FROM SACRED RITUAL TO CULTURAL SPECTACLE: NEGOTIATING THE MEANING OF SEBLANG BAKUNGAN IN BANYUWANGI CULTURAL TOURISM

Abstract

The incorporation of local cultural traditions into tourism increasingly brings ritual practices into contact with new forms of public representation, tourism consumption, and digital media. This article examines the negotiation of meaning surrounding Seblang Bakungan, an Osing ritual in Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia, as it becomes increasingly integrated into cultural tourism. Rather than assuming that tourism transforms a sacred ritual into a spectacle in a linear process, this study asks how the meaning, boundaries, and representation of Seblang are negotiated among traditional authorities, local residents, government actors, tourists, and media. The study employs a qualitative ethnographic approach conducted in Bakungan Village, Glagah District, Banyuwangi. Data were collected through observation, semi-structured interviews, documentation, digital-media observation, and literature and archival research. Three key informants represented different positions: a traditional authority, a representative of the Banyuwangi cultural tourism government, and a local resident involved in economic activities around the ritual. The findings demonstrate that Seblang has expanded from a primarily community-based ritual space into tourism calendars, festivals, public performances, social media, photographs, and videos. Nevertheless, this expansion does not eliminate its sacred position. Negotiation occurs through the regulation of access, the distinction between ritual substance and supporting tourism activities, the positioning of tourists as spectators rather than ritual actors, and differing understandings of documentation. Local residents also negotiate tourism through a simultaneous acceptance of its social and economic benefits and concern over overcrowding and the continuity of customary values. The article argues that Seblang is best understood as existing between sacredness and spectacle, where both can coexist. Spectacularization does not necessarily signify the disappearance of sacred meaning; instead, it produces new layers of cultural representation while local actors retain significant authority over ritual substance and boundaries.