Banyuwangi

The eastern tip of Java was the seat of Blambangan, the last Hindu kingdom on the island, which survived long after the rest of Java had turned to Islam because of its links across the strait with Bali. The region was contested between Balinese rulers, the Mataram sultanate and finally the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch takeover in the later eighteenth century ended Blambangan's independence, after warfare that devastated its population; the survivors of that period are the ancestors of the Osing, who kept a distinct language and customs.

The Dutch rebuilt the area around a new administrative centre near the coast. The name Banyuwangi, meaning fragrant water, comes from a local legend of a wife whose innocence was proved when the river ran sweet after her death. Plantations of coffee, rubber and later cocoa were laid out on the volcanic slopes, and sulphur mining began at Ijen, worked by hand and carried down the mountain on shoulder poles, as it still is.

A railway reached the town in 1903, completing the line across Java, and the ferry crossing to Bali made the port a corridor for traffic between the islands. The regency's later history includes the mass killings of 1965-66, which fell hardest on East Java, Central Java and Bali, and a witch-hunt in 1998 against people accused of sorcery that spiralled into wider violence in which Islamic clerics were also killed. In recent decades Banyuwangi has promoted itself as a festival and outdoor-tourism destination, opening an airport, restoring Osing villages and building an annual calendar of events around the dances and landscapes of the regency.

The Osing are the defining community. Their language, a branch of Javanese with its own vocabulary and word play, is spoken in the villages west and south of the town, and their culture is publicly celebrated rather than kept private. The gandrung is the best-known expression of it: a dance of courtship performed by a woman in a gold headdress and sash, once travelling from village to village and now the regency's emblem, performed en masse at the yearly Gandrung Sewu festival.

Ritual life keeps older layers visible. The seblang trance dance is performed by a chosen woman in the Osing villages, a barong procession passes through the lanes just after Idul Fitri, and the fishing communities hold their sea offering, the petik laut. Islam is observed alongside these practices without much tension, and Balinese Hindu temples and Chinese shrines add to the mix in a place where three islands' cultures meet.

Coffee, surfing and volcanoes have brought a newer layer of visitors and an outward-looking local administration that stages dozens of festivals a year. Manners are East Javanese: direct and cheerful by Central Javanese standards, with strong hospitality and a habit of feeding guests immediately. Photography of ceremonies is generally welcomed if permission is asked first.

The town district counted about 118,000 people at the 2020 census, within a regency of about 1.7 million at the same count, spread over a large area of coast, farmland and forest — the third largest regency on Java by area. The population mixes Osing, Javanese, Madurese and Balinese, and the languages heard in the market shift from street to street.

The economy rests on farming and fishing: rice on the plain, coffee, cocoa and rubber on the volcanic slopes, fruit and vegetables in the hills, and a large fishing fleet at Muncar, with canneries and processing plants behind the harbour. Sulphur is still carried out of the Ijen crater by hand. Tourism has grown quickly around the volcano, the surf beaches and the parks, and the ferry port makes the town a transit point for freight and labour moving to Bali.

Life follows the boats and the fields. The fish market is busiest before dawn, ferries load through the night, and jeeps and motorcycles leave for Ijen around midnight. Afternoon heat empties the streets, and evenings belong to the square and the seafront. Local concerns include the condition of the fishing grounds, crop prices, the safety of the miners, and how far tourism should be pushed in a regency that markets itself hard.

The regency's signature is sego tempong: a plate of rice with boiled vegetables, tofu, tempeh, corn fritter and fried catfish, and a raw sambal of chilli, shrimp paste and lime that gives the dish its name, a word for a slap. Rujak soto is the other local invention, pouring beef soto over a vegetable rujak with lontong in petis sauce — a combination that sounds improbable and is eaten all over the town.

Osing village cooking supplies the ceremonial dishes. Pecel pitik is grilled young chicken mixed with coconut and spices, prepared for communal meals in Kemiren, and the ceremonial meals of the Osing villages keep older rice dishes in use. Cenil, a chewy cassava sweet rolled in grated coconut, appears at markets in the morning.

The sea and the slopes provide the rest. Muncar's boats land sardines, tuna and squid, grilled simply or turned into pindang, and dried and salted fish is a staple. Coffee is the regency's pride, grown on the flanks of Ijen and Raung and roasted in the villages, often drunk with a spoonful of sugar in a glass. Warm ginger drinks suit the cold nights on the mountain, and fruit from the regency's orchards and hill gardens is sold along the roads.