Mount Merapi, one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, has been wheezing, belching and threatening to blow its top for the last few weeks. Yet, while scientists call for mass evacuation, most of the locals have stayed put, trusting to centuries-old mystical traditions to calm the spirits of the mountain.
"When I listen to Merapi, I don't hear any danger. Merapi will not hurt the residents, but they must look after the mountain and not take everything they want greedily," Maridjan, volcano 'gatekeeper' and medium between the residents and the mountain spirits, told reporters when asked why he was not abandoning the volcano's slopes.
Ah, the benefits of paganism.
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