For an analysis of the environmental condition of Bromo Volcano and in order to profile adjacent communities we compiled various data sets. The eruption monitoring data and volcanic hazard maps were obtained from the Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (CVGHM) in Bandung, Java. Data related to damage and loss assessments (DALA) were collected to examine eruption impacts on both physical and societal environment of each village with particular focus on the 2010 Bromo eruptions. These data were kindly supplied by the regional disaster management agency Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah (BPBD) of Probolinggo city, East Java Province. During data collection also key informants and communities at risk were profiled and identified through abstracting data from demographic statistics at the village level.

During July–September 2012, semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of local communities and government officials in four districts (Pasuruan, Probolinggo, Malang and Lumajang) surrounding Mt. Bromo in order to examine the human–volcano relationship within the Bromo area in general and investigate local knowledge related to hazard, risk perception and adaptation strategies to volcanic risk specifically. Only such villages were considered which experienced impacts of the eruption, according to secondary data information. Interviews took place in two villages in Pasuruan (Wonokitri and Tosari), four villages in Probolinggo (Ngadirejo, Ngadisari, Wringinanom, Sumber), one village in Malang (Ngadas) and one village in Lumajang districts (Ranupane) (Fig. 4). A total of 14 interviews were conducted. Informants were village officers, farmers, teachers, dukun (spiritual leaders) and three authorized staff from BPBD Probolinggo city and CVGHM (Table 2). Interviews were loosely structured, starting from the physical impacts to social and cultural effects. However, the informants were encouraged to answer freely and not to be limited to the guiding question (Table 3). The objective was to initiate various members of the Bromo community (the Tenggerese) to share their experience of Mt. Bromo in an unbiased way and deliberately without exclusive focus on eruptions or negative impacts only. Discernible from Table 3, direct questions that could lead to simple positive and negative answers were avoided. Questions pertained to hazard understanding, familiarity with volcanic risks and dread factors as well as to the opportunities provided by Mt. Bromo and the general attitude towards the volcano and its role in local culture. All interviews were shaped to the local context and were conducted in Indonesian and Javanese language. Interviews were recorded by video recorder.

Following the semi-structured interviews of phase I and II of the field work we conducted a focus group discussion (FGD) in phase III. With the FGD we hoped to gain deeper insights by giving the participating group an opportunity to express themselves in their own words and confront and compare their individual perceptions with other members of the community. We chose the community of Ngadirejo for the FGD, since our analysis of phases I and II showed that this village was most negatively exposed to the recent eruptions. The discussion was initiated with similar questions as were used to structure the interviews in phase II (Table 3). There were eight participants to the FGD consisting of farmers, village officials, village heads and youth representatives (Table 2).

Semi-structured interviews and FGD were transcribed and analysed according to recurrent themes in the answers. Results are presented in narrative form and analysed in view of existing research of habitation in volcanic areas as well as prevailing concepts of risk research.

The four major hazards produced by Mt. Bromo in 2010 were tephra fall/ballistics, volcanic mud flow, landslides and gas emission. Form and impact from these sources of hazards varied from negligible to severe. Tephra fall comprised volcanic ash, blocks and bombs (see Fig. 5). Areas inside the Tengger caldera were exposed to angular blocks and rounded bombs (Zaennudin, 2011). In addition, volcanic ash and lapilli were distributed throughout the surrounding area depending on wind direction, morphology and weight of the material. For instance, regions with an elevation over 2000 m m.s.l. were relatively safer from volcanic ash due to the protection by the caldera wall (Bachri et al., 2013b).

Areas covered by volcanic ash and fine rock material could not be planted with several crop types including potatoes and vegetables until 2 years after the eruptions. In the FGD, participating farmers explained that land in flat areas exacerbates the effect since volcanic material cannot be easy swept away by runoff. However, areas which were covered by ashes without fine rock material were more fertile 1 year after the time of eruption. Local communities were well aware of both the negative and positive effects on agricultural productivity. They referred to the increase of soil fertility as “Berkah Bromo” or Bromo's opportunity. Most people interviewed and farmers in particular stated that Bromo provides benefits for their livelihood.

