When the Centre Moves: Spatial Negotiations Along Ngalalakon from Ciptagelar to Gelaralam

Abstract

When a customary centre moves, both the place it leaves and its destination acquire new positions within the customary settlement system. The Banten Kidul Customary Community has long practised Ngalalakon, a tradition of relocating its customary centre in response to ancestral guidance (wangsit). In 2022, the twentieth Ngalalakon relocated the customary centre from Ciptagelar to Gelaralam. Earlier studies examine Ngalalakon's rituals and spatial principles, but its continuing effects on both settlements through residents' interpretations and decisions remain underexplored.

This study aims to understand how spatial transformations unfold through customary interpretations, negotiations, and dwelling practices following the 2022 Ngalalakon. It identifies changes in settlement status and spatial configuration, examines how customary interpretations inform spatial decisions, and synthesizes the processes of negotiation, adjustment, and reinterpretation across Ciptagelar and Gelaralam.

This qualitative ethnographic study adopts an inductive approach to trace spatial transformations associated with the 2022 Ngalalakon from Ciptagelar to Gelaralam. Data are drawn from field observations, architectural documentation, and in-depth interviews with customary representatives and residents. Comparative spatial analysis relates observed changes to residents’ interpretations of customary principles, spatial decisions, and everyday dwelling practices.

The 2022 Ngalalakon relocated the customary centre and its principal buildings to Gelaralam, establishing a new Kasepuhan while Ciptagelar became an inhabited Tari Kolot. In Gelaralam, differing interpretations of customary principles prompted negotiations over the placement of houses south of Imah Gede, including ground elevation adjustments. The resulting spatial arrangement raised questions about Leuit Si Jimat. It was subsequently repositioned and reoriented in 2025, alongside adjustments to Leuit Rurukan and the Saung Lisung.

These findings frame Ngalalakon not as a completed spatial transfer but as a transition within continuing settlement-making, where customary principles and dwelling decisions co-produce spatial change. It contributes an environment–behaviour perspective on these connected transformations. It examines the 2022 transition and its observed aftermath, rather than reconstructing all previous Ngalalakon cycles. When the centre moves, spatial negotiations do not simply conclude at the destination. They continue through the everyday making and remaking of settlement space, while the former centre remains inhabited and transformed.