Who are the Baduy?
Occupying more than 12,435 acres of protected zone area of land on the Highland of Kendeng Mountain, Banten Province, Indonesia about 1,200 meters high from the sea level, a cool, silent and peaceful climate surround its simple villages. The Baduy people call themselves Urang Kanekes. It means Kanekes Man or Kanekes Villager, or Kanekes people. Outsider call them Baduy people.
Baduy people are unique. Amongst other hundreds Indonesian ethnics, Baduy differentiate themselves by isolating, resisting outside flux of interfering cultural, social, economical and even political influences penetrated by predominant society surround their territory. From the pace of history since the Islamic State of Banten Sultanate up to the colonial ruling of the Dutch, then the Japanese occupation until now under the government Republic of Indonesia, Baduy people have been in fact enjoying their own sovereignty over the land: culturally, socially, economically and of course politically. None of the above government ever dares to touch the virgin of Baduy life. They are honored and respected.
The population of about 10,000 people live in two separate villages. The Inner Baduy (Baduy Dalam), numbering only 350 in three villages (kampung Tangtu) in the core area, are the strictest adherents to Baduy spiritual belief, while the remaining population live in the Outer Baduy (Baduy Luar) villages. The Baduy Dalam is the centre point of culture and religious following and the focus of rituals and sacred sites within the Baduy territory. Symbolically, the Baduy Dalam villager members may wear white with the black traditional clothing, while the Baduy Luar villager members are characteristically dressed in black or dark blue. The Baduy Luar serves as a buffer zone between the Baduy Dalam and the outside world with members of the outer villages acting as intermediaries for the more pure members of the inner villages. See also Wikipedia
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