Culture
Dance v Music v Arts v Religion v People
Dance
Almost all of the islands of Indonesia have their own dance styles, but those best known are from Bali and Java. Dance and drama are practically inseparable, and performances are almost always accompanied by gamelan music. Dancers take their art very seriously and practice for endless hours, usually from childhood, under the oversight of an expert. Unlike western style of dance, Indonesian dances are precise, jerky and at times, abrupt. They are also very expressive, with every fiber of the dancer involved, including the eye movements and finger twitches. Every dance tells a story, often a tale from the Hindu epic, Ramayana.
Bali is known for several prominent dances, and there are several other lesser known styles of dance as well, but all tell a story and to a greater or lesser degree, involve dramatic portrayal of a character in the story, sometimes while in a trance.
More than just an entertaining performance, the Barong & Rangda dance is a colorful and lively drama. The barong, a strange lion-shaggy dog creature that is operated much like the two-man circus horse, is the protector of a village and personifies good. Rangda is the evil widow witch. There are also barong supporters, men flailing dagger-like krises. Although the barong is playful and jovial, once Rangda makes her attacking appearance, he becomes the protector and battles, along with the retaliating kris-armed men. Rangda puts the men in a trance and they turn the daggers on themselves. The barong's magical powers see to it that the men are not harmed in the process. Amid the crashing din of the gamelan accompaniment, good and evil battle. The barong triumphs and Rangda finally retreats in defeat.
The Legong dance is considered to be the most graceful of the Balinese dances. There are several kinds of Legong dances, but the most commonly performed is the Legong Kraton (Palace Legong). In this dance there are three performers, two legongs and a condong, who is the attendant of the royal legongs. The condong introduces the dance and then exits the stage. Then enters the two legongs who are tightly clad in golden brocade and elaborately made up. They dance in exact formation to gamelan accompaniment. The performance ends when the condong enters with golden wings, as a bird of bad fortune, signifying that the king will die in battle.
For tourists, the best known Balinese dance is the Kecak. This is an performance that tells a story of intrigue and romance from theRamayana. The a cappella chorus of bare-chested men wearing black-and-white checkered sarongs and hibiscus flowers behind their ears chant the distinctive "chak-chak-chak" with intensity, which is distinctive of this dance. These men constitute an army of monkeys. Both men and women participate in this dance, playing, among others, the characters of Prince Rama, his abducted wife Sita, and the evil King Lanka. As in all Balinese performances, in the end, good triumphs over evil.
The Ramayana story is also performed in several dances of Central Java, the most well known is the Ramayana Ballet, which is performed in an open-air theater from May through October. The Wayang Topeng is a dance drama where the characters use masks, dating back to the Majapahit kingdom. The masked characters are identifiable in the same manner as they are in Wayang Kulit puppet performances. The refined and elongated features denote nobility, whereas the exaggerated and grotesque characteristics indicate the vulgar players.
The Topeng dance of Bali, however, is quite different. The word topeng means "pressed against the face," hence the masks. The Balinese Topeng masks are brightly painted, exaggerated and expressive human faces. The variety of characters indicated by the masks are acted out by a single performer. The stories are often drawn from the chronicles of Balinese history, but comedy, as well as topics dealing with current social issues may be mixed into the performance. The dancer usually chants and speaks only in the Balinese language.
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Music
Indonesian gamelan music is the best known Indonesian music. This instrumental ensemble music played on a variety of metal pots, gongs, and drums (the word gamelan refers to the collection of instruments themselves) has enchanted first-time listeners (including Sir Francis Drake who visited Java in 1580) with its blend of exotic modality and shimmering timbre. Said to have been created by a Javanese king in the 3rd century, the gamelan has retained its ceremonial function in the royal courts of Java and Bali, while evolving into a modern folk form.
In recent years there has been a remarkable surge of American and European interest in gamelan music. Buying a ticket to Indonesia to attend a live concert is no longer necessary, as many major universities have their own ensembles. A listing of gamelan music groups in the United States can be found in the Explorers' Room.
