Harnish Digging and Uppgrading

"Digging" and "Upgrading": Government Efforts to "Develop" Music and Dance in Lombok,IndonesiaAuthor(s): David HarnishSource: Asian Music, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Winter - Spring, 2007), pp. 61-87Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4497041 .

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"Digging" and "Upgrading": Government Efforts to "Develop" Music and Dance in Lombok, Indonesia

David Harnish

Lombok, one of the two islands that comprise the province of Nusa Tenggara Barat in Indonesia, is considered "rich" (kaya) in performing arts. Yet, like most areas of the country, the provincial government was asked to "dig" or "uncover"

(menggali), "establish" (membina) and "develop" (memgembang) music and dance to meet perceived national (read "Javanese") standards shortly after the

inception of President Suharto's New Order (Orde Baru) government in 1967. The performing arts became an area of intervention; the government wanted to mold the arts into agents for nationalism, national culture and unity. Most

programs were locally subsumed under the national policy of Pembinaan Kes- enian (Construction of the Arts).'

As in most Indonesian provinces, these programs on Lombok came under the jurisdiction of the provincial Arts Section (Seksi Kesenian) of the Depart- ment of Education and Culture (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, the acronym Depdikbud). Several years were needed to acquire the necessary funding and research. Only a few projects were carried out in the 1970s, and most of these involved taking inventories of local arts. Officials then launched an astonishing number of projects beginning in the 1980s. The head (kepala) of the Section from 1983 to 1995 was Hj. Sri Yaningsih (Bu Sri), an educated

Javanese woman who had married a Sasak man and moved to Lombok in 1969 where she had worked in arts development and in preparing song texts for schools until assuming the head position. She was a strong advocate of the national policy, took her job very seriously, and disallowed any behavior that could be construed as corruption. She and her staff conducted many projects throughout Lombok and Sumbawa, developed festivals and competitions to

help upgrade and promote the arts, provided grants to many groups, and published many informational booklets on the performing arts. These efforts were

particularly important in Lombok, where officials and musicians claimed that

religion had hindered development and had caused a steep decline in artistic

activity.

? 2007 by the University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819



62 Asian Music: Winter/Spring 2007

I first discussed some of these problems with Bu Sri on several occasions in

1983, and then interviewed her formally in 1987, 1988, 1989 and again in 2001.

During this last interview, she said she felt "satisfied" and a "little proud" that her efforts to develop the arts had been successful. The evidence is there: very few

performing arts organizations and clubs (sanggar, sekaha) existed on Lombok in the 1970s and now there are well over 1,000. In the 1970s, neighboring Sumbawa "did not have" performing arts, and now groups performing "traditional arts" have toured internationally. Many compromises, however, had to be made to achieve this "success." Decisions prioritized some arts and ignored others, genre authenticity was bent, and certain changes in the arts were considered necessary to "advance" the arts to a national standard, to represent the province at the national level, and to "prepare the mentality" of local residents in shaping and

preserving identity in the face of globalization. Virtually all regions of Indonesia were required to implement national arts

policies during President Suharto's lengthy administration (1967-98), and the vast majority had to "uncover" and "cultivate" the performing arts to advance national agendas and achieve an acknowledged national quality. Each province had its own challenges (see, for example, Sutton 1995, Hutajulu 1995, Acciaioli

1985, and Aragon 1996) and officials and musicians responded in specific ways reflecting a variety of histories (including provincial, ethnic, community, artistic,

personal). I submit that agency-the decisions made by particular persons in

particular circumstances in response to given stimuli-is key to understanding how these policies played out in Indonesia. Lombok was a nexus of national

intervention, provincial response, and individual agency. The decisions by Bu Sri and her staff not only illuminate local reaction but also reveal multiple histories and explain the current arts situation on the island.

This article addresses notions of success and improvement in the traditional

performing arts, explores individual agency and provincial responses toward national policies, and identifies the arts concerned. In the 1980s, I sometimes assisted teams at research sites, attended seminars on the arts, and once sat on a jury for a performing arts competition; I thus became familiar with the discourse and goals of government projects in the arts. While much of the rhetoric since that time has changed, many of the perceived challenges remain

despite the "improvements." Some of the developments are linked directly to

government (i.e. Javanese) perceptions of Lombok and the Sasak (the majority and indigenous population) people and to notions of what the role of the performing arts should be in modern Indonesia. The officials believed that their

primary task was to "dig" and "cultivate" music and dance in order to re-present the modernized culture, promote the province, present quality performances to tourists and dignitaries, and to add icons and images to the mosaic of Indo- nesian cultures.



