A Comparison Study of Tangible and Intangible Culture as Commercialisation Process of Tourism Village in Yogyakarta

Written by Lucia Asdra Rudwiarti, Anna Pudianti, Vincentia Reni Vitasurya
on August 25, 2017

E-Journal of Tourism Vol.4. No.2. (2017): 71-77

¹ A Comparison Study of Tangible and Intangible Culture as Commercialisation Process of Tourism Village in Yogyakarta

Lucia Asdra Rudwiarti, Anna Pudianti and Vincentia Reni Vitasurya

Architecture Department, Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Corresponding Author: [email protected]

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Received

05 October 2016

Accepted

17 August 2017 Available online 25 August 2017

The paper is an empirical study examining the tangible and intangible culture of rural tourism with a focus on rural transformation from daily local into commercial behaviour due to presence of tourism activities. It explores the process of commercialization of tangible and intangible culture. The case studies of Brayut and Pentingsari rural tourism village are studied through observation and interviews of physical and non-physical transformation with community members and the rural tourism manager. Both villages are the unique growing tourist village in Yogyakarta, but Brayut has a potential asset of maintained condition traditional Javanese house in whereas Pentingsari has an attractive natural of green village with the local cultural heritage. The qualitative empirical research study was applied to explore the transformation of cultural meaning by the locals before and after commercialization process. Firstly, the study reviewed the original tangible and intangible culture before transformation. Secondly, changes in cultural functions and meaning are analyzed in the current situation caused by its transforming into commercial activities. By examining the comparison of tangible and intangible culture in the commercializing process is built to understand the relationships between the two and the quality of its transformation.

Keywords: tourism village, traditional Javanese house, commercialisation of space

Introduction

Background

Culture is the way of life in relation with the beliefs, customs, language, cuisine, music, and arts, and other manifestations of human achievement regarded collectively in a particular group of people at a particular time. In the context of tourism, the culture-based tourism has been known as the part of effortt to enhance livelihoods of such communities (Ahebwa, Aporu and Nyakaana, 2016) without vanishing the lifestyle of the people, their art,

¹The article had been presented in The International Tourism Conference “Promoting Cultural & Heritage Tourism” at Udayana University, 1-3 September 2016.

architecture, religion, and other elements that identified their way of life. Cultural-based tourism widely applied in rural areas with the aim to intensify the rural livelihoods, so several studies focusing on the development of the rural economy, such as the problem of village absorption of the tourism program (Royo-Vela, 2009), the marketing model of cultural-rural tourism (Ahimsa-Putra, 2011), and behavior towards external intervention to develop sustainable tourist village (Samanpour, 2012). Access to capital assets in form of natural, physical, financial, human, and social can enhance the construction of community's livelihoods (Ahebwa, Aporu and Nyakaana, 2016).

Research Objective

This study aims to show the role of cultural-based tourism in the process of commercialisation especially in rural area from both tangible and intangible culture itself. As Ahimsa-Putra said that there is an ecconomic response during the transformation of the rural area because of the tourism activity called the process of commercialisation. The meaning of commercialisation process in this study is the transformation process of community to enable penetrate and benefit from the tourism value chain.

Literature Review

Previous Study Related to Research Topic

Hwang, Stewart and Ko (2012) and Pudianti (2013) have been studied Brayut Rural Tourism focusing on economic response. He categorized two type of commerciallysation process which are called Cultural Commercialisation, and Spacial Commersialisation. Several studies have been conducted in Pentingsari focusing on various issues. Most of the studies is in tourism management and economic point of view. Among others the most recent study by van Deursen and Raaphorst (2014) found that transforming the physical of their house to be a homestay is the biggest form of participation (83%). The author dit not focus on how people transformed their house but only on the way people followed the process on change by their participation. Another study was done by Pudianti, Syahbana and Suprapti (2014) who has interested in analyzing the concept of self conservation in Pentingsari.

This study focussed on how villagers defend themselves from external influences which are not in favor of environmental sustainability. This study focuses on how villagers defend themselves from external influences which are not in favor of environmental sustainability, but the scope of this study is at the level of the rural area as a whole and not on the details of the settlement component in micro level. But on the topic of cultural tourism the most recent studies has been done such as Ahebwa, Aporu and Nyakaana (2016), Liu (2006), Van-Deursen

and Raaphorst (2014) and Pudianti, Syahbana and Suprapti (2016) focusing on the relation between it with the sustainable cultural heritage management and the role of community participation. Differ from the previous studies of cultural tourism point of view, this study focussing on the quality of cultural asset itself which consists of tangible and intangible culture.

