Kasongan

Without doubt, Yogyakarta/Jogja is one of famous tourist destination in Indonesia. One place worth to visit in Yogyakarta/Jogja is Desa Wisata Kasongan (Kasongan Tourism Village). Kasongan is well known for its ceramics and gerabah (earthenware vessels) products. In this village, we can easily find many art galleries selling ceramics. Most of them sell vessels with various motives such as peacock, dragon, rose, etc, and various ceramics souvenirs.

Although Kasongan is well known mostly as ceramics and gerabah centre, there are also several galleries that sell other kinds of craft product, such us fake flower made from banana’s leaves, household furnishings made from bamboo, wooden mask, and many more.

These craft work are not only having high quality but also being exported to several foreign countries like Europe and US.

Kasongan is located in Bantul, Yogyakarta, about 8 km due south from North Alun-Alun of Yogyakarta. To reach Kasongan, it takes about 15-20 minutes of driving from Yogyakarta. If you use taxi service from Adi Sucipto Airport, you only need to pay around US $ 10 to reach this village.

Kasongan once was rice field area owned by local farmers that lived in southern part of Yogyakarta. During the Dutch colonial era, a horse, believed to be owned by a Dutch high officer, was found dead in this era. Afraid of punishment, the locals decided to let go their field ownership and declared the field as nomad’s land. Since they lost their land, the locals did whatever they can do to make a living. They took some clay from their former land, and form it into many forms. At that time, this clay was only being use to make toys and kitchenware, such us plate and cup. But nowadays, we can see many great artworks being made by Kasongan artists.

To explore Kasongan, the best choice is by foot. You can walk from one gallery to another, observing how ceramics are being made and seeing the final result that being displayed in shops.

image: tokokerajinanjogja.com