Musical Journeys in Sumatra

Chapter 14. Connections across Sumatra

14 Connections across Sumatra This concluding chapter will draw together some of the connections between the traditional styles and genres of the performing arts across Sumatra, focusing on the impact of indigenous religion and Islam; classification of the musical instruments and ensembles; myths and legends; dances and music-dance relationships ; social classes; gender factors; signal items of identity; and major changes since around 1900. To what extent an understanding of these connections can contribute to a concept of Sumatra’s performing arts as a unified whole will become clearer when more research into the whole of greater Sumatra is completed. Indigenous Religions and Islam Religious beliefs and practices have inspired, modified, or transformed many music, dance, and theater genres in Sumatra. Though the indigenous religions differ in their detail in each area, they are all based on a reverence for the spirits of nature and the ancestors, and they tend to absorb elements of Islam and other world religions when engaged in artistic practices. Among some modernist Muslims, songs involving black magic (ilmu jahat) practices are unacceptable (Sanday 2002, 72), but if white magic (ilmu halus) is blended with Muslim prayers or sayings at the beginnings and ends of the songs, as in the tiger-capturing rituals, they may be tolerated. In northern Aceh a tree may only be felled to make a frame drum after respectful incantations are sung to its spirit and Kartomi_Text.indd 343 6/15/12 2:29 PM 344 14. connections across sumatra care is taken to avoid destroying the surrounding trees and undergrowth (chap. 13). In parts of South Sumatra, animist and/or Muslim prayers need to be said before a pair of shamans perform the dangerous task of climbing a tall sialang tree to collect honey from the hives (chap. 7), and similar rituals are held in other areas (e.g., in east-coast North Sumatra, Goldsworthy 1978). Sometimes shamans refer to local ancestral spirits and Hindu-Buddhist deities such as Batara Guru (the Lord of the Universe) as well as to Allah and his Prophet to improve their chances of obtaining supernatural assistance for their efforts. The ancestral spirits at a ritual performance with dancing and music are believed to contribute to the occasion not only spiritually but aesthetically as well, as their presence beautifies the dancing, singing, and instrumental sounds. In Mandailing, mystical rituals are performed while drums are being made, and they are played to invite the spirits to come down and inhabit them. However, the spirits are only attracted to join in if the correct drum rhythms are played; otherwise they will not recognize them (chap. 11). Dancers and musicians can also represent, or be inhabited by, the spirits of the ancestors, as in the case of the Seven Angels dance, based on the “Bitter Tongue” legend, in Besemah, South Sumatra (chap. 7). Rituals often focus around inherited sacred objects, including musical instruments and weapons that are treasured in their own right, such as the great rapa’i Pasè drums in northern Aceh (chap. 13). Such objets d’art are made by spiritually gifted woodcarvers and smiths (e.g., pande bosi, “iron experts” in the Mandailing language), who are often also shamans. When a father presents an heirloom—such as a Malay keris (short dagger) or a Komering gong—to his son, he expects him to inherit the ilmu (mystical knowledge) of the spirit inhabiting the object. Inherited ilmu can also guide a musician as he performs, sometimes causing him to enter a state of trance and even to feel on occasion that his instrument is actually playing itself. Thus, the nobat ensemble in Riau’s former Indragiri palace was reportedly heard playing itself in sympathy on the day of a sultan’s funeral (chap. 6). Inherited objects (pusaka) need to be ritually cleaned every year. This is done rather clandestinely at the Indragiri royal descendant’s home in Rengat, lest it offend some of the local ulama. Such mystical practices are diminishing at a fast rate, however. The logging of large areas of Sumatra’s primal forests since the 1980s has resulted in massive plant and forest destruction and long-lasting fires in the forest undergrowth, which have in turn disturbed the tigers, elephants, and other wild animals, some of which have rampaged villages and been killed without the traditional respect or ceremony, and have become endangered species. It has also forced whole villages to leave their agricultural land and move to urban areas. Among the human victims...