INTRODUCTION

Bantul Regency is part of the Special Region of Jogjakarta.It lies some 10-km south of Jogjakarta ,the province's capital city.The regency is widely known as"Geplak Town" because there are dozens of home industries that make this traditional delicacy made of coconut and brown sugar.Bantul has an area of 506,85 square km,inhabited by more than 740,000 people.The regency shares bordes with Jogjakarta City and Sleman regency in the north,with Gunungkidul regency in the east and with Kulonprogo regency in the west.In the south stretches the vast and wild Indian Ocean.The temperature ranges from 20-34 degrees Celcius.Bantul lies between 110.18'40"-110.34'40" EL and 14.04'50"-14.37'40" SL.Bantul is devided into West,Central,and East territories that include 17 kecamatans(subdistricts),75 desas(villages) and 935 dusuns(hamlets).Most of the people are farm workers.The rest are handicraftsmen,factory workers,civil servants,traders and so on.In the farming field,Bantul Regency produces in great number such crops as rice,sugar reed,and other second crops.In its sothern territory,onion is widely grown.Such handicraft product as leatherworks,earthenware and batik have gone international.During the Dutch occupation,Bantul Regency became a guerrilla base from where the freedom fighters lauched attacks towards the Dutch positions.That's why there are a lot of war monuments in the regency,such as Bibis Monument,Ngoto Monument,Golong Gilig Monument,Segoroyoso Monument,etc.Goa(cave)Selarong,now historical site,was a war base of Prince Diponegoro of Mataram in his attempt to chase the colonial rules away.
The central part of Bantul Regency is afertile lowland,while the east part are limestone mountains,and the west part limestone hills.River Progo devides the west border with Kulonprogo Regency,while in the east border flow River Opak and River Oya.
With such a geographical condition, Bantul Regency is known to have a beautiful panorama.The local authority of Bantul runs the regency with the work ethics,"PROJOTAMANSARI",that stands for:productive professional greenor derly save healthy and enviromentally beautiful.With this work ethics,the local goverment is trying very hard to promote the people's welfare and inproves its work performace.The resultis the increase of the Regional Domestic Product as well as the economic growth