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Rinjani, Tourism and Economic |
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 The Rinjani mountain has become one of the highlights of Lombok tourism and has long attracted visitors or climbers from both Indonesian and international tourists annually. Nowadays various facilities have been created to ease the climbers in accessing the volcano. Over 20 villages surround Rinjani and there are many routes up to the mountain, but the main access points are from Senaru in the north (starting point for climbing Lombok's famous volcano) or Sembalun Lawang and Sembalun Bumbung to the northeast (a slightly shorter route to the summit ).
There are a variety of different options for climbing Gunung Rinjani. Two day, one night treks are the shortest available, taking visitors to the crater rim, to view the wide crater and the emerald green lake within. However the most popular is the three day, two night trek which allows trekkers to climb to the very summit of the volcano, with magnificent views from the highest point on Lombok - taking in the vista of the surrounding mountain range, the lush green landscape below, and the ocean to the west studded with the Gili islands and Bali floating in the distance. The best time to climb Gunung Rinjani is in the dry season from around April to October, or before the rains start. The sunny days and cooler temperatures make this time of the year the most comfortable for climbing, and enable the clearest views of the stunning scenery both on and around the mountain. It is cold on the mountain at night, so make sure you take warm clothing.
In 2004 the Rinjani Trek won the World Legacy Award for Destination Stewardship and the volcano is recognised internationally as an important eco-tourism destination. Developed with New Zealand Government assistance since 1999, the Rinjani Trek Centre embodies under one roof, the unique partnership of the National Park, tourism industry and local communities that has been forged to manage and protect the Rinjani mountain environment.
Economic Activity
The birthplace of the Watu Telu religion, Bayan village is still quite isolated from the rest of the Lombok island. It is near Senaru, one of the main starting points for the climb up Mt. Runjani. The village women in the Bayan area near Mt Rinjani have turned a centuries-old community practice into a potential new income source. Their unique textiles, woven in the home, represent a side to Lombok that most travellers would never know about.
Bayan textiles are customarily woven only for individual and communal purposes, serving not only as sacred objects, but also used for daily and ceremonial dress or to adorn ceremonial artefacts. This entire textile is hand-woven by Bayanese woman in their homes after a day¡¯s work in the rice paddy or dry-land farming area.
For hundreds of years, there was no economic growth, only a stagnant standard of living among the Bayanese. It was only as recently as the 1970s, the money entered the Bayanese economy. The economic pressures have forced them to shift their focus on to tourism, Lombok¡¯s growth industry. The test of success will lie in whether the embryonic retail textile industry can develop enough momentum to spark an economic revolution in the Bayanese economy and lead to a sustained ¨C and sustainable ¨C lift in the economic circumstances of the people. And the answer lies in part in how attractive international tourists think their textiles are. Until the textiles-for-tourists option became available, the Bayan villagers all lived a subsistence farming life. The new tourist interest in their culture and cultural products will help them lift incomes above the minimum wages of the daily life.
Nowadays, people from everywhere can find and buy the traditional hand-woven products of the area. Some communities in Bayan have opened to tourists and are finding a market that is global in its reach. That can only build up as more international tourists discover this unique part of Lombok. |
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