Kodong, Sasak Tribe Traditional Fish Trap

 Kodong.. sasak tribe named this very simple tool, kodong is a simple trap to catch the fish. it made from bamboo and ratan, over a hundreed years traditional people using kodong as trap to catch the fish on the river, most of them are made kodong by themself only for private uses and not for sale,  kodong is not avaiable on the market. to make one kodong is so very consuming time, for 1 kodong it takes almost full one week to finish it and require diligent and higly patience. kodong working very simple, all we need to do is to put the kodong where the water flow and estimated that place is passed by the fish. usually the fisherman install the kodong on on afternoon and leave it over night, on very early morning the fisherman will check it if it's any fish catched or not. year by years sasak people start to think modern and think the new technique and created new tools to catch more fishes faster.

Now Kodong almost completly abandoned by sasak tribes, most of them are cactching fish with modern technique and tools. most of kodong creator are old man and many of them already pass away without inherit their knowledge to the generation. in this modern era, kodong usability changes from tradisional fish trap to handycrafts. this caused by several factor such as level of difficulty is very high, very detailed model, time consuming and the most influencing factor is the age factor.

On sembelun Vilage East Lombok, we can find kodong easily here and lots of sembalun people still using this traditional trap to catch the fish on the river, Ninik azi forexample its been almost half of his life he spent to made kodong and catching fish with Kodong, he said "this not for money, only for fun and i really-really enjoy it so much", almost everyday on his day life he bring kodong everytime he go to field for farming while he installing kodong and pick some kodong that already istalled one day before. there are many small river on the edge of the hill in sembalun and there are good numbers of fish, it is extremely beneficial for fishing using traditional tools such as kodong. other beneficial uses of traditional fishing is very friendly and will not damage the natural ecosystem. fish caught in the trap does not die instantly because of the kodong fish can still swim up the trap is lifted, so the owner can also choose a fish trap to be taken home or disposed of to life. Ninik Azi also adding some history about his day life, proudly he said this unique tools brings so many blessing for me, there are so many international tourist join him to install the Kodong while enjoying the scenery of rice fields and hills that surround Sembalun, and they like it so much. Kodong has variety size, biger size we install then biger fish we got.

government should give attention to the Kodong craftsmen, because this is one of the unique artistic heritage, and an important step for the toursm development especially in Lombok. by the time craftsmen began to leave this craft, because it is not helpful for their economic viability.  They also expect the government to give support to those who have hobby as a kodong craftsman materially to develop and empower this craft. a local organization which is engaged in community development Sembalun named CDC (Community Development Center Sembalun) was able to see this issue as an important issue in tourism development, in an effort to empower these crafts CDC started by explain to the craftsmen of the importance of maintaining cultural heritage. CDC also arrange soft trekking packages to intorduce kodong and give the tourism experience how to fishing using kodong. this tourism package is suggested to some Trekking organization bussiness on sembalun.

this article also one of effort to introduce Kodong. if you were interested to know and want to to experience how to be a traditional fisherman with this traditional fisherman tools, you can join on our packages. or if you interested to volunteering to help us to develop our eco tourism potential please visit CDC's website for further information, that's will be very apperciated. please email to nizarjoe@gmail.com for any questions about this article and Lombok Ecotourism.

Gallery Kodong

We also offer you if interested to have one ore more of this unique traditional fisherman's tools. please send us email to nizarjoe@gmail.com for any question or enquiry. buying this stuff from us will help our artisan to develop this craft and our ecotourism development.

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Posted in: Kesenian Sasak