November 15, 2001 (IPS) — They are not far from the urban centers that dot West Java in Indonesia, but villagers in Kampung Naga at first glance seem to be preserving a way of life their ancestors led for generations.

Despite the availability of modern construction materials, families use bamboo to build their homes and dried coconut leaves to roof their dwellings, which are similar to one another in design and size.

The villagers — 326 families living in 110 houses in an enclave some 204 miles (340 kilometers) from the capital Jakarta — are so averse to modern convenience that they also shun electricity, as well as any electronic goods or gadgets.

Like generations before them, they work their farms and share the produce among themselves. Chemical fertilizer is taboo and slash-and-burn land clearing is strictly prohibited.

To the people of Kampung Naga, the rules of life handed down by their elders are sacred.

"These are the rules. These are what our ancestors taught. These are what we have been following for generations and we have never had a problem with them," says Ateng, the elderly chief of the Kampung Naga.

All this seemed to work until the State Forestry Corporation, known by its Indonesian acronym Perhutani, ruled in 1997 that Kampung Naga's protected area belonged to the government.

On that day, the villagers painfully realized that the traditional law on land borders has no place in modern law. "Nothing we can do. We all cried when they converted the area into a pine plantation a few years later," Ateng recalls.

Kampung Naga residents say water has become scarce since the land conversion by Perhutani. More and more rice fields are drying up, turning into bare land. "I am sure this is what our ancestors had warned us about," explains Ujang, another villager.

Ateng recounted the time he went as a representative of the Kampung Naga people to meet the forestry corporation staff. He submitted complaints about the conversion of their land, but he went home empty-handed.

"They asked me to show land certificates and other legal documents. Of course we don't have them. But this area, our people and everything within, had been here before the law office issued certificates," Ateng points out.

Apart from losing their sacred land, the villagers of this picturesque enclave are about to lose their privacy as well — the government has taken the first steps toward turning their village into a tourist area.

Kampung Naga, situated in a green, hilly area in West Java, six-tenths of a mile (one kilometer) from the main inter-province road, is accessible to both local and foreign tourists.

The local tourism office, eager to attract visitors to the area, built facilities there, including a spacious parking area and a big billboard that says "Welcome to Kampung Naga." Visitors are charged entrance and parking fees.

The tourism office also built shops for the Kampung Naga people to sell their handicrafts.

But the people are unhappy with these facilities. "We don't need this masonry track that we have been strongly prohibited to construct since a long time ago. We never asked other people to build this," Ateng says.

He says Kampung Naga villagers have never received any money raised from the visitor fees the tourism office collects. None of them own or rent the handicraft shops, he adds.

"They (shop owners) are from other areas. They buy our handicrafts to sell to visitors. We make handicrafts for gifts to our guests, not to be sold to make money," maintains Ateng.