Additional to the direct hazards from eruptions Mt. Bromo also generated secondary hazards such as volcanic mud flow (see Fig. 5), locally known as “lahar hujan” (lava rain). Particularly areas located at the foothills of the volcano were affected by this source of hazard. More than 20 houses collapsed due to lahar hujan (Bachri et al., 2013a). Heavy rainfall and flooding of the river Badesh caused volcanic deposits from Mt. Bromo to be activated and flow as lahar hujan. As a result, agricultural land and a number of buildings on the riverbanks were destroyed. Despite the negative effects of lahar hujan in the short term, an increased agricultural productivity of the affected land can be observed and is appreciated as well as capitalized on by local people. One of the village heads informed us that:

Wilayah yang terkena banjir lahar material bromo akan menjadi lebih subur setelah beberapa lama apabila kandungannya pasirnya tidak dominan

(translation.: Areas which are affected by lahar hujan from Bromo will be more fertile after some period if they are not dominated by sand materials).

Landslides were a further hazard that frequently occurred in Mt. Bromo's surrounding areas. The type of deposited material, slope steepness and heavy rainfall were the decisive factors for the occurrence of landslides. In some places, landslides had a severe impact particularly with regards to road accessibility. However in other areas landslides contributed to the soil quality by transferring fertile materials.

The Bromo eruptions in 2010 were also characterized by sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. People living within an area of 5–7 km radius from the crater breathe these gas emissions. The effect on plantations was described by the head of one of the affected villages:

Di erupsi Bromo tahun 2010 desa saya hanya terkena dampak belerang, walau hanya satu hari saja kami merasakan bau itu, banyak tanaman mati khususnya kentang

(translation.: At the Bromo's eruption in 2010 my village was only affected by sulfur dioxide emissions and although we could feel them only for one day, many plantations died, particularly potatoes).

The four major hazards (gas emission, tephra falls/ballistic, landslides and volcanic mud flow) produced by Mt. Bromo's eruptions had affected the human system in general and human settlement, human health, daily life activities, tourism activity, trading and transportation system as well as agricultural properties in particular. The volcanic eruptions mostly had negative effects for a short period during and after the eruption. However, after the eruption period had come to an end, the community perceived and evaluated predominantly those effects that represented an opportunity. Agriculture, as the main livelihood of Tengger communities, offered favourable conditions as soon as 1–3 years after the end of the eruptions. While during the eruption period, farmers became unemployed and lost their land and crops they were able to capitalize on increased soil fertility after 1–3 years after the eruptions and thus were able to recover their losses.

The findings discussed above relate to the environmental impact of eruptions and the socio-economic knock-on effects. However, interviews with a number of informants and discussion in the FGD session show that the communities within the area interpret Mt. Bromo's eruptions not so much in specific terms of its environmental or socio-economic impacts but rather in its overarching cosmological meaning. Most people believe that Mt. Bromo always provides them with benefits for the continuity of their livelihoods and spiritual wellbeing. The “Tengger community” whose earliest settlements can be traced back to the 16th century (Hefner, 1990) has strong faith in the benevolence of the volcano and interprets its eruptions as a gift from God (see Fig. 6).

Hefner (1990) describes Mt. Bromo as the centre of the Tengger cosmology. This notion can be confirmed based on the interviews we conducted. For example a village official from Ngadirejo said:

Saya tidak pernah takut akan letusan bromo karena saya selalu percaya bahwa ini adalah letusan yang bersifat sementara, dimana letusan itu selalu memberi berkah terhadap kami semua. Kami percaya bahwa Bromo selalu memberikan apa yang kami perlukan disini

(translation.: I am never scared of Bromo's eruption because I always believe that this is just temporary. Bromo's eruptions always benefit us. We believe that Bromo always gives us what we need to live here).

The fact that “only two careless foreigners” died in 2004 was seen as a confirmation of Bapak Rudi's views. There is a firm belief in Mt. Bromo's benevolence and that in return there must be a positive attitude towards the mountain.

Local people believe that Mt. Bromo will reflect the very attitude people have towards it:

Jika kamu berbuat buruk terhadap Bromo ataupun hanya berpikiran negatif, maka Bromo akan memberikan situasi yang sama seperti yang kamu pikirkan

(translation.: If you do bad things or even just think negatively about Bromo, Bromo will provide a negative situation),

Kita harus selalu berdoa yang terbaik untuk Bromo dan kehidupan disekitarny

(translation.: We should always pray for the goodness of Bromo and its life surrounding).

