:: Indonesia Culture Information ::
Indonesia has around 300
ethnic groups, each with cultural
differences
developed over centuries, and influenced by Arabic,
Chinese, Malay, and European sources. Traditional
Javanese and Balinese dances, for example, contain
aspects of Hindu culture and mythology, as do wayang
kulit (shadow puppet) performances. Textiles such as
batik, ikat and songket are created across Indonesia in
styles that vary by region. The most dominant influences
on Indonesian architecture have traditionally been
Indian; however, Chinese, Arab, and European
architectural influences have been significant. The most
popular sports in Indonesia are badminton and football;
Liga Indonesia is the country's premier football club
league. Traditional sports include sepak takraw, and
bull racing in Madura. In areas with a history of tribal
warfare, mock fighting contests are held, such as, caci
in Flores, and pasola in Sumba. Pencak Silat is an
Indonesian martial art. Sports in Indonesia are
generally male-orientated and spectator sports are often
associated with illegal gambling.
A selection of Indonesian food, including Soto
Ayam (chicken noodle soup), sate kerang (shellfish
kebabs), telor pindang (preserved eggs), perkedel
(fritter), and es teh manis (sweet iced tea)
A selection of Indonesian food, including Soto Ayam
(chicken noodle soup), sate kerang (shellfish kebabs),
telor pindang (preserved eggs), perkedel (fritter), and
es teh manis (sweet iced tea)
Indonesian cuisine varies by region and is based on
Chinese, European, Middle Eastern, and Indian
precedents. Rice is the main staple food and is served
with side dishes of meat and vegetables. Spices (notably
chili), coconut milk, fish and chicken are fundamental
ingredients. Indonesian traditional music includes
gamelan and keroncong. Dangdut is a popular contemporary
genre of pop music that draws influence from Arabic,
Indian, and Malay folk music. The Indonesian film
industry's popularity peaked in the 1980s and dominated
cinemas in Indonesia, although it declined significantly
in the early 1990s.[118] Between 2000 and 2005, the
number of Indonesian films released each year has
steadily increased.
The oldest evidence of writing in Indonesia is a series
of Sanskrit inscriptions dated to the 5th century CE.
Important figures in modern Indonesian literature
include: Dutch author Multatuli, who criticized
treatment of the Indonesians under Dutch colonial rule;
Sumatrans Muhammad Yamin and Hamka, who were influential
pre-independence nationalist writers and politicians;
and proletarian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer,
Indonesia's most famous novelist. Many of Indonesia's
peoples have strongly-rooted oral traditions, which help
to define and preserve their cultural identities. Media
freedom in Indonesia increased considerably after the
end of President Suharto's rule, during which the
now-defunct Ministry of Information monitored and
controlled domestic media, and restricted foreign media.
The TV market includes ten national commercial networks,
and provincial networks that compete with public TVRI.
Private radio stations carry their own news bulletins
and foreign broadcasters supply programs. At a reported
18 million users in 2005, Internet usage is limited to a
minority of the population.
Wayang Kulit
Wayang is an Indonesian word
for theatre. When the term is used to refer to kinds of
pupp
et
theater, sometimes the puppet itself is referred to as
wayang. "Bayang", the Javanese word for shadow or
imagination, also connotes "spirit." Performances of
shadow puppet theater are accompanied by gamelan in
Java, and by "gender wayang" in Bali.
UNESCO designated Wayang Kulit, a shadow puppet theater
and the best known of the Indonesian wayang, as a
Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
on 7 November 2003.
History of Wayang
Wayang is a generic term
denoting traditional theatre in Indonesia. There is no
evidence that wayang existed before Hinduism came to
southeast Asia sometime in the first century CE.
However, there very well may have been indigenous
storytelling traditions that had a profound impact on
the development of the traditional puppet theatre. The
first record of a wayang performance is from an
inscription dated 930 CE which says "si Galigi mawayang,"
or "Sir Galigi played wayang". From that time till today
it seems certain features of traditional puppet theatre
have remained. Galigi was an itinerant performer who was
requested to perform for a special royal occasion. At
that event we know he performed a story about the hero
Bima from the Mahabharata.
Hi
nduism
arrived in Indonesia from India even before the
Christian era, and was slowly adopted as the local
belief system. Sanskrit became the literary and court
language of Java and later of Bali. The Hindus changed
the Wayang (as did the Muslims, later) to spread their
religion, mostly by stories from the Mahabharata or the
Ramayana. Later this mixture of religion and wayang play
was praised as harmony between Hinduism and traditional
Indonesian culture. On Java, the western part of Sumatra
and some smaller islands traditionalists continued to
play the old stories for some time, but the influence of
Hinduism prevailed and the traditional stories either
fell into oblivion or were integrated into the
Hinduistic plays.
The figures of the wayang are also present in the
paintings of that time for example the roof murals of
the courtroom in Klungkung, Bali. They are still present
in traditional Balinese painting today.
When Islam began spreading in Indonesia, the display of
God or gods in human form was prohibited, and thus this
style of painting and shadow play was suppressed. King
Raden Patah of Demak, Java wanted to see the wayang in
its traditional form, but failed to obtain permission
from the Muslim religious leaders. As an alternative,
the religious leaders converted the wayang golek into
wayang purwa made from leather, and displayed only the
shadow instead of the figures itself. Instead of the
forbidden figures only their shadow picture was
displayed, the birth of the wayang kulit.
The wayang klitik figures are painted, flat woodcarvings
(a maximum of 5 to 15 mm thick -- barely half an inch)
with movable arms. The head is solidly attached to the
body. With these, it is possible to do puppet plays
either by day or by night. This type of wayang is
relatively rare.