Harnish: "Digging" and "Upgrading" 63

A Problematic History

Lombok has suffered Javanese domination, Makassar domination, Balinese colonization, and Dutch colonization throughout its history. The post-Independence Javanese-controlled government from 1950 until the end of the century was seen

by many Sasak as a return to Javanese domination. Grouped initially with Bali and islands further east, Lombok and Sumbawa were formed into the province of Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) in 1958, and then administered by Javanese for

forty years. Beginning in the 1980s, Sasak and Sumbawanese (in West Sumbawa) were more frequently appointed to positions of authority, and, in 1998, a man from Sumbawa (Bima district), Drs. Haji Harun Al-Rasyid, was appointed gov- ernor of NTB. His successor, H. Lalu Serinate, is Sasak, and it appears that all

major officials will now be NTB residents. Locally, this is considered a dramatic and positive change. With the implementation of autonomy (otonomi) in 2001 that provides much more freedom (and responsibility) to provincial governments, the period of Javanese dominance seems clearly over, though the very concept of government in Indonesia is a Javanese construction (albeit based on Dutch models).

The performing arts of Lombok reveal two different streams of influence; one is linked to Java and especially Bali, and the other to Sumatra, Makassar, Malaysia, and pan-Islamic movements. The various traditional gamelans generally share instrument types and terminology with Bali, the traditional sung oral literature comes primarily from Java, and many other music styles reflect Islamic influence or are shared with the greater Islamic world. The dance styles, while similar to Bali and Java, are local and omit much of the specific movement

vocabulary that distinguishes characters (type, gender) on those islands. These

developments, which together provide a great diversity of arts, mark particular moments in Lombok's history.

Before the rise of reformist Islam in the latter half of the nineteenth century, Sasak culture generally encouraged broad participation in music and other arts, all considered beneficial to a community (see Harnish 1998). The performing arts were the medium for enculturation and held to have efficacious qualities, such as causing rainfall or invoking the divine. There is little data about early indigenous kingdoms, though it is assumed that Javanese nobles were occasion-

ally sent to establish or to occupy courts perhaps as early as the seventh century (Wacana 1978, 20). Hindu and Buddhist influence from Java came in varying stages from the ninth until the fifteenth century, and Lombok was considered

part of the mighty Hindu East Javanese empire, Majapahit, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Beginning by the sixteenth century and extending until at least the early eighteenth century, Islamic influences came primarily from Java (Cederroth 1981, 32), Sumbawa, and Makassar (in South Sulawesi); the




latter became a powerful and important center of Islam and solidified trade with

widespread coastal Muslim-controlled sultanates, such as Melaka (Clegg 2004, 59-60), and was particularly influential in Sumbawa and East Lombok. The introduced Islamic religious practices differed: in the north and west a Javanese

Sufi-style integrated with indigenous and Hindu-Buddhist beliefs,2 and in the

east, south, and central areas a more orthodox form quickly expanded.3 Muslim

evangelists and many traders set up communities in various parts of the island and their influences and trade networks spread.

Hindu Balinese are thought to have first entered Lombok in the fourteenth

century (Harnish 2005, 6), and communities were established in West and Cen- tral Lombok by the fifteenth century (see Higerdal 2001 and Clegg 2004). Many are held to have been Javanese who were "just passing through" Bali for a generation or two on their way to Lombok. Most of these appear to have converted to Islam and were then immediately considered Sasak. More Balinese migrated to West Lombok in the sixteenth century and established permanent settlements.4 In the seventeenth century, Balinese forces defeated Sasak kingdoms and controlled the western half of the island until around 1740, when they gained control of the entire island. Until that time, Balinese fought fierce battles with both Sasak and Makassarese, who had supported Sasak nobles and dominated parts of East Lombok and Sumbawa. Balinese culture was increasingly transplanted into Lombok in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but Hindu Balinese

presence intensified and unified opposition. The Dutch defeated the Balinese in 1894 and set up a new, very different colonial regime. Indonesia claimed its

independence in 1945, and Lombok, along with thousands of other islands, became part of the nationalist project.

Islam was frequently invoked as a force to unify resistance, first against the Balinese and later against the Dutch. The idiom of Islam was thus established as a rallying point of cultural identity, something particularly Sasak and neither Balinese nor Dutch. Consequently, when religious leaders later scrutinized Sasak cultural traits, such as the performing arts, those similar to Balinese practice often were banned. The forbidden forms were generally gamelans, particularly those that used bronze instruments. Few of these forms completely disappeared, and in fact, some elements of bronze gamelan playing were incorporated directly into the formation of the gamelan rebana, an ensemble of frame drums of dif-

fering sizes that preserves the cyclic phrase structures, layering, and the tonality of bronze gamelans in an acceptable ensemble-type.

