THE SPELL OF THE CALDERA

Two volcanoes sit either side of East Java. One a mighty peak with deep ridges and a precipitous caldera, the other an intangible but beautiful hell filled with sulfur and green lakes of acid. It is this otherworldly landscape that has given birth to the unique oddities of East Java, almost as if there’s a stranger world underneath trying to escape. West of Bromo, the locals perform Jaran Kepang, seemingly possessed as they chew glass and raw chicken in a manic trance. They, too, seem to have come from somewhere deep in the earth.