Wayang today is both the most ancient and most popular
form of puppet theatre in the world. Hundreds of people
will stay up all night long to watch the superstar
performers, dalang, who command extravagant fees and are
international celebrities. Some of the most famous
dalang in recent history are Ki Nartosabdho, Ki Anom
Suroto, Ki Asep Sunarya, K
Indonesia Batik
Batik (Javanese-Indonesian
pronunciation: [bate], is an Indonesian word and refers
to a generic wax-resist dyeing technique used on
textile. The word originates from Javanese word "amba",
meaning ”to write” and the Javanese word for dot or
point, "titik."[citation needed]
It is known to be more than a millennium old, probably
originating in ancient Egypt or Sumeria. There is
evidence that cloth decorated through some form of
resist technique was in use in the early centuries AD.
[citation needed] It is found in several countries later
in West Africa such as Nigeria, Cameroon and Mali, or in
Asia, such as India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh , Iran,
Thailand, and Malaysia, but the most popular are in
Indonesia.
Ikat Weaving of Indonesia
Ikat, or Ikkat, is a style
of weaving that uses a resist dyeing process similar to
tie-dye on either the warp or weft before the threads
are woven to create a pattern or design. A Double Ikat
is when both the warp and the weft are tie-dyed before
weaving.
Ikat means "to tie" or "to bind" in the Malay language
and has the same root as the words dekat ("close"),
lekat ("to stick"), pikat ("to catch") etc. The word
Katt has the same meaning in all of the south Indian
languages but there may be no relation. Through common
usage, the word has come to describe both the process
and the cloth itself. Ikats have been woven in cultures
all over the world. In Central and South America, Ikat
is still common in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador,
Guatemala and Mexico. In the 19th century, the Silk Road
desert oases of Bukhara and Samarkand (in what is now
Uzbekistan in Central Asia) were famous for their fine
silk Uzbek Ikat. India, Japan and several South-East
Asian countries have cultures with long histories of
Ikat production. Double Ikats can still be found in
India, Guatemala, Japan and the Indonesian islands of
Bali and Kalimantan.
Songket Weaving of Indonesia
Like any craft or
art form, ikats vary widely from country to country and
region to region. Designs may have symbolic of ritual
meaning or have been developed for export trade. Ikats
are often symbols of status, wealth, power and prestige.
Perhaps because of the difficulty and time required to
make ikats, some cultures believe the cloth is imbued
with magical powers.
Songket is
a fabric that belongs to the brocade family
of textiles. It is hand-woven in silk or cotton, and
intricately patterned with gold or silver threads. The
metallic threads stand out against the background cloth
to create a shimmering effect. In the weaving process
the metallic threads are inserted in between the silk or
cotton weft (latitudinal) threads. The term songket
comes from the Malay word menyongket, ‘to embroider with
gold or silver threads’. Songket is a luxury product
traditionally worn during ceremonial occasions as
sarong, shoulder cloths or head ties. Tanjak or Songket
headdresses were worn at the courts of the Malay
Sultanates.[1] Traditionally Muslim women and adolescent
girls wove songket; "some boys and men are also weaving
today".[2] Traditionally-patterned Sumatran textiles
embody a system of interpretable emblems.
In Indonesia, songket is produced in Sumatra,
Kalimantan, Bali, Sulawesi, Lombok and Sumbawa. Outside
of Indonesia, further production areas include the east
coast of the Malay Peninsula and Brunei.[3] Songket
weaving is historically associated with areas of Malay
settlement, and the production techniques could have
been introduced by Arab and Indian merchants.
Historically, production was located in politically
significant kingdoms because of the high cost of
materials; the gold thread used was originally wound
with real gold leaf.[3]
Songket have been widely marketed as fashion apparel
since the 1990s
Indonesian architecture
Indonesian Architecture reflects the same diversity
of cultural, historical, and geographic influences that
have shaped Indonesia as a whole. Invaders, colonisers,
missionaries, merchants and traders brought cultural
changes that had a pronounced effect on building styles
and techniques. Traditionally, the most significant
foreign influence has been Indian, however Chinese,
Arab—and since the 18th and 19th centuries—European
influences have been important.
Pasola Horseback
Fighting Festival of Sumba Island
Pasola
is
a game played by the Western Sumbanese of ( Sumba
Island. NTT. Indonesia) to celebrate the paddy planting
season.
The game is played by throwing wooden spears to the
opponent while riding a horse. The game is played by two
different groups of men from different clans or tribes.
It is a game that requires a high skill at horse riding
(most of the Sumbanese ride their own horses) and spear
throwing skill.
It use to end up in a bloody game when the wooden spear
hit the bare flesh of the participant. In the Sumbanese
ancient beliefs, the spilled blood will fertilize the
land and multiply the output of the [paddy].
This game is played in different regions in West Sumba
from February to March:
-
Wanukaka - Lamboya -
Kodi
In the Wanukaka region, as part of the ritual, early in
the morning the marapu priests and their entourage go
the beach to perform a prayer. They sacrifice a black
cock to the gods and check the heart of the cock to read
the signs from the gods on whether to proceed with the
pasola.
They descend to the sea afterwards to collect the
colorful sea worm as part of the ritual, then proceed to
the area where the game will be played.
Gamelan Instrument
A
gamelan
is a kind of musical ensemble of Indonesia typically
featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones,
xylophones, drums, and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and
plucked strings, and vocalists may also be included. The
term refers more to the set of instruments than the
players of those instruments. A gamelan as a set of
instruments is a distinct entity, built and tuned to
stay together — instruments from different gamelan are
not interchangeable.
The word "gamelan" comes from the Javanese word "gamel",
meaning to strike or hammer, and the suffix "an", which
makes the root a collective noun.
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