Starting in the late nineteenth century and paralleling the easing of restric-

tions to Mecca and the rise of reformism, a unique position of religious teacher, tuan guru,5 arose in Lombok and continues today. Tuan gurus are men who go to Mecca and generally study at religious schools either there or in Egypt and return to become teachers and establish their own schools. Mosques may be built in




their honor as their spheres of influence grow. Due to the successive Balinese and Dutch colonizations and the resulting emasculation of the local nobility, tuan

gurus quickly filled a power vacuum within Sasak communities (Ecklund 1979, 252-53). These men have interpreted Islamic law for their communities and defined what activities were halal (permitted) and haram (forbidden).6 There have been hundreds of tuan gurus over the last century; many of these started to fill government ranks in the 1950s-60s and have continued to do so, particularly since the 1970s when political party affiliations were reconfigured. They often

posed a challenge to the national and provincial governments because followers would prefer to observe the tuan guru's teachings rather than any national policy. Consequently, the provincial government often adjusted national policies to find

agreement with tuan gurus and their communities. Officials and religious leaders have told me several rationales for the actions of

tuan gurus toward the performing arts. Many music traditions, including those used in "traditional" (i.e. pre-reformist) ceremonies, were often accompanied by the drinking of alcohol, an activity clearly haram. Gamelans, particularly bronze

gamelans, were generally associated with rituals honoring ancestral deities; one official mentioned that bronze represented to many "the voice of the ancestors." Thus, these music forms, as well as dances in which women are alluring or the sexes might meet, all became haram to most tuan gurus.

Bu Sri referred to this era, which lasted into the 1970s, as "jaman gelap" (liter- ally a dark or black time), in which the arts and artists were stifled or silenced. Under the national Pembinaan Kesenian policy, she was given the daunting task of trying to revitalize the performing and plastic arts contesting this narrow

religious interpretation and control. Fortunately, a few earlier programs had been carried out under previous Arts Section directors, and she was assisted by a very capable, qualified, and enthusiastic staff during her administration. This combination of positive factors in office culture was, I believe, rare in much of Indonesia at that time.

The Parties

Sometime in the nineteenth century, two separate Sasak religious groups ap- peared: the Waktu Telu ("Three Times"), the inheritors of the north and west Lombok syncretic Islam, and the Waktu Lima ("Five Times"), the descendants of the growing orthodox form of east and central Lombok.7 These socio-religious groups are distinguished by their religious orientation: the Waktu Telu are nomi-

nal or traditional Muslims and the Waktu Lima are, for the most part, reformed orthodox Sunni Muslims (Harnish 2006, 30); some Indonesian writers divide the respective Islamic beliefs as "local" and "universal" (see Budiwanti 2000, vi). The origin of these terms seems related to religious practice: the Waktu




Lima ideally accept the five tenets of Islam and pray five times a day, while the Waktu Telu generally follow three different kinds of rituals (life-cycle, Islamic, agricultural), honor a trinity (i.e. God, the ancestors, and parents), and in rituals follow sacred sets of three. Most within this group accept only the first of the five tenets of Islam (belief in Allah with Muhammad as His prophet). The terms "Waktu Telu" and "Waktu Lima" were officially abandoned in 1968. In the course of the twentieth century, most Waktu Telu converted to orthodox Islam

(see Leeman 1989, 46, and Harnish 2006, 34), and "Waktu Lima" in particular, became meaningless as Sasak came to simply call themselves "Muslim." Some

villages, however, retain Waktu Telu practices, including music and dance. Tuan gurus began establishing pesantren (religious schools) in the late nine-

teenth century and their popularity and political power climbed quickly. By the turn of the century, many were proscribing select forms of performing arts in their areas of influence as distractions and deviations from true Islam. These

figures, along with the later movements of modernism, Wahabism and religious political parties, such as Masjumi, sought to purify practice on the island. When Bu Sri became head of the Arts Section, she had decades of opposition to traditional performing arts to negotiate.

Hundreds of musicians were impacted by decisions of tuan gurus. The earlier

development of gamelan rebana was one step taken by musicians to maintain music while altering the ensemble vehicle. Over the years, I have met musicians and other performers who experienced harassment for their art; a few were even accused of being unbelievers (kafir). The Arts Section's support, while crucial to maintaining or even protecting certain styles and clubs, sometimes necessi- tated modifications. Depending upon the style and club involved, some of these

changes involved new masks, costumes, instruments, and language use (usually from Sasak to Indonesian to broaden the audience). Occasionally, clubs were

encouraged to tune their instruments better or to alter tuning to approximate the pelog and slendro systems of Java and Bali. Some clubs took it upon themselves to make their art appeal to a wider audience. For example, one youth organization at a mosque in Mataram added new choreography-including martial arts movements-to the devotional zikrzamman, a Sufi-related form of chant, breathing, and movement. This transformed a private brotherhood ritual into a public and presentational showcase. The government was happy to include it in staged contests.

Exploring Programs and Activities

Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia (1949-1965), created an atmosphere, that continues today, in which "local performing arts with roots going back

generations have been valued as cultural capital, not only for the particular




locale, but for the nation itself" (Sutton 1998, 3). He sought a cultural arts

policy to bring these forms to the fore and to modernize them for national

gain. While it is tempting to see this as a top-down imposition on peripheral cultures (Java and Bali had already cultivated appropriate modernized arts), it is important to note that these developments are organic, part of "an inherited

aspect of patronage,""formed by the traditional context within which the forms

exist," and thus not at all foreign (Lindsay 1995, 669, 657). During the Suharto administration (1967-98), these policies intensified. The arts, meant to represent the locale and empower the national under both presidents, were those that constituted the "peaks of regional culture" (Yampolsky 1995, 704-05). It was the job of the Arts Section to discover and cultivate appropriate Sasak arts to meet this mandate.8

