Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

GAINING KNOWLEDGE OF EMPYAK RAGUMAN TO SUSTAIN JAVANESE TRADITIONAL ENVIRONMENT

Vincentia Reni Vitasurya, Gagoek Hardiman, Suzanna Ratih Sari and Purwanto Hadi

Abstract

Bamboo, as a common plant in Asia, usually used in Asian daily life from household tools to construction. The use of bamboo in a traditional house, particularly in Javanese, occurs in many building elements such as wall and roof construction. Empyak raguman, part of empyak (traditional Javanese roof structure), used bamboo in a vertical arrangement to cover the inside part. The use of Empyak raguman being a part of Javanese local wisdom in bamboo usage. Started with the bamboo calculating the inside roof coverage to measure bamboo needs, selecting bamboo, preserving bamboo in natural way, assembling and finalized constructing bamboo in local tradition. The construction process did by gotong royong (work together in Javanese community) tradition. So, this paper explores how bamboo usage as empyak raguman in Javanese house considering the environment as a point of view. Used literature and in-depth interview with the traditional Javanese expert then compare with the usage of bamboo in modern way. The initial finding shows that bamboo usage in the traditional way is environmentally friendly than in modern way. So, this finding can be elaborated to develop bamboo usage in traditional pattern for modern living.