Despite its high profile across the world, the gamelan is not representative of all Indonesian music. Among the many different music styles from the various cultures across this maritime continent, two other major music types that have become common are kroncong and dangdut.
he roots of kroncong music date back to the 16th century when sailors brought Portuguese instruments and melodies to Indonesia. The ensemble typically consists of plucked string instruments (kroncong is the name of a ukulele-like instrument), a flute, and a female singer. Over the steadily plucked arpeggios that provide the harmonic backdrop, the singer croons languidly of love, yearning, sadness, and the beauty of the countryside, as the flute flits up and down the scales in free-improvisational flight. Although the instruments and the singing style are clearly descended from European origins, the chord progression provides an unsettling flavor to the songs. The langgam jawa, a regional variation, uses Javanese gamelan scales.
Dangdut is far more popular today, and it can be heard blaring from the loudspeakers of bemos (minivans used for public transport), storefront TV sets tuned to the music video channel, and, at night, from karaoke bars. As in rock music, there is a fairly wide range of music that gets classified as dangdut. The instrumentation and song forms of today's dangdut are obviously influenced by rock music, but it has its roots in orkes melayu, a music style that combined Malay and Western elements, as well as in Indian film music and urban Arab pop.
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Arts
The Indonesian arts are clearly reflective of the overlaying of different religious influences, as well as intermingling of many different ethnic cultures from across the archipelago. Animist traditions are evident in the tribal art found in carving, pottery and weaving crafts. Javanese and Balinese art is strongly influenced by their Hindu-Buddhist roots. With the restrictions against human or animal representations, Islam has caused artists to become more stylized in their approach.
Woodcarving is the most widespread medium of artistic expression across the Indonesian islands. There are as many styles as there are cultures. Many carvings are deeply steeped in religious and spiritistic practices, but they can also serves a decorative function. All manner of objects are heavily carved from wood, including temple doors, furniture, totem poles, statutes and masks. With the influx of the tourism industry, artist are rising to the demand and forming new styles purely for ornamental purposes. This has been clearly seen in Bali where years ago woodcarvers began making beautifully smooth, simple, elongated designs with a natural finish.
There is a great variety in the techniques, colors, materials and design of Indonesian textiles. The three main groups are ikat, which is made with tie-dyed patterns on threads before they are woven; songket, which produces a showy fabric using silver and gold threads woven into silk; and batik, which alternates waxed designs with the dyeing process. Within each of these textile groups there is distinctive regional variety of technique and pattern.
The well-known shadow puppets of Java and Bali, the wayang kulit, are made of leather. They are cut from buffalo hide and carved into lace-like figures using a sharp stylus, and then painted. Other puppet styles include the three-dimensional Sundanese wayang golek made of wood, and the lesser known and seldom seen flat wooden klitik puppets of East Java.
Beautiful silver jewelry is produced both in Bali and Central Java. The Balinese designs are usually handmade of both traditional designs and those adapted by copying western styles. The Javanese silver designs are known for their intricate filigree work both with jewelry and decorative models.
Balinese painting styles flourished after World War I with the influence of western artists Walter Spies and Rudolph Bonnet. Before that time, traditional paintings were used to decorate temple walls and were quite limited in style and theme, usually similar to the wayang kulit two-dimensional view. With the westerners' influence, subject matters embraced single scenes from everyday life and the expanded use of color and varying styles. Painting emerged as a stand-alone art form, and not just a way to decorate temple spaces, which was a new concept to the Balinese at the time.
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Religion
When Indonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945, it adopted freedom of religion. However, today it is almost exclusively a Muslim country. Indonesia is, in fact the largest Muslim nation in the world, and the vast majority practice a moderate form of Islam. But there is also a small minority of other religions present.
bullet Muslim: 88%
bullet Christian (Protestant and Catholic): 10%
bullet Hindu and Buddhist: 2%
About 2,000 years ago, villages in Java developed into small kingdoms made up of several villages with a chief. Each small ki