Philip Yampolsky (1995) provides an excellent overview to the national policies, their often-conflicting philosophies, and the actions of the primary minis-

try involved-the Education and Culture Department (Depdikbud). He asserts that Depdikbud sought to upgrade forms to be "neat and orderly, disciplined, inoffensive, attractive or impressive to look at, pleasant to listen to." The policies favored the urban over the rural in crafting an "aesthetic of respectability" that featured "fancy costumes, elaborate production values, professionalism, variety in programming," and modern, well-tuned instruments (ibid., 712). Strategies undertaken throughout much of the country included registering performers, taking inventories, providing financial assistance to select groups, and staging revivals, festivals, and competitions while monitoring the contents. The thrust,

according to Yampolsky (ibid., 710), was to control the political content, control the moral content, and upgrade the artistic quality. Bu Sri had to negotiate and

adjust these strategies for the situation in Lombok.

My observation is that the success of arts policies on Lombok (and NTB

overall) depended upon the abilities of its Depdikbud staff, and that staff appears to have been uniquely well qualified. One of the teknis (technical) positions in the Arts Section was filled by Ida Wayan Pasha (Pak Pasha), a local Balinese of priestly descent (though with a Sasak mother) who many consider to be the foremost music specialist on Lombok. As a musician/composer and

dancer/choreographer with the Arts Section, Pak Pasha was sent to Sumbawa in the 1970s to menginventarisasikan (take an inventory of) the existing tari tarian tradisional (traditional dances). When he told his intention to officials on

Sumbawa, they all laughed and said "Tidak ada di sini" ("There aren't any [traditional dances] here"). Pak Pasha thought for a minute, and then responded, "Belum ada" ("There aren't any, yet"), and proceeded to ask how, for example, a woman might stand and make herself beautiful-the gestures and movements. After a few attempts with volunteers, officials began to add, elaborate, and then standardize the movements, and, finally, they had a dance that they could set to




"village" music. The new dance inspired others, and soon the notion of creating new dances, based on traditional movements and gestures, and re-establishing "traditional" and "folk" dances developed rapidly. In the context of Sumbawa,

many traditional performing arts had gone obsolete and had to be reinvented or newly contrived. Much of this new "traditional" culture was then re-absorbed and generated. It went uncontested by local political and religious leaders, and the performing arts have since assumed new coherence and have thrived. Pak Pasha says that this experience prepared him for the problems he was to face in Lombok.9

While music had its own set of problems, Bu Sri had to convince Sasak people that dancing could be acceptable behavior. For decades, dance had been subject to great scrutiny and had retreated except for within the few areas of Waktu Telu culture. She arranged several dances at official events and asked the wives of

"orang besar" ("big people," e.g. district leaders, all of them modern Muslims) to train and then to dance, often with her, in public. Within a short while, the

strategy worked. These performances allayed discomfort about the performing arts, and also, importantly, about women in performing arts. Many citizens then reassessed the arts and believed that they could be an appropriate medium for

education, culture, entertainment, and public intercourse. Bu Sri and Pak Pasha set up a Pusat Latihan Kesenian (PLK-Center for Arts Rehearsal), an organization that they both had noticed operating successfully outside NTB and one that could be utilized to develop and teach the performing arts. One of the first

jobs assumed by PLK was setting standards for evaluations at local schools. After

lobbying by the Arts Section, the Education sub-section of Depdikbud imposed a requirement for middle and high school students in the provincial capital of Mataram. To progress to the next grade, the student had to pass a test in one art. Many students needed opportunities to study, and schools needed a board to certify passing. PLK serviced these needs.'0

Teachers, composers, and choreographers were engaged to help establish performing groups at PLK. Pak Pasha and other notable artists, such as dancer and

choreographer Abdul Hamid, came on board, and teachers and students from the districts in Sumbawa studying at the University of Mataram joined to help spread their culture. Though many of these efforts were bearing fruit, Bu Sri

says that she started to notice that many of PLK's enthusiastic volunteers and

performers were named "Ketut," "Made," and so forth; in other words, that they were local Balinese. In fact, more than 50% of PLK members, who taught and

promoted Sasak arts, were Balinese. Though she never informed her superiors, this did not bother her. She did not consider restricting Sasak performing arts to only Sasak people or to Muslims; such a move would have been divisive and

perhaps devastating to her efforts. As more and more Sasak have become members since the 1980s, the percentage of Balinese has declined.




