Badui Dalam Tribe

A marriage signifies a transition period for anyone, including Badui Dalam youngsters. Those who used to sleep in the open part in their childhood and teenhood, now get the right to live in hawu, the only private room in the traditional house of Badui Dalam, a secluded tribe in West Java, Indonesia.
By: Achmad Supardi
Actually, any married Badui Dalam couple have the right to live in a house separated from their parents' homes. However, there are several factors that determine whether the newly married couple can soon build their private home or not. In addition to the availability of the fund to build a house, the other factor is harmony with nature. Is there a chunk of land that is still allowed for the construction of a new home?
Badui Dalam is a tribe who live in Kanekes Village, Lebak Regency, Banten Province. The hilly spot in the slope of Mount Kendeng where they live is isolated enough to serve self-isolation, their way of life. One significant characteristic of Badui Dalam culture is their spirit to preserve the environment. They bathe without soap and haul the river water in bamboo rods as much as they need. If building a new home is considered destroying the environment, they prefer not to do so. Badui Dalam people would rather "shift" the head of the family than building a new home. Therefore, the newly married son becomes the head of the family and he has the right to live in hawu, while their parents "step aside" and stay in tepas or sesorok, the ‘public’ spaces of the house.
In Badui Dalam, the house is divided into three spaces: hawu, sesorok, and tepas. There is usually only one door in a house. The vacant space after the door is tepas, the other vacant space left to the door is sesorok. The only walled room is hawu which serves as both the kitchen and the main bedroom. Well, you won’t find any spiral mattres there. You won’t always find love either.
Well, I know, you will ask me this question: do some of them got married without love? For many people today, it seems impossible to do. But for the young Badui Dalam men, it's just natural. It’s ok to marry the woman first and to wait for love to come. Juli who got married at the age of 19 admitted that he had not been able to love his wife although they had been married for 1.5 years. "Maybe someday I will love my wife," said Juli as he accompanied me hike the hills. "Many new couples love each other after 4 years of marriage," he continued, implying an expectation.(*)