allows them never to fear lack of these products. Their main source of food is a variety of dry rice, which is harvested on fields near the villages.
When asked about the global crisis and the effect it had on them, the Baduy said that they didn't even understand what a "crisis" was. And seeing how these people have lived in near seclusion for more than 1,000 years, it's easy to see how things that are indigenous to the developed world are so difficult for them to understand.