Another PLK project staged performances throughout the province, thus

introducing arts from one district into another and, sometimes, due to past prohibitions, reintroducing selected arts within a district. I accompanied PLK

groups to shows in all districts of Lombok (East, Central, West, and Mataram) in the early 1980s and was impressed at their professionalism. The crowds were

large, although not always attentive or appreciative. The tours, called Pekan

Apresiasi Kesenian (Week of Arts Appreciation), often included local artists in need of staging their own music and dance. Many villages upheld the direc- tions of tuan gurus, and these tours were Bu Sri's attempt to plant the seed of

participation in local and regional culture. She wanted to show that the arts had national and provincial approval and were not in conflict with Islam. The

performances, as educational cultural events, gave villagers a sense of district

identity at one level, a sense of an island-wide identity at another, and created a sense of both provincial and national identities in constructing levels of cultural definition. Bu Sri hoped these performances would foster pride in the arts and

pride in being citizens of NTB in modernizing Indonesia. These and other efforts-such as establishing PLK groups in each provincial district-gradually succeeded in increasing interest in the performing arts.

In 1989, I was asked to participate on a performing arts competition jury in the sub-district of Narmada in West Lombok. The event organizers were as- tounded to find that over 100 groups applied to perform; the same competition held in 1984 garnered about ten groups. The ten-fold increase in applicants was due to a number of circumstances. Two related agendas-long-term, consistent

government arts policies and arts secularization-were converging along with the emergence of a new generation of youth. Since 1989, arts interest has ex-

panded exponentially again. If that competition were to be held today (it has

discontinued), perhaps 300-500 groups would apply to perform.

Problems and Strategies for Music and Dance

One of the biggest hurdles facing officials in the 1970s and early 1980s was sim-

ply "What is Sasak music and dance?" Though it seems like a straightforward question, there was no clear consensus. The situation is historically blurred by Javanese migrants, who are recognized as "Sasak" in the second generation, and local Balinese converting to Islam and then immediately becoming "Sasak"; both of these groups then apply their own preferences and aesthetic choices into the mix of Sasak performing arts. The Arts Section had "dug up" several

forms throughout the island, but were they Sasak forms? Or, were they Balinese ones that had been transferred to or appropriated by Sasak?

Many believed that if a form was considered local or had Javanese antecedents, then it was fine. However, it should not have Balinese roots; such forms must be




discouraged. In 1983, Drs. Arzaki, a local culture expert, articulated to me that Sasak dances should never include arm movements that rise above the head.

"Ini Bali" ("This is Balinese"), he said, not Sasak, which is more "seperti Java" ("like Javanese")." Bu Sri and most of her staff had heard similar arguments from independent cultural specialists and did not agree with them, but the is- sue frequently found its way into government-sponsored seminars on the arts, where speakers intoned that, for Sasak music to be cultivated and disseminated, it needs to be like Javanese music. At one seminar on tourism and the arts in the late 1980s, Bali and its phenomenal tourist programs were ignored as models for Lombok officials to follow. Only Pak Pasha said anything about Bali; all others limited their examples to Java, especially Central Java, in drawing a local course of action.

These words demonstrated the antagonism that many felt toward Balinese

culture, which often overshadowed Sasak culture until the New Order government of 1967. The fact that the Balinese were former colonizers and Hindu made the sentiment stronger, and the phrase often coined within Lombok-"Yang penting Islam" ("What's important is Islam")-links Sasak and Javanese into a shared religious community and omits Balinese. Whenever dignitaries vis- ited Lombok prior to 1967, it was usually Pak Pasha and/or the famous dancer

originally from Bali, Ni Made Darmi (Bu Darmi), who were called to perform and represent the island (see Harnish 2005). As a favorite dancer of the first

president, Sukarno (who was half-Balinese), Bu Darmi's name carried recogni- tion in many parts of the country, and the regional government, likely worried about the influence of tuan gurus over Sasak arts, instead would feature Lombok's most famous performing artist, who happened to be Balinese. Many Sasak were displeased with the privileged treatment of Balinese arts and artists. After Sukarno was removed from office in 1965, and his name slightly smeared to legitimize the New Order government, Bu Darmi and the Balinese would no

longer represent Lombok; instead, Sasak arts would now signify Lombok and NTB. Although some debates still rage, Bu Sri, through her decisions, helped answer the questions about Sasak music and dance, and few currently argue about the legitimacy of Sasak arts vis-a-vis Balinese ones. These arguments, along with those questioning the role of music in a modernizing, Islamic Sasak

society, have quieted over the years. In following Sukarno's idea, Bu Sri wanted to focus on the oldest, most tra-

ditional arts on the island but discovered that some of these had limited aesthetic appeal and could not be "cultivated."'12 She thus modified her stance. Her

decision in the early 1980s was first to support those that "stuck out" (tonjol), including gendang beleq, rudat, and gandrung.13 These three were the forms usu-

ally selected for use in tourism as well; in the 1980s, the PLK group organized these styles and frequently performed them at tourist hotels. Gendang beleq (lit.




big drum) is a gamelan of two (or four) large drums, many hand-held cymbals, one or two time-keeping gongs, and one or more hanging gongs. The musicians often process and/or dance while performing; this style has been popularized throughout the island and is discussed further in this article. Rudat is a song- dance extracted from the theater komidi-rudat and stories derived from 1,001

