Angie Wuysang
There seems to be almost no mosque building in the world whose dome shape looks like a potato, apart from the domes of mosques in Dieng. If we visit Dieng, the highest plateau of Java, then as far as the eye can see, wherever we look, we will see magnificent mosque domes that make the entire hill range look like it is covered in potato fields, from the valley to the hill tops. Not only do they resemble potatoes, but the mosques are also even ‘built by potatoes.’ This was conveyed by a professor of anthropology from Gadjah Mada University, Pujo Semedi, who conducted research in Dieng together with his colleagues Hery Santoso and Novilatul Ramadhani.
At first glance, as stated by Professor Semedi, this landscape appears to be productive. But in truth, there is a serious threat lurking behind the beauty of the green hills and the prosperous looking ‘potato mosques.’ Environmental issues like soil erosion and landslides, decrease in soil fertility, and increasing pest attacks in the last three decades have caused the production and productivity of potato crops to decline (quoting Santoso: 2016). Researchers have calculated that if the trend of high environmental exploitation in Dieng continues without any conservation efforts, then in 20-30 years, the land there would totally lose fertility, and farmers would not be able to plant anything. Unfortunately, awareness of this environmental crisis has not led to rethinking their potato farming methods and there is no indication of a decrease in the level of environmental exploitation in Dieng. Farmers continue to cultivate potatoes on a vast scale and intensive mode as if there were no problems of any kind.
These facts prompted Professor Semedi to propose two research questions of. First, why do Dieng farmers, in spite of climate change and decline in production and productivity, keep planting potatoes? And second, why are there no efforts to reduce the farming efforts which would result in a lower rate of environmental destruction and improve farming productivity in Dieng? Pujo Semedi further pointed out the fact that before potatoes became the main crop of Dieng's agriculture, tobacco was already grown and has a long history there. In the 17th century, tobacco smoking was already practiced by the Javanese, such that tobacco began to be widely planted and cultivated in Java. Tobacco seeds came from the lowlands and were brought to the highlands. Tobacco from the lowlands will typically have difficulties growing in the highlands, but apparently was able to grow well in Dieng’s cold temperature. Overtime, the tobacco grown in the highlands would face some constraints related to cold temperatures such as fog and clouds. These environmental factors usually made the drying process difficult. Despite the environmental and economic constraints of tobacco farming in Dieng, as Pujo noted, tobacco farming has had a sociological impact on the emergence of three social strata in the community; namely, (1) Farmland owners, (2) Laborers from the lowlands, and, (3) the Tobacco traders, generally people of Chinese descent from Pekalongan, as the uppermost of this social layer. Although the Chinese traders were a minority of only 0.6 percent of the total population, they controlled the tobacco trade throughout the region. Citing the research report by Blink (1912), the domination of Chinese traders in the farmers' economy attracted local elites to incorporate themselves in the system by becoming village agents. According to Pujo Semedi’s further explanation, there were no moral obstacles for the Muslim village elites to join the Chinese trading network. Technically, no usury (riba) which is prohibited in Islamic law, was taken in the tobacco trade. Capital loans given to farmers were returned with tobacco sales, in an amount equal to the nominal loan. In 1960-1970, the production and distribution of tobacco in Dieng experienced a drastic decline due to the emergence of lighter kretek cigarettes.
Then, potatoes emerged, the main reason being the weather conditions in Dieng. In the 1980s, the farmers planted potatoes only during the dry season, between April and September, when the rainfall was low. Then on average, the farmers could produce up to 20 tons for each hectare of fields per harvest season. Potato farming and production have made Dieng a prosperous rural community. Potatoes changed the face of the Dieng, from a simple, left-behind countryside into shiny villages filled with nice, modern-built houses, just like in the city. For transportation purposes, farmers bought motorbikes, and rich farmers began to buy family cars and trucks. The impact of this consumptive pattern, according to Semedi, is similar to the concept of de-peasantization. Facts have shown that the massive production of potatoes has resulted in the decline of the peasant community.
Semedi then turns to the relationship between Potatoes and Islam. The more economically prosperous communities began to build mosque after mosque, as well as renovate old mosques to be bigger and more luxurious. The old wooden village mosque built during the tobacco era was renovated into a modern concrete, three-floor, mosque with ceramic tiles and capped with a Turkish dome. Renovation funds for the mosque were collected from farmers. Initially, rich farmers were asked to contribute more, but they objected. Later a middle ground was reached, that each farmer would contribute 2.5% from their potato harvests. Even if the costs are collected from all farmers, the renovation of this mosque is still a project for the elite. Under the direction of the elite, the villagers could only agree, although it is obvious to them that the project was superfluous. According to Semedi, the correlation between religion and potatoes in this case is that religious authorities advised people to be active in planting so that they can build new mosques.
Towards the end of the 1990s, potato harvests in Dieng started to decline sharply, and has not increased even until now. Every season there are a large number of farmers who experience crop failure. The farmers believe, especially after increasing cases of harvest failure, that their harvests are not just a matter of human effort but also the wish of supernatural forces. The intensification of rites among the farmers reflected an increase in efforts to materialize human hope by appealing to the supernatural.
Such is the reality in Dieng that religious fervor emerges in conjunction with the increased production of Potato farming. As agricultural yields increased, more mosques were constructed, people went on Hajj, and the community prospered. However, what has been overlooked is that the moral bond between humans and nature has diminished. Religion, which has been constructed to be so capitalist in nature, always leaves a negative impact on the environment. For this reason, Semedi at the end of his presentation asked a new question, how exactly does the religious community interpret their religion in relation to environmental conditions?