Yogyakarta Handycraft

Jogja is noted as batik centre, but other craft industries in and around the city includes silver, leather, pottery and puppets. Even if you don’t intend to buy, galleries and workshops are open free of charge for visitors to observes traditional Javanese crafts in present.

Malioboro is great long-colorful bazaar of souvenir shops and stalls offering a wide selection of cheap batik bags, leather works, cotton clothes, silver wares, wood masks and puppets. Skillful bargainer gets lower prices here. A good range of batik could be venture at Margaria Batik and several other shops, like Terang Bulan, Taruntum, and Batik Keris. Mirota Batik, at the opposite side of the street, offers a wide variety of handicrafts and a good point to get an idea of general prices. A labyrinthine Beringharjo traditional market, left side before the bottom of the street, is always worth a browse, especially for cheap and batik and textiles. Another popular site for batik is Tamansari, only minutes away from the centre of Kraton. You can arrange a batik course with Pak Hadjir (Intensive Batik Course), close to the main pool, for only US$30.

Jogja is an influential axis in the development of the traditional musical instrument gamelan. The instrument played in royal houses to people night firs in remote villages, from star hotels to a humble pendopo (open pavillion) of a village head in hundred kilometers out of Yogyakarta. To see how to make the musical set, you can visit Mpu Triwiguno Studio at Jalan Ori I/119 Papringan, Depok, Sleman, some 5 kilometers from th Adisucipto Airport. To appreciate the sounds, you can attend a gamelan reherseal at Kraton pavilions (please check on traditional performances section for exact schedule) or the department of Karawitan at Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) at Jalan Parangtritis km.6, Sewon, Bantul.

Another height of Javanese craftsmanship is, undoubtedly, Keris the traditional dagger. A master of the weapon’s art is the 70 year old Empu Djeno Harumbrodjo, who lives in a tranquil and green village of Gatak, Sumber Agung, Moyudan, in the regency of Sleman, about 15 Km westward of Yogya city. He can make only 2 pieces of classical Keris in a year. His works of arts are really masterpiece, physically and spiritually. Check in any art shop in Malioboro or Prawirotaman if you wish to get Keris of lower qualities, and of course, prices.

Visit Kasongan, seven kilometers south west of Jogja, to see astonishing array of potteries. The village has developed as a centre of earthenware since late 1970’s. Another pottery village is Pundong, approximately 15 kilometers eastern of Kasongan.

Silver work can be found all over the town, but the best area to shop is in Kotagede, a long known as silver works centre 5 km south east of Jogja. Hundred of silversmiths, work on their tiny rooms to spacious workshops of bigger industries, were producing filigree work, a specialty here, and other designs and styles. Several large factories, like Tom’s Silver, HS Silver and MD Silver, offered a guided tour to see the process with no obligation to buy their products. Bantul’s Gabusan Craft market was opened in the end of 2004. The newly built complex 10 kilometers South of Jogja, includes promotional outlets for hundreds of crafts maker from Bantul Regency.