The smallest administrative unit in the D.I. Jogjakarta and likewise in the other provinces of Java is the kelurahan. Besides being an administrative unit, the kelurahan is also a social unit in this chiefly agrarian society. The kelurahan is a life-community, which as regards its number of inhabitants as well as its geographic extension,has only a limited size. The kelurahans in densely populated areas such as Sleman and Bantul are of a smaller size than those in the less densely populated region of Gunung Kidul. A kelurahan consists of a number of dukuh (hamlets). From 200 to 600 people live together in one dukuh mostly. A dukuh of more than 1,000 inhabitants is a rare thing. At the head of the dukuh is the kepala dukuh. A dukuh consists of a conglomeration of compounds, where dwellings and outhouses,mostly of wood and bamboo, have erected in the shade of and surrounded by coconut-, foliage-, and banana trees. The compounds are mostly separated by wattled bamboo or by hedgerows. Seen from a distance a dukuh gives an impression of a grove in the middle of paddy-fields. A dukuh is not an autarctic whole, but part of the desa community. Mostly a kelurahan comprises from 8 to 10 dukuhs. There are some small kelurahans counting some 4 dukuhs, and a rare one such as the largest kelurahan of the D.I. Jogjakarta in Kalibawang comprises 28. Mostly those dukuhs that were most suited for the purpose for historic, geographic, and psychological reasons, were united to desas.
The word desa is used in various senses. It may denote a fair-sized dukuh, but it sometimes denotes a number of dukuhs, which because of their proximity, form a centre in the area of the kelurahan. Mostly, however, it is synonymous with kelurahan, in which sense we shall use the word. The foundation uniting the inhabitants of the desa and shaping it into a natural community is, besides the geneological connection, the common conception of justice preserved unwritten in the customary law (adat). The common trade viz. Agriculture, which causes a strong tie to the soil cultivated by the inhabitants of the desa and heir ancestors, the circumstances of their lives, which are practically the same, their mutual dependence for help, the many common interests because of the irrigation of the sawahs, the market, the roads, bridges, the desa-school etc, All these are fators which perpetuate a communul sense. Boeke gives a summarizing definition of the desa: “The religious community ruled by a common tradition of related and non-related growers of food”. In the years after 1946 many administrative alterations were made, consisting chiefly in linking up the smaller desas. The larger ones that thus arose received new names. Their administration is in the hands of the desa-council:Pamong desa. These administrative officers have not got the status of officials. The desa=officers are paid with the right of usefruct of some plots of ground which are reserved especially for this purpose. These are called the tanah lungguh (paymentfields).
The Pamong Desa comprises the following officers:
1.The lurah (kepala desa).
2.Some 5 heads of the various departments viz. The social-,security-, economic-, religious affairs- and general de-partment.
3.The kepala dukuhs. As most desas comprise from 9 to 10 dukuhs this means that an equal number of kepala dukuhs are numbers of the Pamong Desa.
4.Some other members.
The desa-officers are chosen by the inhabitants, who themselves can influence the management, since they are represented in the dewan kelurahan.(people’s deputy council of the kelurahan).
The growth of the number of desas we realize as follows: The area that can be covered on foot from the centre of the desa determines the extent of the acreage cultivated by the inhabitants of the desa. The food-producing agriculture which aims chiefly at supplying the needs of the families themselves, restricts itself to what is required for these. The produce of the sawahs and the tegelans (inundated and non=inundated fields respectively) determines approximately the number of people that canbe fed by means of these grounds. If the number of people exceeded this limit so that they could not subsist on them, a new dukuh was established on the remaining virgin soil. The local population pressure was sometimes very high before the stimulant was strong enough to start establishing a new dukuh. A description of these circumstances is found in the report of Du Bus. In 1827 he described the occurrence of local overpopulation in a number of desas, in spite of the availability of a waste area of unreclaimed land approximately seven times more extensive than the area under cultivation. The accumulating of the population in a country, where there was no lack of usable agricultural land was very striking in Java at that time. The method of food production remains the same. The increase of the population does not appear to be an incentive to more intensive cultivation of the same acreage, but rather to a spread of the population over an ever larger acreage. On account of the growing population first the number of dukuhs increased, and in the long run a new neighbouring desa took shape. The extent of the desa appears to have a maximum which cannot be exceeded. When further growth takes place the desa forms subsidiary desas as if it were a living organism.
This development of the growth of the desa ended many years ago in the D.I. Jogjakarta. Already before the second world war there was no new ground to be cultivated any more, so that there are no futher possibilities of expansion in this way.
The administrative unit which in larger size follows on the kelurahan is the ketjamatan. It comprises an average of 6 kelurahans and hence about 70 dukuhs. At the head of the ketjamatan is the Tjamat appointed by the government and having the status of an official. The number of inhabitants of a ketjamatan varies from 20,000 to 40,000. In the D.I. Jogjakarta there are some 60 ketjamatans, indicated on the map. See fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
A number of ketjamatans form the administrative unit of a Kabupaten. At the head of Kabupaten is the Bupati as the bearer of the highest authority. The Bupati, too, has the status of an official. Within the D.I. Jogjakarta are four Kabupatens averaging 15 ketjamatans. They are the Kabupaten Kulon Progo. West of the river Progo, the Kabupatens Sleman and Eantul both situated on the slope of the mountain Merapi, and the Kabupaten Gunung Kidul situated east in the D.I. Jogjakarta. These names we used before in the geographical description. The number of inhabitants of a Kabupaten amounts from 300,000 people is divided into 14 kemantrens (town districts) each numbering from 10,000 to 30,000 inhabitants. This urban administrative unit, too, is built up from smaller units, which can be best compared with the desa in the country. This small unit is called kampung and has from 500 to 1,500 inhabitants. The urban population shows more difference in character and occupation than the rural people. Also 95% of the Chinese part of the population lives in the town. Only 600 of the total 12,000 Chinese live elsewhere. Of the small number of Europeans and Indo-Europeans the majority lives in the town.
Table I – 1.
