ER
HUNDREDS of residents of Tlilir Village, Tlogomulyo District, Temanggung Regency, Central Java, Friday (3/18) held the annual Merti Dusun (Merti Village) ritual which was packaged in an event titled Srobong Gobang.
The Merti Dusun tradition itself has become the ancestral tradition of the villagers at the foot of Mount Sumbing. From generation to generation, this tradition is still preserved until now. This traditional ritual was stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is something interesting, every Merti Dusun ritual is held, the residents make a banquet in the form of ingkung (various side dishes for offerings) complete with other side dishes along with fresh fruits from the earth to be eaten with other villagers at their ancestral graves.
Generally, every ingkung or various side dishes for offerings brought by the villagers are white rice, yellow rice, grilled or fried chicken, tempeh and crackers. “For the chicken served is a rooster or Jago,” said Amin, one of the residents of Tlilir Village met at his residence.
Meanwhile Fatkhur Rohman, Head of Tlilir Village after the event said, Merti Dusun which is now packaged in the form of a cultural carnival called Srobong Gobang. This has been going on since 2015, making it an event that can not only be enjoyed by residents but can also be a tourist attraction so as to be able to invite tourists from outside the region.
In the competition, said the Village Head, each village from Tlilir Village showed their teeth and adjusted their art to be the best on the stage with the backdrop of Mount Sumbing which looks full of charm.
It should also be noted, in this Srobong Gobang event there is such a thing as a jamasan ritual. “Jamasan is a procession of washing Gobang agricultural tools that will be used from planting to harvesting mbako (tobacco). Before going to Jamas, all residents accompanied with prayers so that from planting to harvesting tobacco the results would be better and the price would skyrocket, so that the residents felt the positive impact,” Fatkhur Rohman said.
Likewise, in a separate location, Saltiyono Atmaji, the Head of the Temanggung Regency Tourism and Culture Office, explained that the Srobong Gobang event and other arts events including parades/carnivals are routinely held every year in Tlilir Village. This event was last held in 2019 and then stopped since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
“It’s just that not all village arts cultural events have been included in the district’s calendar of events. Because the coverage is still at the hamlet or village level,” explained Saltiyono.
Potentially, he added, an event like this can be a tourist attraction as long as it is packaged in an attractive manner without reducing the substance of cultural rituals or local wisdom. The people of Temanggung Regency are rich in creativity, especially in the field of arts and culture.
“The Regent of Temanggung in his speech at the Papringan market stated that Temanggung Regency is a festival city. Temanggung itself is rich in creativity, can support the development of the tourism industry. Here there are more than 1,500 art groups consisting of kuda lumping, warok, student kubra, wayang, ketoprak and others,” concluded Saltiyono.
Based on the recap of tourist attraction data for the last four years from the Tourism and Culture Office, Temanggung Regency in 2018 received 566,853 tourist visits, then in 2019 it increased to 708,536 tourists, in 2000 it fell to 223,765 and in 2021 it increased again by 227,558. [traveltext.id]
