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5 Four Sufi Muslim Genres in Minangkabau This chapter examines four genres of the Muslim-associated performing arts as Mas Kartomi and I experienced them in Minangkabau during the 1970s and 1980s: indang, salawek dulang, dikia Mauluik, and dabuih. They are believed to have been developed centuries ago by local Sufi brotherhoods as part of dakwah— the early proselytization of the faith and the deepening of piety among believers, even though the songs of dikia Mauluik and dabuih are set to mainly secular texts on many occasions. Indang is a song-dance performed by a row of men or women in duduak (“sitting ,” actually half-kneeling) position with rhythmic body movement, clapping, and frame-drum playing. Salawek dulang (or salawek talang; I. salawat dulang) is performed by a pair of alternating male solo singers, each of whom accompany themselves on a brass percussion tray (dulang). Dikia Mauluik (I. dhikr Maulud, lit. “remembering Allah in the month of Maulud”) is a group vocal-instrumental form with mostly Sufi-oriented Muslim song texts based on dikia (Mi.; Ar. zikir) texts that are sung with body exercises and frame-drum accompaniment in the month of the Prophet’s birth.1 Dabuih (Mi., Ar., I. dabus) is a ritual form involving acts of self-harm as a demonstration of one’s faith and physical invulnerability from pain (and sometimes in the colonial era in Aceh, readiness for battle). Though probably developed in part from transplanted genres, all four are regarded as asali (I. asli, “authentic”) Minangkabau forms, and they all reflect clear Sufi aims and attributes. Kartomi_Text.indd 97 6/15/12 2:28 PM 98 part i. west sumatra and riau Two of the genres—dikia Mauluik and dabuih—have only religious texts that are based on dikia; thus, some local religious leaders and academics classify them as “arts with a Muslim flavor” (kesenian yang bernafaskan Islam).2 The other two genres— indang and salawek dulang—reputedly have agricultural origins, as reflected in their largely secular and topical song texts and the fact that the title, indang, means “to winnow”; however, as the performing groups normally add Muslim phrases (such as Bismillah, “in the name of Allah”) at the beginning and the end of some sections, even the most devout ulama find them acceptable and classify them, with the academics , as “arts with a Muslim theme” (kesenian Islami). The “Muslim sound” of three of the genres that use instruments is attributed in part to their use of the Muslim instrument par excellence, the frame drum, and the salawek dulang genre to the pair of brass trays played in rhythms similar to those of the frame drums.3 Normally a frame drum has a skin head made from a goat, snake, or other animal, which is pinned to a ring-shaped wooden frame and tautened with a piece of rattan inserted in the inside rim. Musicians refer to the three main pitch-timbres played on the frame drums by onomatopoeic syllables. In the Pariaman area, tum denotes a low-pitched sound beaten midhead on the downbeat, tak a high-pitched sound tapped with the fingers near the rim of the head on an offbeat, and darap a medium-pitched double sound beaten near the middle of the head with the hand supported by the thumb on the edge. Sometimes both the high and the low sounds are played simultaneously on the same drum. Although traditional Minangkabau society is matrilocal and affords special privileges for women, the main exponents of the four genres have traditionally been groups of men.4 Besides singing lullabies and baby-thanksgiving and other songs, women usually perform traditional, non-Muslim dances such as tari lilin and tari piriang (Mi., the candle and plate dances with brass gong-chime ensemble accompaniment ) and tari payuang (Mi., the umbrella dance with violin and frame-drum accompaniment) in mixed or single-sex couples at harvest festivals, and in some areas (e.g., Pariaman and Payakumbuah) they play the talempong gong-chime ensembles.5 From the late 1970s onward, however, separate female indang groups became common. While male performers usually wear a sarong over a trouser suit plus a peci (Muslim-associated hat), the women of the darek mostly wear traditional Minangkabau horn-shaped headdresses, long blouses, and skirts consisting of cloth containing gold or silver thread (songket). Women of the pasisia areas often wear velvet bridal costumes with a lavish number of gold hair ornaments. Suharto’s New Order government directed both male and...

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