An interview with a participant of the FGD session in Ngadirejo provides a local view, and thereby an understanding of the deep spiritual human–volcano relationship, on why the impact of the eruptions in 2010 was unusually severe for some villages within the Bromo area. He laments that the Tengger people did not do what their ancestors had told them. Before the eruptions, their agricultural yields were abundant, but most people, particularly the younger population, used their income to buy motorcycles and consumer gadgets even if not really needed. Traditional saving systems were ignored and abandoned. Consequently, a number of villages lacked the resources to cope with the period of eruptions. Incidentally these villages were particularly affected by the eruption. He explains that if ancestral laws are not observed Mt. Bromo will punish society accordingly. This perception was also confirmed by other participants of the FGD. It is a personified, directed threat of negative impacts that motivates disaster preparedness. The perception of the volcano as an animated being that interacts with and reacts to human behaviour underlies local adaptation strategies.

Apart from belief systems that link the local community with the volcano there is also intricate local knowledge of the physical environment that facilitates the interpretation of early warning signs of an imminent eruption. The interviews conducted revealed a number of such early warnings. For example an eruption may be imminent when excessive white smoke can be observed from the crater or when a stronger than usual odour of sulfur persists or when small volcanic tremors can be felt, particularly by people who live at or nearby the crater. Also, as one participant of a FGD, a farmer and youth representative from Ngadirejo village, states:

Ketika tanaman jagung di tanah Mbako (lahan di lereng atas gunung tengger) mempunyai hasil yang bagus tetapi burung-burung menjauhi lereng tersebut, dapat dipastikan bromo akan meletus lagi

(translation.: When the corn crop in “Mbako” land [land at the upper slopes of the Tengger caldera] has good yields but birds stay away from the slopes, it can be sure that Bromo will erupt again).

The Tengger community feels itself to be a part of the mountain. Land, water and forest of the mountain are the very source of their life, and thus the behaviour of Bromo is intricately linked to their life.

This perceived and lived interdependence with Mt. Bromo is shared among all members of the Tengger community and leads to the establishment of social networks that go beyond the village. For example Ngadirejo, a village that was severely hit by the 2010 eruptions, received assistance from Ngadas village despite being also impacted itself. Ngadas villagers provided goods such as rice and vegetables from their own agricultural land. Assistance went as far as offering their agricultural land to people from Ngadirejo for cultivation. When asked about this, our informants answered: “We, the Tengger people, are reminded by this eruption that we are one community. We must help each other. This eruption makes the bond between us become stronger”. Thus the eruption strengthened the social fabric among Tengger people. While a spirit of community and altruism can often be observed in the aftermath of disasters it seems that here the disaster was a reminder of a pre-existing common spiritual link. The volcano was reinforcing the existing communal bonds that helped recovery.

The Tenggerese also exhibited a remarkable adaptive capacity to the circumstances during the eruption period. A farmer from Ngadirejo village explained that the eruptions generated considerable touristic interest toward the end of the eruption period and says:

Kami sementara waktu berpindah pekerjaan dari bertani ke sektor wisata, karena pada saat itu tidak memungkinkan untuk kami mengolah tanah pertanian kamu karena abu vulkanik. Pada akhirnya ini sangat bermanfaat bagi kami

(translation.: We temporarily shifted our livelihoods from cultivating land to the tourism sector, because at that time we could not cultivate our agricultural land due to volcanic ash materials. At the end this was very favourable for us).

