Buffalo-Horn Craftsman: Kotagede, Yogyakarta, Central Java

Whenever you visit Yogyakarta then it is well worth a visit to Kotagede, a 45 minute drive from the centre of town. Kotagede is a place renowned for its silver and silver jewellery, but, there are other skilled craftsmen in the area.

Utilising buffalo horn to create handicrafts is a skill and one that is usually handed down through the generations. In many ways its like scrimshaw (carved whale bones and teeth).

I was saddened to read in the Jakarta Post recently about Harto Mulyono, the sole buffalo horn craftsman in the area around Kotagede. I have met this chap many, many years ago and he is a delightful character. But it seems he is going through a hard time and struggling as Slamet Susanto explains:

Rare crafts maker struggles to survive

If you happen to rumble through the unique, narrow paths of the Old City of Kotagede, Yogyakarta, you may be lucky to meet Harto Mulyono, 63, the sole buffalo horn craftsman in the area.
In his hands, buffalo horns that many may consider useless are turned into artistic yet functional handicrafts, such as rice scoops, soup spoons, hair accessories, wall decoration, table ornaments and other ornamental souvenirs.

A villager of Gedongan hamlet in Purbayan village, Kotagede, Mulyono has been in the business since 1973. He started in the craft by working as an apprentice to a local buffalo horn handicraft producer.

He established his own business when he felt he had mastered the making of various souvenirs from buffalo horn. In the 1980s, during the heyday of the buffalo horn handicrafts business, Mulyono had 11 artisans under his employ.

“I earned enough then to send my four kids to school,” Mulyono told The Jakarta Post during a visit at his humble workshop at his house.

Mulyono recalled that business ran very smoothly back then. He did not even need to market his products elsewhere, as it was always the buyers who came to his workshop to buy his products.

“There were always groups of foreign tourists coming to my workshop here to buy handicrafts made of buffalo horn,” he said, adding that dozens of buffalo horn handicraft producers existed in his region at that time.

Yet, as raw materials have become increasingly harder and harder to find, and economic crises hit one after another, one by one all the producers except Mulyono switched to other businesses, mostly silverworks.

“In this village alone, there were a dozen of us that produced buffalo horn handicrafts then. None of them, except me, remain in the business now,” Mulyono said.

Atmorejo, 70, Mulyono’s apprentice and uncle, is helping him in the business. The two are the only craftsmen left in their village who make buffalo horn products.

According to Harto Mulyono, various factors account for the sharp decline in the buffalo horn handicraft business in the royal city. Among these are the uncertainty of buffalo horn supplies and the 1997 economic crisis.

Things became even worse after the Bali bombings that promptly stopped foreign tourists from coming to Indonesia.

“In fact, most of our buyers and customers were foreign tourists,” Mulyono said.

To meet the need for secure supplies of buffalo horns, Mulyono imports them from Sulawesi. The price of the horns depends mostly on size.

A large horn that weighs about 2 kilograms costs between Rp 30,000 and Rp 50,000 per kilogram. Smaller horns, which he usually buys from Jakarta and other cities in Java, costs between Rp 10,000 and Rp 20,000 per kilogram.

A large horn can be made into two rice scoops and several hair accessories. A rice scoop made of buffalo horn is usually sold for Rp 15,000 each, while a comb is priced at Rp 4,000 each and a chignon stick is Rp 2,500.

With the help of Atmorejo, Harto needs some 20 days to produce about 100 rice scoops.

“If I make exact calculations, indeed I do not earn much from the business (today), as I still have to pay my apprentice. But, this is what I have the ability to do to make a living,” Mulyono said.

Patience and perseverance, according to him, is the key to producing handicrafts made of buffalo horn, as the craft does not require complex tools.

In order to prepare the buffalo horn for further crafting, it is cut
and heated over a kerosene stove. This process is necessary especially to remove any remaining hide and to make the horn flexible for opening and flattening it out into a sheet or plate.
The sheet of horn is then patterned according to the desired design and then cut using a saw. It is then rubbed and filed to refine its texture. To give it a glossy sheen, the final product is then polished.

Considering that his craft is now a rarity, Mulyono hopes that the government will step in to provide some assistance, especially in helping him procure the raw materials and in marketing his rare products.

Otherwise, he said, it would also become harder for him to survive, as he could no longer depend on visits from foreign tourists.

“Frankly speaking, I do not have the management skill (for marketing). I did not even finish elementary school,” he said.

In order to survive, Mulyono now only accepts a minimum order of 100 pieces, no matter what the ordered products.

Thanks to a local arts and crafts shop, the Tjokro Soeharto Arts and Crafts in Wijilan, he can also send his products to the shop to sell.

“We started this family business to showcase the traditional crafts of the nation to the world through foreign tourists,” said Rifky Kusumo Harimawan of Tjokro Soeharto Arts and Crafts. “So, this is what we can do, helping market traditional handicrafts like the ones produced by Harto Mulyono.”

Slamet Susanto