"Mbah" Maridjan, A Boat Captain Who Would Never Surrender

SIDOREJO, KOMPAS.com - Indonesia prepared Thursday to bury victims of Mount Merapi’s violent eruption, including an elderly spiritual leader appointed to hush the volcano’s restless spirits. Most of the 32 dead will be buried in a mass grave in central Java as the country reels from the twin disasters of Tuesday’s eruption and a tsunami which struck western Sumatra island on Monday, killing more than 300 people.

Government volcanologists said Merapi, the most active volcano in an archipelago studded with smouldering peaks, had been relatively quiet since the deadly eruptions which smothered the surrounding countryside in fine ash. But more than 50,000 people crammed into uncomfortable temporary shelters near the Central Java provincial capital of Yogyakarta were told it was too soon to return home.

“The volcano has been relatively calm. Its activity has slowed down since the eruption. We have to evaluate its activity in the coming days,” state volcanologist Subandrio said.

Volunteers and soldiers were seen preparing a mass grave for about 20 of the victims at the village of Sidorejo, south of the mountain. Others had already been buried or were being laid to rest in private ceremonies.

Most died of burns or suffocation as searing ash and clouds of heated gas spewed out of the crater around 6 pm (1100 GMT) on Tuesday. Many were found huddled together in their homes.

Many more almost certainly would have been killed had the government not issued a maximum red alert warning of an imminent eruption on Monday and ordered people to evacuate a 10-kilometre (six-mile) zone around the mountain.

Inside the danger zone on Thursday, the landscape was a picture of devastation. Houses were flattened and burnt, pine trees stood like chopsticks with leaves and branches seared away, and thick gray ash covered everything.

The stench of rotting bodies, of people and livestock, filled the air, while clouds of white and black smoke rose menacingly from the mouth of the volcano above. People across Java were paying their respects to an elder known as Grandfather Maridjan, the royally appointed guardian of the mountain who ignored orders to leave and died as he prayed at his home on the volcano’s slopes.

“He is the most respected person here,” said local resident Ani Wijayanti, 47. “He was like a boat captain who would never surrender although he must pay with his life. He didn’t want to compromise his principles although thousands of people left this place to safety.”

The 2,914-metre (9,616-foot) Mount Merapi, which means “Mountain of Fire”, is the most active of the 69 volcanoes with histories of eruptions in Indonesia.