Nights featuring Arab or Persian soldiers. The soldiers sing in Indonesian and Arabic, with instrumentation including a plucked chordophone played horizon-

tally (mandolin or penting), tambourines (tar), and a large time-keeping drum

(jidur). Gandrung is a social dance featuring a female dancer/singer who selects dance partners from the audience in turn. At social events or for guests or tour-

ists, it serves to dissolve the distance between performer and audience and is a crowd favorite. Music is supplied by a large ensemble, the gamelan gong Sasak, which is primarily modeled upon the Balinese gamelan gong kebyar. I believe that Bu Sri's open support of gandrung made a statement. It features a dancing female interacting with males and is accompanied by a bronze gamelan; both are elements that have, in the past, been decreed as haram by some tuan gurus. Besides PLK troupes, outside clubs were also contracted for tourism and offered consultations with government specialists and/or competitive grant monies for instrument purchase/repair or new costumes.

Each Arts Section project had a "PO" and a "DIP." The Petunjuk Operasional (PO, operational goals) consisted of monies and records of projects, such as honoraria, transportation costs, and other items and expenses to record; the

Daftar Isian Proyek (DIP, project content list) included notes on the art and

performers. Arts "packages" were organized for the staged performances. These would combine a number of forms-for example, gendang beleq, rudat, and

gandrung--and sometimes several clubs into one show. The paket budaya (cultural package) presented these types of "traditional" performing arts; the paket religi (religious package) mostly presented pan-Islamic styles such as zikrzamman. Paket budaya shows were far more frequent. As stated earlier, Bu Sri was

primarily interested in preserving and upgrading older traditional arts and those almost obsolete for local identity concerns. She, along with most in her office, however, also hoped to make performing arts atraksi budaya (cultural attrac-

tions) to promote the province. In either case, "updating" and "cultivating" were deemed necessary for both paket budaya and paket religi.

Wayang Sasak, the Sasak shadowplay, was another declining form selected for "upgraded" modernization. Inspired centuries ago, the form was used to

popularize Islam,'4 but, since the rise of reformism, it was often forbidden on the grounds that it depicts human forms, fosters belief in ancestors and magic, and maintains pre-Islamic elements (see Harnish 2003). Bu Sri and her staff (as well as local intellectuals) favored wayang Sasak for its multiple lan-

guage structure and overall aesthetic development and felt compelled to help




re-popularize, promote, and preserve the form. Two performance styles-one, the "classic," long (6-8 hour) form emphasizing story and philosophy, and the

other, a "modern," more popular and commoditized style developed in the 1970s that emphasized comedy and vernacular language and often promoted com- mercial interests-competed for audiences (Ecklund 2003, 211). In honoring "tradition," Bu Sri preferred the classic style and arranged for seminars and decontextualized shows where musicians and a dalang (puppeteer) would perform on a stage in a modern government building using an electric light (rather than an oil lamp) and disconnected from any local event. Few people were attracted to these shows, and they were considered failures.'" However, Bu Sri and her staff

persevered and produced a substantial publication (Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan 1993) based on extensive research. Bu Sri thinks of this as a capstone legacy, as an authoritative reference for the future, and is proud of this book.16

By the mid 1980s, Bu Sri expanded arts programming and instituted the Bu-

lan Apresiasi Budaya (Culture Appreciation Month), a month-long celebration and competition of the arts (also including seminars on culture and language) that engaged entries from all over the island and later, from all over the province. Until the mid-1990s, this gave a new profile to many styles and to many clubs and paralleled tremendous growth in tourism and scholarly interest. Several

clubs, guided by government cultural officials, were taken to perform in the national capital of Jakarta.'7 In the late 1980s, the Arts Section organized a

bewildering number of clubs in styles ranging from Waktu Telu forms to pan- Islamic ones. These were processed through the provincial capital, Mataram, in honor of all major holidays; performers dressed in their most colorful costumes and enacted "traditional ceremonies," which, in this context, were es-

sentially co-opted and reconstituted as display and entertainment. The diverse arts were paraded past thousands of bystanders (local, regional, national, and

international) for national and regional celebrations (e.g. Independence Day, NTB celebration day). The arts of NTB (particularly of the Sasak) attained new

focus, and more people and communities were soon willing and enthusiastic to

participate. As officials were inviting foreign diplomats and business personnel, the arts were promoting the province and entertaining large audiences. Music and dance were generating and selling modernized and sanitized local, provincial, and national culture.

By the mid-1990s, however, insufficient monies were available to maintain some of these programs. Although still used to infuse cultural identity, the

month-long Bulan Apresiasi Budaya once again became the week-long Pekan

Apresiasi Budaya (though "Budaya" [culture] replaced the former "Kesenian" [arts] in the title). In the late 1990s, after Bu Sri retired and following the onset of a severe recession, several other projects were discontinued. It was shortly afterward that the government reconfiguration occurred, which repositioned




the Arts Section and the ministry of Education and Culture. "Arts" is now a sub-section of the ministry of Culture and Tourism and has a smaller budget. The office still organizes some competitions, occasionally sends victorious clubs to Jakarta, and is responsible for the Pekan Apresiasi Budaya. Officials are finally looking at Balinese models-in this case the month-long Bali Arts Festival-for the Pekan Apresiasi Budaya, and hope to invite clubs from other provinces and,

perhaps, even from other countries to Lombok to help expand the island and

province as an arts center.