Wherever they are in the vicinity of volcanoes, societies have fundamentally been shaped by recurrent eruptions. Belief systems and agricultural practice, mythology and social structure, traditions and politics are shaped, and more often than not, centred on the existence of potential volcanic hazard. A diverse body of literature shows that this holds true for societies that no longer exist (Cashman and Giordano, 2008; Plunket and Uruñuela, 2008, Paton et al., 2013) as well as being observed today the world over (Cashman and Cronin, 2008; Paradise, 2005; Gregg et al., 2008; Siswowidjoyo et al., 1997). Various disciplines analyse the multilayered relationship that exists between human societies and volcanic risk. Such work on the locally specific, societal element of disaster is particularly important in view of the dominant, overly Eurocentric and “technocratic” discourse on natural hazards (Bankoff, 2001, 2003). On the one hand, it is important to study the interrelation between people and their environment at a local level in order to shed light on how a combination of physical extremes and societal conditions can lead to disaster (Bankoff, 2003; Hewitt, 1983, 1997). On the other hand, a social and cultural perspective helps to understand how people have adapted to hazards and have learned to reap opportunities they are presented with. For example, anthropological research looks at the way that volcanism is embedded in mythology through the prism of geomythology. Natural events and human life – meaning the state of society – are always seen as being interconnected (Oliver-Smith, 1996; Schlehe, 1996, 2010). People “domesticate” the volcanic threat (Dove, 2008) and are surprisingly not scared (Lavigne et al., 2008) to live in its vicinity. Dove (2010) analyses the role of Mount Merapi in Java in the context of public opinion, power relations and political decision making in Java from a philosophical and historical–political perspective. Other authors, such as Donovan (2010) explore social volcanology, particularly culture, at Merapi volcano. Results show that a mixture of factors influences people to stay in the vicinity of Merapi volcano – these include cultural beliefs, such as safety provided by spiritual powers, the abundance of livestock and positive past experiences. In addition, studies on religious beliefs observe how the threat and fallout of volcanic hazard is interpreted and aligned with the divine. Here the principle of understanding natural hazard as punishment for sinful conduct is captured in the concept of theodicy (Wisner, 2010; Chester, 2005; Chester et al., 2008). For example, victims of volcanic hazards are seen as martyrs following Islamic interpretations of natural hazards. Chester et al. (2013) point out that this interpretation must not to be seen as complacent fatalism but rather as human humbleness. Recurrent eruptions fit well with cosmologies that understand destructive physical processes as new beginnings and part of the cyclical nature of all things (Heine-Geldern, 1956; Lüem, 1988; Chester, 2005). The cycle of destruction and creation that is so immediately manifest in recurrent volcanic eruptions resonates also in Christian religious adages if one thinks of the phrase from the Anglican burial service “ashes to ashes and dust to dust”.

Contrary to the view that habitation in volcanic hazard zones is mostly a result of marginalization and economic pressure (Wisner et al., 2004; Lavigne et al., 2008), the results of our field work confirm what the cited literature implicitly suggests, that people choose to live with volcanic hazards because they are not only exposed to negative consequence but also reap the benefits and opportunities that arise within a human–volcano system. Within a human–volcanic system perspective the focus must be widened and include physical, social and cultural aspects that pertain to the entire system and go beyond eruptions and their immediate and detrimental consequences.

Volcanoes are a powerful force in shaping cultural identity. Rather than an environmental hazard to avoid at all costs, people's cultural identity is centrally inspired by “their volcano”. The very essence of who the Tenggerese are revolves around the volcano, and without it they would culturally cease to exist. What Hewitt (1997) describes as the threat of “cultural annihilation” is turned on its head. Mt. Bromo does not threaten to destroy the Tenggerese, but the Tenggerese would be destroyed without Mt. Bromo. It is the potential for disaster itself that lies at the very basis of their cultural existence. By inspiring cultural identity the human–volcano system produces socio-cultural benefits in direct and indirect form. These benefits emerge only to a lesser degree directly from eruptions. However, the pivotal and multidimensional role of the volcano within the system produces a range of system-strengthening and capacity-building outcomes. These revolve around social structure and position therein, as well as grounding through heritage and ancestral lineage. People gain their very place on Earth through the existence of the volcano (Schlehe, 1996).

In this sense it was at no surprise that in our analysis of semi-structured interviews and FGD we found an overwhelmingly positive attitude toward the Mt. Bromo eruptions. The positive aspects that are our focus here were developed during and after conducting the interviews when it became apparent how positive people's attitude towards Mt. Bromo really is. What follows is a list of cultural adaptations identified and amalgamated from the cited literature and reframed as socio-cultural benefits that in order to obtain, people may weigh against the cost of potential hazard. More than an adaptation to an adverse condition these socio-cultural benefits are goods in themselves for which it becomes worthwhile to be exposed to hazard. In no particular order we propose the following five items as socio-cultural benefits stemming from the cultural identity of living within a human–volcano system.

