This community of 26,000 souls in the province of Banten, on the island of Java, is divided into two: a peripheral group that partly adopts new technologies and a central group that avoids the traps of contemporary life.
The central group asked authorities to cut off internet reception and divert nearby telecommunications antennas so that the signal would not reach them, according to a letter seen by AFP.
For them, telecommunications antennas built near their area could threaten their lifestyle and the mental health of young people who might be tempted to use the internet.
Officials in Banten province's Lebak district told AFP they had received the letter on Monday and had agreed to hold talks with Indonesia's information ministry to try to accommodate the request.
"Above all, we want to adapt to what the Baduy want, and we have to preserve their traditions and local know-how," Budi Santoso, an official in Lebak, told AFP on Friday.
The peripheral population of the Baduy community, which runs online businesses, needed the internet, but according to Santoso, authorities fear that visitors or tourists could access the network and disseminate content they consider inappropriate for the Baduy population.
Indigenous Baduy children playing in Kanekes © village GUS NAD / AFP
The issue of internet freedom in Indonesia, a conservative country with a Muslim majority, is controversial. The government has banned gambling and pornography, and requires ISPs to filter content they deem inappropriate.
Despite censorship, there are many illegal websites that host this type of content.
The Baduys, reclusive inside the country, nicknamed the Amish of Asia by the Western media, chose to live in the forest and reject technology, money and traditional education.
They reside in three villages located in an area of 4,000 hectares, several hours' drive from the capital Jakarta.
© 2023 AFP