During the final years of Bu Sri's tenure, the Arts Section conducted an ambi- tious project on Lombok's southern coast at the traditional Bau Nyale (Catch Sea-worm) festival. This is a ritualized courting affair derived from a local

myth that features a beautiful princess, Mandalika, who cannot choose a noble suitor and so throws herself into the sea and is transformed into sea-worms (see Ecklund 1977, 107-110). The annual event attracts tens of thousands of Sasak to southern and eastern beaches to catch nyale sea-worms, and hundreds of

young people engage in spontaneous ritualized singing to display themselves to the opposite sex. A team consisting of theatre specialist Max Arifin (writer and director Pak Max) and dance specialists Bu Endah, Pak Hamid, and Luh Ekasari was organized to create a dance drama of the legend, titled Drama Tari Manda- lika, for performance by PLK and local artists during the ritual. The intention was to broaden the appeal of the event and attract Indonesian and foreign tourists. For these reasons, the text and songs used Indonesian extensively, and Bu Endah designed new dance vocabulary fusing Javanese and Sasak movements to

distinguish characters and gender, an element absent in Sasak dance. However, the ritual participants were confused with this theatrical addition in the event and may have interpreted it as an imposition, and the production inadvertently led to lower local attendance. In this case, the attempt at modernizing the festi-

val-modifying it with a dynamic arts spectacle to help Indonesianize the event and further regional and national goals-was unsuccessful and the dance drama was discontinued after several years.

Detraditionalization

Detraditionalization (see Heelas, Lash, and Morris 1996), similar to decontex-

tualization, is the process of unfixing a "tradition" from its context and inherent

meanings and repositioning these for other ends. In Lombok, this can be seen also as a process of secularization or desacralization, as a number of music styles and ensembles have been removed from contexts with deep spiritual significance and staged in non-religious government-sponsored presentations to further state and national projects. Lindsay refers to this trend in Southeast Asia as the "from ritual to spectacle" transition (1995, 656 n.2), and Acciaioli (1985)




describes such Indonesian national efforts as "contrived" spectacles, where re-

gional diversity is honored but only at the level of display. Such projects engage the regional but empower the national and take on a host of new meanings. In Lombok, rudatis an example. This is a commodified song-dance extracted from a long, romantic village theatre form that connects specific places with early Islam. It presents clean, honorable, and well-dressed soldiers working together in dance and martial arts while singing happy and uplifting songs in Indonesian and Arabic in service to their king (or prince, the hero) and religion. Once removed from the theatre form, the story disappeared, the movements and singing were elaborated and made more precise, the dress and music became snappier, the cooperative Sasak unit became clearer and better packaged, and the larger associations (romance and early Islam in non-Indonesian settings) dissolved. Rudat is now a colorful, short, and rather shallow spectacle lacking in cultural

specificity. For at least a few other Sasak forms, including gendang beleq and perhaps gandrung, detraditionalization was necessary to continue the art, because a

growing number of prohibitions were in place, interest had declined, and their eventual demise seemed certain.

Detraditionalization was an unstated government goal for many arts. Poli- cies required taking inventories and then "upgrading" and "cultivating" se-

lected, appropriate forms. Modifications ensured that the new music sounds

(tonality and music elements) and appearance (particularly of dancers, their costumes, and movements) would achieve an Indonesian standard that could

represent Sasak culture, mold local and regional identities, and further nation- alization. It did not matter and, in fact, was necessary that the presented music and dance form was distinct from earlier forms and discarded local meanings and associations. For several arts, the meanings changed from transformational

(initiating a religious or customary rite, or altering notions of time or space) to aesthetic, becoming models of constructed identity for staging at local, re-

gional, and national events. Bu Sri stated that her own bias was to prepare NTB residents for globalization and for the encounter with Western values,

peoples, and imagery through tourism and technology (television, music, and film industries); if unprepared, the Sasak could forget who they were and imi- tate Western ideas that might be inappropriate for the customs and Islam of Lombok. The performing arts, she believed, were the best way to inculcate values and identities that were local, regional, and national; the arts would act as a bulwark to retain identity and encourage Sasak youth to become good, modern Indonesian citizens.

The Arts Section, armed with government grants and directives, set in motion the detraditionalization of several forms and established a number of venues

(such as Pekan Apresiasi Kesenian/Budaya and Bulan Apresiasi Budaya) to stage and re-present these "traditional" arts to citizens in Lombok and Sumbawa.




