00:02
Kawah Ijen. To Indonesians, the name means simply 'volcano crater'.
00:06
Plumes of foul-smelling sulphur gas rise into the air. When mixed with rainwater, droplets of burning sulphuric acid are formed.
00:14
This is just one of six volcanoes on the Ijen plateau in eastern Java. What makes it extraordinary is the use man has made of this inhospitable place.
00:24
Pipelines are used to channel the yellowy hydrogen sulphide as it escapes from the earth. When it hits the cool air, the gas becomes liquid and then crystallises.
00:37
Sulphur is an excellent bleaching agent, used in household cleaners and in the refinement of sugar. Three hundred men are employed in this mine on the crater floor.
00:47 Jami'i (PRON: JAM-EE) began working here thirty years ago, when he was twelve. He followed in his father's footsteps, first as a porter carrying the sulphur down the volcano. Now he heads a team of twelve 'diggers' - the men chosen to extract the sulphur.
UPSOUND
01:02 A simple scarf does little to protect him from the gas. Jami'i earns thirty thousand ruppiah a day this way. That's around 2 US dollars - and five times what he would earn on one of the coffee plantations in the valleys below.
01:19
AMI'I, CHIEF SULPHUR DIGGER, IN BAHASA INDONESIAN WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
"I became the chief digger because I am capable and I know the site well. I make a good living from working here. We have to dig about ten tonnes of sulphur a day. "
01:40
Jami'i risks developing lung disease by working in the suffocating gas. His teeth are already rotting.
01:48
JAMI'I, CHIEF SULPHUR DIGGER, IN BAHASA INDONESIAN WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
"I am worried about my future but if I move on to another job, I won't get enough money to grow old on."
02:06
It is impossible to dodge the sulphur gas as it dances around the crater. Many men disappear into the creamy smoke for long periods of time. They emerge with bloodshot eyes and coughing. No protective masks or glasses are provided. There is some escape for the men employed to carry the sulphur out of the volcano. But theirs is just as punishing a job.
02:31
They collect up loads of sulphur that usually equal their own bodyweight.
02:37
In the face of these stinging conditions, the men work for eight hours a day, six and a half days a week during a two week stretch.
02:47
Ahmad Safi'i, who's twenty two, is employed as a carrier. He's one of the youngest on site. He left his last job on a plantation because it didn't pay enough to support his wife and young daughter.
03:03
Twice, sometimes three times a day, he sets off with a load of sulphur.
03:08
Ahmad carries about sixty kilos a time - that's about what he weighs. Getting the load equally distributed across his shoulders is crucial.
03:18
It is a tortuous climb out of the crater. Small wonder that most carriers develop chronic knee problems from this journey. Many are barely able to walk in later life.
03:27 They have only the most basic footwear with which to negotiate the stony path. It is poverty, and the shortage of other work, that drives them on.
03:40
Once the carriers reach the volcano rim, there's a further three kilometres descent on foot down the side of the mountain.
03:47
All around dead and dying vegetation shows the impact of the sulphur around the summit.
03:56
Half way down the volcano the greenery returns.
04:01
The rights to mine the volcano are held by the Indonesian company P-T Brimbi. It pays each man according to how much sulphur he collects.
04:09
An average haul - that's between seventy and eighty kilos - will earn the carriers less than one U-S dollar.
04:15
Some of that money will go towards one of their few luxuries - smoking.
04:21
At the weigh-station, the site manager records what each man has managed on the trip down. This carrier has hauled the maximum of any man on the mountain - a hundred kilos. He will go on to make a further two trips back to the crater.
04:39
But not before collecting the all important receipt with which to claim his earnings.
04:44
Ahmad's baskets won't tip the scales. He'll make up for carrying less by making as many daily journeys as he's physically able. His hope is one day to save enough to buy some land to farm.
05:00
Ahmad left school when he was twelve. His father, a coffee worker, couldn't afford to pay for his education. Ahmad can't read or write and has little hope of finding a better paid job. He must learn to bear the conditions.
05:17
AHMAD SAFI'I, SULPHUR CARRIER IN MADURAN (INDONESIAN DIALECT) WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION, PARTLY UNDERLAID:"The chest burns and eyes sting in the sulphur. You cough and vomit. It is really hard work. I go step by step to the top, even if my lungs hurt. When I reach the top of the crater, it is easy to go down. It's not good for the lungs and my eyes are weak. Sometimes I choke and choke and get stomach ache. "
05:37
During their two week shifts, the men sleep in wooden huts at the weighing station. At night, the temperature on the mountain drops and there are few blankets to keep out the cold.
05:50
The men get up at around three to four o'clock in the morning, in order to be in the crater to start work at first light.
06:00
They have one afternoon off a week to rest. On Friday, the day of prayer for Muslims.
06:06
In spite, or because of the conditions in which they work, there's tremendous camaraderie among the men.
06:16
Jami'i returns to his home in the foothills of the Ijen plateau.
06:20
He hopes to rear his own livestock here when he eventually retires. Until then, as for all his married life, he goes back to his family when he has completed his shifts.
06:26
His wife, Rahmah and son Erfan carry on with jobs like collecting the fuel during his absence. Jami'i sends his other son away to school - though it costs the family half its monthly income.
06:47
Undaunted, Rahmah and Jami'i also want to send sixteen year old Erfan to high school in the hope he can become an engineer.
06:55
That is something that most families in this farming village cannot hope to emulate.
07:00
But such ambition comes at a price. Jami'i's work is hazardous. He's obliged to have a check-up with the mining company's doctor every fifteen days to assess the state of his lungs.
07:13
There is little the medical profession can do once the sulphur gas has done its worst. Jami'i puts his faith in a herbal remedy. Mixed with a fizzy drink. But there is little chance to prevent the deterioration in his lungs.
07:31
Some men work in the enveloping sulphur gas well into their seventies. Others are forced into retirement, their health broken.
07:38
Government regulations mean the sulphur workers have two weeks off after each two week shift, in the hope the break will offer them some protection.
07:48
And the company pays sick leave for those unable to work because of ill health. But the sulphur workers say the compensation isn't enough.
07:56
Yet most of the men are resistant to the site becoming mechanised, or seeing the reintroduction of horses on the route. They are too fearful of losing their jobs.
08.06
Jami'i is set to continue leading his team of miners for many more years - if he's able. And though he followed members of his family into the sulphur business, he hopes the tradition will end with him.
08:19 JAMI'I, CHIEF SULPHUR DIGGER, IN BAHASA INDONESIAN WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION: "I don't want my sons to work here because it is very heavy work. I've asked them to go to school and get a good education so that they can have a better life."
08:34
Sulphur is a valuable commodity. The hundred tonnes or so extracted every week is transported to factories across Indonesia.
08:43
With the country's economy crippled by recession and political upheaval, there will be little impetus to change working conditions here. The sulphur collectors of Kawah Ijen value their jobs too highly to complain.
08:54
They will continue with their back breaking work.in a unique mine over two thousand metres above sea level, next to the turquoise sulphur lake.
09:02 END SCRIPT
09:05 VT ENDS
CREDIT RUSSELL/BANU