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This paper focuses on the construction of Jaavanese identity in the Indonesian popular television serial, the sinetron, "Misteri Gunung Merapi" which is one of the most popular television series in Indonesia and has been produced and broadcasted since 1998. This sinetron takes Java of the 17th century as the setting of the story, and in doing so, it functions as a kind of collective memory of traditional Javanese ethnicity. Although this sinetron lacks of its authenticity in its representation of Javanese culture, as the production manager said, it is only fiction, it serves as noltagia for Javanese people of the traditon of supernatural power and astecisim. Yet, the consistent success of this sinetron shows that Misteri Gunung Merapi is able to communicate with audiences from different ethnic bacjkgrounds throughout Indonesia. In this paper I ask how a series that invokes collective memories of Javanese traditional culture can succeed in appealing so successfully to audiences throughout Indonesia. I am concerned with hiw Javanese ethnic identity is constructed in this sinetron, especially with how the sinetron reconfigures this tradition together with Islam, making a hybrid postmodern cultural product for natural audiences.