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But last month a delegation of elderly village heads set out from the mountains and forests of their isolated homeland to ask permission to ignore the elections this time around. Because the wheel is banned, they walked 50 miles to Jakarta.
"This time ... because of the changes and the freedom, we ask permission to be excused from the poll," village chief Daina told Indonesia's election commission when he arrived in the capital. "We are forbidden by our ancestors . . . to be involved in politics, to lie, and more over, to take sides."
Nobody knows exactly where the Baduy came from. They say they have lived in the land they call Pancer Bumi, the center of the world, since the dawn of time. But anthropologists think they may be the descendants of priests from the Hindu Kingdom of Pajajaran who fled into west Java's jungled peaks when Muslim armies overran the region in l578.
Little has changed for the Baduy ever Since. Their rigid religion, a blend of animism and ancient Hinduism, has left them suspended in the past and cut off from the outside world. Anything modern is taboo.
At the heart of their universe are the three villages of the Inner Baduy, where residents adhere to the strictest form of their religion. The Inner Baduy provide the governing elite and are famed throughout Indonesia for their skill at magic.
Foreigners are banned here and few Indonesian outsiders manage to penetrate the inner sanctum. Surrounding and protecting this secret world are the 44 Outer Baduy villages, acing as a buffer zone and a place of exile for those from the inner sanctum who break the rules.
A serious transgression by one of the Inner Baduy, who wear white shirts to distinguish them, results in banishment to the outer villages known as 'The land of sinners."
The last of possible violations is a 19ng one. Electricity is outlawed. So is adultery, soap, four-legged animals, fertilizer, glass, metal cutlery, cutting down trees, touching money and changing the course of water.
"If an Inner Baduy touches the breasts of a virgin he will be made to do forced labor and exiled," said Miharta, a local government official in charge of the Baduy region. "The woman will be banished too, of course."
Any surprise that the Baduy have managed to keep their ancient life from being eroded by contact with the outside world evaporates during the exhausting, bone-jarring walk from the nearest road to the Outer Baduy village of Gajeboh.
Visiting the Baduy means trekking for hours through the jungle on a muddy roller-coaster path that winds up sheer hills and plunges down again into humid, mosquito-infested valleys.
Gajeboh is a small cluster of wooden huts huddled in a river valley. Visitors sleep on bamboo mats on the hard floor. There is no electricity and at night the village is blanketed in total darkness except for the fireflies.
The food on offer is salted fish, rice and raw vegetables, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Strict Riles on agriculture, including a bat' on irrigation, fertilizer, beasts of burden and modem tools, complicate food production. Malnutrition is common and infant mortality high.
Inner Baduy villagers take little interest in the outside world. Many never leave their secret enclave. Most only travel as far as a nearby market town, where they stock up on salted fish.
But even the Inner Baduy who have made the long walk to Jakarta seem unimpressed by what they saw. "My o~ village is much nicer than Jakarta," said Sarif, a youth from the Inner Baduy village of Cibeo who made the journey in January.
Asked what he thought of the capital, he shrugged. "A lot of demonstrations" was his only comment
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