A Thousand Tumpeng Rice And Chicken Ingkung Served In The Wiwit Tradition Of Tobacco And Coffee Harvesting In Temanggung

Thousands of tobacco and coffee farmers thronged the Temanggung Square to follow the wiwit of the tobacco and coffee harvest. (Antara/Heru Suyitno)

JAKARTA - Around 1,000 chicken ingkung and tumpeng rice colored the wiwit event (the start) of the mass tobacco and coffee harvest at the Temanggung District Square, Central Java, Sunday, August 21, 2022.

Ingkung ayam (chicken cooked whole, without being cut into pieces) and tumpeng were brought by farmer groups, both tobacco farmers and coffee farmers, from 20 sub-districts in Temanggung Regency.

At least 5,000 farmers gathered in Temanggung Square to pray together. After praying together, then the ingkung and the cone are eaten together.

Temanggung Regent M. Al Khadziq conveyed that tobacco and coffee farmers in Temanggung flocked to the square carrying ingkung and tumpeng to pray together asking Allah so that the 2022 tobacco and coffee harvest would run smoothly and could bring a lot of sustenance to the community.

"Farmers hope that this year's tobacco and coffee will be expensive so that the community's economy can run well," he said as quoted by Antara.

Khadziq said that it has become a tradition for the people of Temanggung every tobacco harvest to celebrate tobacco wiwit, as well as coffee harvest time, farmers also hold a coffee harvest celebration.

"Therefore, the Temanggung Regency Government has made one such tradition of harvesting tobacco and coffee in the Temanggung Square en masse," he said.

He said that in order for the prices of the two commodities to be high, the district government first asked and called on all tobacco farmers and choppers to maintain the quality of Temanggung tobacco.

"If the quality is high, we hope the price is also appropriate according to the quality. Then for the industry to buy and absorb Temanggung tobacco by providing a reasonable price according to the quality," he said.

According to him, the Temanggung Regency Government continues to communicate with farmers, traders, and the cigarette industry and hopes that farmers can profit, traders can profit, and factories can also profit so that this tobacco benefits all parties.

Likewise for coffee farmers, the district government also always calls for farmers to maintain the quality of Temanggung coffee, namely picking coffee and processing it according to coffee quality standards.

"We hope that coffee farmers will benefit, traders and buyers will also benefit," he said.

The chairman of the Temanggung Regency DPRD, Yunianto, expressed his appreciation for the mass harvesting of tobacco and coffee.

"As people who are pious, keep praying to God Almighty, as Javanese people through traditional culture do wiwit tobacco and coffee. Wiwit is a traditional culture, custom and it has been done by the ancestors as a harmonization between fellow human beings with nature and God. But all this is a medium of praying to God Almighty," he said.

He said that the DPRD did carry out routines, namely gatherings with the cigarette industry or in this case PT Djarum in Kudus and PT Gudang Garam in Kediri.

"Our latest information is that the factory will be ready to absorb the tobacco harvest in 2022. Our regent's message also agrees that farmers still have to maintain quality and we are sure that the factory will look at the quality side," he said.