In a corner of Java live the Amish of Indonesia
The Baduy of Indonesia shun modernity. But growing numbers are abandoning their way of life
It was just another day in Kanekes when Herman Jarkan (pictured) was struck by an epiphany. He was rushing home after the weekly shop one afternoon in May 2014. On his shoulders was balanced a baton of wood, on either end of which hung two big knapsacks laden with rice, cooking oil and salted fish. His bare feet gripped the cobblestones of the path which meandered up hills and through forests.
This article appeared in the Christmas Specials section of the print edition under the headline “Time lords”
Christmas Specials December 24th 2022
- In a corner of Java live the Amish of Indonesia
- Should we care about people who need never exist?
- What Brazil’s 19th-century rubber crash could teach today’s oil drillers
- How food affects the mind, as well as the body
- What makes certain dogs popular in certain countries
- The great inflation of the 1500s is echoing eerily today
- The decline of the city grid
- Why cricket and America are made for each other
From the December 24th 2022 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
Inside the last true political machine in America
What a town is like when one family runs everything
AI is stalking the last lions of Hollywood
The first actors to lose their jobs to artificial intelligence are four-legged
The truth about the passenger jet Putin’s men shot down
Investigating MH17, the crime that presaged the war in Ukraine
Meet the boffins and buccaneers drilling for hydrogen
The search is on for a clean fuel that could one day replace oil
The best sailors in the world
Why the vaka, vehicle for the extraordinary story of the peopling of Oceania, is enjoying a revival
Oceania’s wayfinding skills
The art of getting a vessel and its occupants from one place on a vast ocean to another