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Chapter 3 The Minangkabau South Coast Home of the Mermaid and the Earth Goddess
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3 The Minangkabau South Coast Home of the Mermaid and the Earth Goddess To many West Sumatrans and observers, the Minangkabau south coast (Mi. pasisia salatan) is a cultural backwater of the much better known heartland (Mi. darék; I. darat), with its historical palace at Pagaruyung.1 As this chapter aims to show, however, the people of the south coast have their own distinctive heritage of rituals, music, dance, and epic storytelling based on their connection to the sea as well as the land, as opposed to the single environmental focus of the land-bound darék, and they too had a main palace, at Indrapura. ThepeopleareamixofMalay-speaking,west-coastSumatrantradersandfisherfolk, on the one hand, and descendant of immigrant, darék Minangkabau-speaking farmers , on the other. Over the centuries young men in the darék were encouraged to seek their fortunes in the coastal rantau area (Mi. “the area abroad,” Naim 1973), and many never returned to their kampuang halaman (Mi. “original village”), as is recounted in many sad songs and stories. Malay-speaking people also migrated up and down Sumatra’s west coast, with some settling in the south coastal area of Minangkabau. Both the coastal and the upstream peoples brought their artistic genres with them. Whatever their ancestry, south-coast dwellers believe fiercely in their cultural identity separate from that of the hinterland. Their dual focus on the sea and the land is reflected in their two main legends: one about the mermaid Sikambang, performed along most of Sumatra’s west coast, and the other about the Earth Goddess, Bundo Kanduang, performed both in the heartland and on the south coast. The people in the darék claim that Bundo Kanduang was born in the heartland, but south-coast Kartomi_Text.indd 42 6/15/12 2:28 PM 3. The Minangkabau South Coast 43 dwellers believe she was born near the main former court of Indrapura at Lunang on the south coast, and that she is continually reincarnated in the body of a mystically gifted woman who lives in Lunang.2 The Bundo Kanduang legend is also known as “Cindua Mato,” the name of a commoner who became a heroic adjutant of Bundo Kanduang’s son, the first monarch of the Minangkabau heartland (luhak nan tigo), and eventually replaced him as the legendary first king of both the darék and the pasisia salatan (mi.), and utara (south and north coast) that is, of all Minangkabau. Another important legend in the southernmost part of the south coast and the north-coast Bengkulu province is “Malin Deman,” about the Seven Angels who descended to earth and accidentally left their youngest sister there without her wings, so she was unable to return to heaven. She married a mortal and gave birth to a son before escaping back to heaven. (For other versions of this legend, see chaps. 7, 12, and 14.) In addition to the south coast’s shamanic arts, including the rain-rejection (monolak hujan) ritual, the overwhelmingly Muslim population of the coastal areas practices a range of locally developed Muslim devotional genres (kesenian Islami), including several dikia (zikir)-based genres. They are usually performed at boys’ circumcisions (sunat rasul), boys’ and girls’ celebrations on mastering the recitation of the Qur’an (tamat Qur’an), farewells to pilgrims going on the hajj, and welcomes on their return, accompanied in each case by a devotional frame drum–playing procession (arak-arakan mangaji) or session. Both the traditional religious and the Muslim genres are performed at ceremonies presided over by the traditional elders (niniak mamak) and the ulama, such as weddings, a baby’s first haircut, a ritual to appoint an elder, and celebrations of Muslim holy days. They also developed a local version of Malay vocal music with violin and percussion accompaniment known as gamad or gamaik, and popular music with Minangkabau song texts called pop Minang. This chapter, however, focuses mainly on the asali (Mi. “original, authentic”) genres, reserving discussion of the Muslim genres for chapter 5. First, the chapter surveys the music-related history of the former palaces and the common people on the south coast. It then describes the shamanic rituals and dances; the bardic art of kaba (epic) performance; the songs and song-dances attached to the three main legends: “Sikambang,” “Bundo Kanduang”/“Cindua Mato,” and the “Seven Angels”/“Malin Deman”; some other dances, and finally the south coast’s main musical instruments and ensembles. Most dances are accompanied by the drum-oboe (gandang-sarunai...