The Tengger people, the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park board, and a number of tourism service actors in the Mount Bromo area again agreed on a month without motorized vehicles in the mount Bromo area.
The motorized free month will be held in the seventh month of the Tengger Tribe calendar. That is in the months April and May, 2019. Besides the fact that the month is a sacred month for the Tengger people, it serves as a month to “clean” the air in the Bromo area.
Bromo by horse for you. Adventure time!
The purpose of a motorized free month
The purpose of holding a motorized free month is to respect the Bromo area as a conservation area. One of the elders of the Tengger Tribe, Mr. Supoyo, said that a month without motorized transport in the Bromo area helps to clean the national park from air and other pollution.
Bromo by horse: visting Bromo during the motorized free month
If you like to visit Bromo during the motorized-free month you will have to walk. Or, if you do not like to walk or if you are afraid it will be too tiring you can ride a horse.
Bromo horsemen - background information
The Tenggerese are a small Hindu minority that live in the Muslim dominated island of Java. About 90,000 Tengger people living in the mountain villages surrounding mount Bromo and 500 horses inhabit the area around mount Bromo.
Originally, the horses were used for transport, today tourism is the commodity of the time. The Tenggerese believe that the horses have a bond with their most sacred site and the spirits that dwell in the crater.
Want to know more? Read Fraser Morton's interesting artcile about Bromo horsemen and their culture.
Photo credits: MonsieurHarold - Flickr & Guilham De Cooman - Flickr