Yogyakarta is the second highest of urbanization in Indonesia after Jakarta. Yogyakarta is well-known as the cultural city, and the center of Javanese Culture. This city represents the local context in developing the concept of livability in traditional milieu (Herawati et al., 2014; Royo-Vela, 2009). Brayut and Pentingsari are villages in north of Yogyakarta (Fig 1.), but Brayut is located about 20 km from Yogyakarta while Pentingsari is 32 km from Yogyakarta city. Along with the development of Brayut region into a tourist village, any physical changes occur mainly in the settlement, but the traditional house, however until now are still preserved. Besides this tourist village has a traditional building types of the most complete traditional houses that are unspoiled and still retained its authenticity is leased. On the other hand Pentingsari is located on the slopes of Mount Merapi. Pentigsari is in an isolated area with limited access to the village, but has an attractive natural of green village with the local cultural heritage. Based on those uniqueness of Brayut and Pentingsari, the cases are valuable to be analyzed as case study reseach.

Methodology

Research Location

Research was undertaken in Pentingsari and Brayut Village Yogyakarta, see Figure 1.

Figure 1. Location of Study Area

Data Analysis

The strategy of this research is using a case study research by Pudianti (2013) that the the unique phenomenon on the rural development in a success case, 2) its capacity to explain causal links, 3) the development of cultural tourism theory, 4) the used of multiple source evidence. Brayut and Pentingsari are taken as case studies since theirs special case which describe the pasion of the commercialization process, from the side of transformation itself and also the role of the community participation in keeping the traditional context of their villages, as Samanpour (2012) said that the traditional context is superior in terms of encouraging public participation.

This study is using the case study research with two case studies which are complementary and enriching in terms of tangible and intangible culture. The case study research is a mix-method research (Yin, 2013), but to explore the role of tangible and intable cultural tourism in the commercialisation process which is an unconsciousness action of community, the qualitative empirical should be emphasized. Firstly, the study reviewed the original tangible and intangible culture before and after commercialisation process. Secondly, changes in cultural functions and meaning are analyzed in the current situation caused by its transforming into commercial activities. By examining the comparison of tangible and intangible culture in the commercializing

process is built to understand the relationships between the two and the quality of its transformation.

Results and Discussion

Brayut tourist village is one of the tourist village in Sleman district who rely on daily aspects of history and traditional life of the villagers. The long history behind the formation of this village produced many traditional buildings primarily to residential residents. Prosperity of the villagers as well as the proximity to the circles of monarchy power of Yogyakarta at that time resulted in community who have the kind of home that "classy" in that age, such as the type of Joglo house (usually owned by highest class of community), houses of limasan with different kinds of variations (usually owned by the merchants and rich peasants), and kampung style (usually owned by the commoners and laborers). The three types of traditional houses are some of the well-preserved because it is still inhabited by the villagers. Along with the development of Brayut region into a tourist village, any physical changes occur mainly in the house - the traditional house, however until now are still preserved. This tourist village has a traditional building types of the most complete traditional houses that are unspoiled and still retained its authenticity. Most of them leased for the tourist accommodation, see Table 1.

Table 1. Tangible and Intangible Culture of Brayut Village

No	Before commercialisation		After commercialisation
No	Tangible	Intangible	Tangible	Intangible
1	Gamelan -	Play	Gamelan -	Less
	tradisional	traditional	tradisional	interest of
	musical	musics to	musical	traditional
	instrument	support tradisional ceremonies	instrument	musics by the young people. It could be encouraged through the need of tourism activities Play tradisional musics to support tourism

Education and workshop of playing tradisional musics to support tourism

Tradisional	Less
dances to	interest of
support	the young
tradisional	people
ceremonies	learning tradisional dances. It could be encouraged through the need of tourism activities tradisional dance to support tourism Education and workshop of tradisional dances to support tourism