Traditionally scientific examinations of natural hazard processes were conducted from a pure natural scientific and engineering point of view not including societal aspects. The only way in which society was addressed if at all was in the role of a potential victim which had to be protected from losses. Although the principal idea of risk rooted in Medieval Mediterranean maritime trade is related to both potential profit and loss, this open understanding of risk no longer features in modern risk analysis (Banse, 1996; Fuchs, 2009). In lieu thereof, since 1950, risk concepts were developed in different disciplines in various contexts (Dikau and Weichselgartner, 2005; Müller-Mahn, 2007; Renn et al., 2007). The principal ideas of geographical hazard research (see e.g. White, 1964) may be seen as a forerunner to modern risk research. The introduction of aspects of human ecology (e.g. Burton et al., 1978), political ecology (e.g. Blaikie et al., 1994) and ideas of environmental justice (Cutter, 1996) to hazard research paved the way to a strengthening and further development to risk research. Focusing on flash floods, their perception and assessment, Kates (1962) and White (1964) introduced risk aspects into natural hazard research. Based on this approach, which integrated aspects of physical geography, social sciences and economics, a first comprehensive natural hazard risk analysis may be attributed to Petak and Atkinsson (1982). In recent years, process-oriented concepts have been replaced by a more sophisticated integrative risk management (e.g. Ammann, 2001; Stötter et al., 2002) or ideas towards a so-called risk society (e.g. Beck, 1992, 2009), risk culture or risk governance framework (e.g. International Risk Governance Council, 2005). However, similar to other natural hazard risks, volcanic risks remain to be connoted with negative impacts on society. But as shown in this paper, all these (traditional) risk perspectives cannot explain the perception and decision making in the Bromo human–volcano system. Gaillard (2008) found in his research at Mt. Pinatubo that high perception of risk does not discourage people from living in hazard-prone areas. In this sense, only an open-risk concept (see e.g. Campbell and Vuolteenaho, 2004; Stötter and Coy, 2008) which allows including both potential positive and negative outcomes can help to explain the attitude of the local population in the Mt. Bromo region. On a theoretical level, in such open-risk concept, all future developments intrinsically exhibit some degree of uncertainty bearing options for both good risk, i.e. an opportunity to be grasped, and bad risk in the classical sense of a negative outcome to be avoided. Weighing positive against negative effects in the open-risk concept follows a similar rationale as the concept of cost–benefit analysis (e.g. Nas, 1996), which indeed became an instrument in natural hazard management by the US Flood Control Act of 1939 (see Guess and Farnham, 2000). It demanded that “the benefits to whomever they accrue [be] in excess of the estimated costs”. But while in this approach human beings are understood as homo economicus the decisions of whom are primarily driven by economic, utilitarian reasoning, the open-risk concept goes far beyond that by considering also social, cultural, political and ecological aspects that cannot be monetized. A spiritual benefit can therefore outweigh a negative effect on for example physical infrastructure.

In a human–environment system, the linkage between impact and the exposed systems is generally determined by the sensitivity of the reacting system to the external impulse. That means that vulnerability and capacity, respectively resilience, are the interacting factors that govern the dimension of risk. In the Bromo human–volcano system, the local population perceives volcanic activity as source of both the threatening destructive forces as well as the agricultural basis of existence and spiritual home of their community. Based on their cultural system of values, in their interpretation, the good risks provided by Bromo Volcano do more than compensate the bad risks and thus they accept their living conditions in the Mt. Bromo area. The risk perception of the Tenggerese and their consequential behaviour is very similar to the understanding of Medieval merchants who first created the term “risco”: the Tenggerese understand the gain of accepting risk with all its consequences. We suggest that a holistic understanding of risk, be it a forgotten Medieval concept or alive in local knowledge, must inspire the way in which we address an open and uncertain future. Modern, engineering-based risk research has provided us with practical tools of risk assessment, evaluation and monitoring. More recently societal aspects of natural hazard have widened our conceptualization of risk. Now it is time to reintroduce what is on the upside of the coin – the opportunities that humans sought whenever they chose to expose themselves to risks.