Symmetrical, smoke-plumed Gunung Merapi is an awesome 2911-metre presence in the centre of Java, visible from Yogyakarta, 25km away. This is Indonesia's most volatile volcano, and the sixth most active in the world; as recently as 1994 an entire mountain village was incinerated by lava, killing 64 people. But the Javanese worship the mountain as a life-giver, its lava providing Central Java with its agricultural fecundity.