2	Original Tradisional House	The use of house in tradisional layout for the daily life	Additional rooms for tourist or fungsional change of original rooms	Part of the house for daily life of the owner, other part for tourist activities
	Pendopo	The use of	Pendopo	Simulation
		house	as tourist	of tradition
		during the	meeting	held for
		traditionnal	room	tourist
		ceremonies		experience
3	Paddy's	The	Paddy's	The
	field	tradition of	field	tradition of
		farming		farming
		Harvest		Harvest
		ceremony		ceremony
				The tradition of farming and harvest ceremony as tourist attraction
4	Village	The social	Village	The social
	landscape	activities	landscape	activities
		of the		of the
		village		village
		Merti bumi		Merti bumi
		ceremony -		ceremony
		clean and		as the

take care tourism

of the earth

attraction

Sunset and sunrise scenery from the village as tourism attraction

Some houses have changes associated with the need to provide accommodation for tourists who visit, partly due to the changes that are perceived by the modernization synonymous with modern materials and building materials such as ceramic, concrete roof tiles, aluminum frames. This change will certainly result in changes in the identity of rural areas that are synonymous with traditional elements. Changes in the traditional tourist village identity will directly impact the interest of tourists, so the element of public awareness to preserve the traditional aspect is especially at their house becomes an important thing that should be on the lookout for the preservation of the tourist village. The changes in the spatial Brayut village may include several elements important space in the context of the concept of traditional Javanese house. Therefore, these changes need to be identified with tanggible dan intangible of the culture.

MacroLeveI of Erayut

MicroLewI OfBrayutTradisionaI House

Fig. 2 Tangible Culture of Brayut Village after commercialization

Form of cultural commercialization is not only happening in the local art, but encompass all sectors of daily activities, such as traditional house, local tradition of farming, local ceremonies, environment protection of local wisdom and other creative crafts are often the target of the tourists. The presence of tourists at a ceremony or ritual harvest celebration, ceremony of birth, marriage, and death, opens the opportunities for the manager (service provider travel, government, and tour operators) and local communities to dig the commercial benefits. It change the main of tradisional principle such as the private area turned into public or semi public, the sacred ceremonial being changed into public performance, but almost all of the tangible culture is not changed although the intangible culture transforms in different meaning.

Figure 3. Tangible Culture of Pentingsari Village after commercialization

Cultural tourism continues to grow and culture has been seen as different meaning. The process of cultural tourism and the resulting huge domino effect in various fields provides an extra income for the community, especially the host. The presence of foreigners has an impact on the fulfillment of the facilities to be paid (accommodation, amenitas, transportation, facilities, and other services), including the willingness to pay the desired attractions. If earlier the various rites and craft products are only used for personal tradition with a special meaning and function of private matter, then the presence of tourists has added commercial value of the product and cultural attractions. Various changes continue to be pursued in the cultural tourism business in order to make adjustments to the resource in order to meet travelers' expectations. Of course, the development of this innovation positively contribute to the development of infrastructure, accommodation, services, transportation and accessibility to the natural environment and social environment of human culture.

Table 2. Tangible and Intangible Culture of Pentingsari Village

N o	Before commercialisation		After commercialisation
N o	Tangible	Intangible	Tangible	Intangible
1	Gamelan	Play	Gamelan	Less
	-	traditional	-	interest of
	tradisiona	musics to	tradision	traditional
	l musical instrumen	support tradisional	al musical	musics by the young
	t	ceremonies	instrume	people. It
			nt	could be encourage d through the need of tourism activities
				Play tradisional
				musics to
				support tourism
				Education and
				workshop of playing tradisional
				musics to
				support tourism
		Tradisional		Less
		dances to		interest of
		support		the young

