Running Through the Passage of Time in SangiRUN

Running Through the Passageway of Time in

What happens if the word ‘ran’ in Sangiran is changed to ‘run’? Of course, this can lead to different thoughts and raise the possibility of other purposes to visit the site located in Sragen Regency, Central Java, in addition to learning about human evolution. It may have been unthinkable before that one of the purposes of coming to sangiran site was to run. However, this is what happened on November 20-21, 2021 in Sangiran. About 100 runners raced across five museum clusters as well as six villages around the site with a total of 25 km of track routes.

SANGIRUN

Ir. Suharti, MA, PhD Secretary General of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Research and Technology running in the “time tunnel”-

Syefri Luwis

SangiRUN Night Trail 2021 is an activity initiated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology through the Directorate of Development and Culture in collaboration with Office of Sangiran Early Man Site Preservation, Sragen District Government, Karanganyar District Government, and the Luar Kotak community. This event was held in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Sangiran as a world heritage. UNESCO designated Sangiran Site on world heritage list number 593 in 1996 under the name “Sangiran Early Man Site”. SangiRUN Night Trail 2021 activities are unique compared to other running competitions, one of which is because it is held at night with a starting and finishing point at the Krikilan Museum. Participants passed through six points around the site, namely Ngebung Village, Manyarejo Village, Brangkal Village – Poerba Market, Bukuran Village, Dayu Village – Sumur Emas, and Krikilan Village – Punden Tingkir. The nighttime situation became a major proponent of forrest mapping videos and ornaments depicting the evolution of early humans. The situation on the route of the track of course can not only spur the leg muscles of participants, but also able to trigger the imagination of participants.

The SangiRUN Night Trail 2021 activity starts at around 19.00. The Sragen Regent, Kusdinar Untung Yuni Sukowati, was present to give a speech, followed by the Director General of Culture, Hilmar Farid, who at the same time hit the gong to mark the official opening of the event. Runners were divided into four groups. Each group ran following the signal in the form of flag waving from officials within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, respectively

Ready to run Asep Amirudin

the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Suharti; Director General of Culture, Hilmar Farid; Director of Cultural Development and Utilization, Restu Gunawan; and the Regent of Sragen, Kusdinar Untung Yuni Sukowati.

Around 22.00, the first runner managed to reach the finish line, followed by other runners until it ended at 02.00 in the morning. Happy faces radiated from the faces of the participants even though they were running in the middle of the dark night. “This event is very memorable, different from other running events. This is my first time to Sangiran, so I really add insight and experience about the history and tourism potential of Sangiran. The response from local residents was also extraordinary. In my opinion, this kind of event needs to be continued in the future and could be in other areas that also have the same potential.” said Abdul Aziz Permana, 2nd winner in the men’s category.

Development and Utilization of Sangiran

Based on Law Number 5 of 2017, development is an effort to revive the cultural ecosystem and improve, enrich, and disseminate culture. While utilization is defined as the efforts to utilize objects of cultural promotion (OPK) to strengthen ideology, politics, economy, social, culture, defense, and security in realizing national goals.

SangiRUN activities are organized as an effort to develop and utilize Sangiran site to be more widely known by the community. Director General of Culture, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Hilmar Farid said this activity is not just a running race but also an effort to encourage Sangiran to be more widely known and can benefit the surrounding community in Karanganyar and Sragen Districts. In addition to showing the ability of humans to adapt to the environment, the activity also seeks to combine cooperation between governmental organizations to support the welfare of sangiran people.

Among the many archaeological remains that were later listed as national cultural sites and reserves, perhaps the prehistoric site of Sangiran belonged to a site that is quite rarely utilized, both by the government and communities and society. So far, Sangiran development and utilization activities are still centered on educational and research activities only.

Officer of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Research, and Technology participate in sangiRUN -

Syefri Luwis

Efforts to develop and utilize a site in a broader context, for example can take the example of Borobudur Temple. In addition to being used for educational, research, and tourism purposes, the use of Borobudur also reaches a wider layer of society through various activities such as borobudur writers and cultural festival, Borobudur Jazz Festival, or becoming a filming location for Hollywood films. Therefore, SangiRUN Night Trail is an effort to use prehistoric sites in a broader context, not only reaching the runner community, but also creating a new impression that talking about Sangiran is not only about museums.

Talking about the use of the site also cannot be separated from the empowerment of the surrounding community. The activity also integrates the cultural potential of the village around the site. Thus, it can be said that the utilization of a site or cultural properties can not only focus on the utilization of the object, but also need to pay attention to the ecosystem that supports the existence of the site, as contained in sangiran site. At least around the Sangiran site, there are six villages that become buffer villages of the site. The villages also have tremendous cultural potential. For example, Bukuran Village which has Rodad art and became one of the performers on the SangiRUN Night Trail.

By utilizing Sangiran site as a marathon running route is also expected to be a lighter for utilization activities for other fields. However, of course, such utilization efforts must also pay attention to the negative impact aspects on the site as well as its important values, which in this case are referred to Outstanding Universal Values (OUV). Therefore, do not let the efforts to preserve the site actually become contrary to the impact of its utilization efforts.

(Anny Veradiani, Directorate of Culture Development and Utilization, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology).

Medals are achievements -

Syefri Luwis