		tradisional ceremonies		people learning tradisional dances. It could be encourage d through the need of tourism activities	Making tradisional toys (Wayang rumput) or recycle craft material for tourist attraction
				Tradisional dance to support tourism	Craft from recycle materials as a unique
2	Tradision	The use of	Addition	Daily life	souvenirs
	al House	house in tradisional layout for the daily life	al rooms for tourist or fungsion al change	of the owner and tourist mix together	Making traditional food from local ingredients
			of original rooms		Fake cultural attraction or production, modification culture, and cultural tourisfication encourage culture to be "object spectacle". It means that travelers who watch the cultural performance is often seen as the most influential the subject. In the end it would also affect the value of space as a form of architecture. The space was originally
		The use of house during the traditionna l ceremonies	New meeting room	Simulation of tradition held for tourist experience
3	Paddy's field and farm	The tradition of farming	Paddy's field and farm	The tradition of farming
		Harvest ceremony		Harvest ceremony	sacred or social functioning only as a part of the traditions eventually turned into a commercial commodity. Therefore, the greatest impact to be considered is the effect of intangible culture, because the quality of culture is identified from the meaning of tangible.
				The tradition of farming and harvest ceremony as tourist attraction
4	Village landscape	The social activities of the village	Village landscap e	The social activities of the village, tourist join in the	Conclusion Pentingsari case shows that intangible culture formed in many different form as the response of the commercialization, but it was not happened in Brayut. The reason is because Pentingsari introduces local wisdom in preserving green village as an intangible culture, but Brayut has traditional house as
		Merti bumi ceremony -clean and take care of the earth -		Merti bumi ceremony as the tourism attraction
	Village shaded by trees	Protecting green environme nt	Village shaded by trees	Green environme nt as the uniq tourism attraction	major attractions which identified as tangible culture. Acknowledgment
		Tradisional waste manageme nt		Tradisional waste manageme nt to be shared for the tourist	This paper is the result of research conducted with funding from the Slamet Rijadi Foundation through the University of Atma Jaya Yogyakarta Research Grant scheme conducted in fiscal year 2015-2016.

References

Ahebwa, W. M., Aporu, J. P. and Nyakaana, J. B. (2016) ‘Bridging community livelihoods and cultural conservation through tourism: Case study of Kabaka heritage trail in Uganda’, Tourism and Hospitality Research. SAGE Publications Sage UK: London, England, 16(2), pp. 103–115.

Ahimsa-Putra, H. S. (2011) ‘Rural Tourism and Economic Response: Case of Brayut Village, Sleman, Yogyakarta (Pariwisata di Desa dan respon ekonomi: kasus Duusun Brayut di Sleman, Yogyakarta’, Patrawidya, 12(4), pp. 635–660.

van Deursen, R. E. and Raaphorst, W. F. (2014) ‘Proud to be Dogon: An exploration of the local perspective on cultural tourism and cultural heritage management in Dogon country, Mali’, Tourism and Hospitality Research. SAGE Publications Sage UK: London, England, 14(1–2), pp. 67–80.

Herawati, A., Purwaningsih, A., Pudianti, A. and Surya, R. V. (2014) ‘Rural tourism community empowerment based on local resources for improving community welfare: Case on

Pentingsari village, Yogyakarta, Indonesia’, Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research. Society of Interdisciplinary Business Research, 3(2), p. 88.

Hwang, D., Stewart, W. P. and Ko, D. (2012) ‘Community behavior and sustainable rural tourism development’, Journal of Travel Research. SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA, 51(3), pp. 328–341.

Liu, A. (2006) ‘Tourism in rural areas: Kedah, Malaysia’, Tourism management.

Elsevier, 27(5), pp. 878–889.

Pudianti, A. (2013) ‘Livable extended urban spaces through rural tourism sustainable concept, a case study of Yogyakarta’, in Internasional Workshop on Livable Cities: Proceeding Livability at Affordability (IWLC 2013). Penang, Malaysia, pp. 66–73.

Pudianti, A., Syahbana, J. A. and Suprapti, A. (2014) ‘Physical Transformation of Residential into Commercial

Residential in Rural Tourism of Pentingsari, Sleman Yogyakarta, Indonesia’, in Proceeding Rural Research and Planning Group (RRPG 5- 2014). Malaysia, pp. 42–51.

Pudianti, A., Syahbana, J. A. and Suprapti, A. (2016) ‘Role of Culture in Rural Transformation in Manding Village, Bantul Yogyakarta, Indonesia’, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. Elsevier, 227, pp. 458–464.

Royo-Vela, M. (2009) ‘Rural-cultural excursion conceptualization: A local tourism marketing management model based on tourist destination image measurement’, Tourism Management. Elsevier, 30(3), pp. 419–428.

Samanpour, F. (2012) ‘Enhancing Quality of Traditional Built Environment: Towards a Convenient Model of Decision Making in Traditional Milieu’, International Transaction Journal of Engineering, Management, & Applied Sciences & Technologies, 3(3), pp. 227–244.

Yin, R. K. (2013) Case study research: Design and methods. Sage publications.

http://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/eot

77

e-ISSN: 2407-392X. p-ISSN: 2541-0857