Many of these venues were contests, and winners were awarded with consultations with and "improvements" by government specialists, grant monies for new accessories (instruments or costumes), and occasionally with trips to Jakarta for national exposure.'8

Although tourism development was not a primary task for the Arts Section, officials often worked with regional tourism offices and independent businesses to institute special touristic programs. To the national government, tourism made a locale a daerah tujuan wisata (tourist destination area) and was another path to promote and develop the Indonesian "national culture" (Hutajulu 1995, 640); thus, tourism and Arts Section goals often overlapped. The industry in Lombok, operating particularly at five-star beach hotels, sought to develop colorful and exotic local culture and had a particular interest in the Arts Sec- tion projects. Over the years, PLK groups frequently performed at these hotels, though other troupes participating in government-sponsored projects were also

contracted, as were a few independent clubs. The compensation has provided clubs with sufficient income to keep forms in circulation, to make innovations when needed, and to maintain a standard of quality.19

Other government offices had money for their own agendas. For instance, Gde Mandia, the director of the provincial government Taman Budaya (Cul- ture Center, often the site of the Pekan Apresiasi Budaya), established contests in forms that were "nearly dead" (hampir punah), such as tembang Sasak (Sasak literary song), which since has grown into an annual institution. Though Bali- nese, Pak Mandia said that he felt obligated to help Sasak remember their history and culture and was proud that many clubs now organize to perform tembang Sasak. In addition, the Department of Religion (Departemen Agama) initiated at least three music-related contests. One, Lomba Takbiran (Takbiran contest), involves men chanting "Allah Akbar" over and over again; another, Lomba Baca Al Qur'an (Qur'anic reading contest), highlights groups who aesthetically recite the Qur'an; and the third, Lomba Bedhug (bedhug contest), features the bedhug barrel drum struck over and over again vigorously. The Lomba Takbiran and Lomba Bedhug, both developed in the 1990s, are generally held on Idul Fitri (Eid el-Fitr), the feast celebration following Ramadan. Though not detraditionalized, these are all further examples of performance traditions removed from specific contexts and aestheticized for public display.

Reinventing Gendang Beleq

Gendang beleq was a form that the Arts Section, the Tourism Office, and tourist

organizations wanted to develop. The problem was that it was a bronze gamelan and, in its traditional context, it was performed for Waktu Telu agricultural and life-cycle rites. Thus, there were potential problems with religious leaders. The




strategy, similar to other projects, was to remove the gamelan from its context and aestheticize its sound and appearance. The first efforts were in the 1970s and

early 1980s, when performances were staged for Indonesian dignitaries visiting the island. A few clubs had opportunities to perform in Java and Bali at that time.

New efforts were initiated in the late 1980s and early 1990s when officials

arranged a number of public performances and encouraged engagement with hotels. The government, through the Arts Section, also provided seed money to help selected clubs get started, buy instruments, and find teachers. As the at-

tempt to forge a cognitive separation between the music as part of the Waktu Telu sphere and as a decontextualized Sasak cultural activity was succeeding, the numbers of gendang beleq clubs began to grow rapidly. Thus disassociated from its original setting, tuan gurus and other religious leaders, many of whom now worked within the government and were supportive of its policies, had little reason to oppose gendang beleq or other detraditionalized Sasak arts.

Following the lead of the Arts Section, other government and regional leaders felt that membership in gamelan gendang beleq would, in fact, be good for the male youth of the island. Like Bu Sri, many were worried that the new generation could be lost to westernization and changing values, and wanted spectacular arts that could engage the youth, mold regional identity, further nationalism, and represent Lombok at all levels. Gendang beleq then became the "official" music/dance of Lombok, expressing a modernized and nationalized Sasak eth-

nicity. Competitions and presentations were set up throughout the island, the ensemble returned to announce weddings even in strongly Muslim areas, and, by 2001, the total number of active clubs exceeded 500 (Harnish 2006, 202). Tuan

gurus tolerated and even encouraged participation to keep youth involved with

village, regional, and national life. While the gendang beleq now represented a modernized Sasak sound and ethnicity, much of its reinvention was ironically patterned after the processional Balinese gamelan beleganjur and particularly the style known in Bali as kreasi beleganjur. This style, crafted in 1986 to keep Balinese male youth participating in arts culture, modernized and elaborated on the traditional music, added intricate choreography, organized youth for a common goal, and decontextualized the music for numerous staged contests that displayed and abstracted ahistorical culture and furthered nationalism and state agendas (see Bakan 1999).

In the effort to aestheticize gendang beleq music and its presentation, officials observed performances around the island and then made suggestions for

change.20 Before the mid 1980s, a typical ensemble consisted of two large drums, one large hanging gong, four kettle-gongs (two kettle-gongs in two beakers played in interlocking parts), a time-keeping gong, and four or more sets of hand-held cymbals (struck in interlocking parts). At first, most suggestions




involved tuning the kettle-gongs, adding an amplified suling (bamboo flute, used by some but not all clubs at the time), acquiring a more resonant gong or a second gong, and so forth. In the 1990s, near the time of Bu Sri's retirement, clubs were encouraged to increase the numbers of kettle-gongs and cymbals and to recruit younger members. Today, it's not uncommon to find a club with four

large drums, two gongs, twelve kettle-gongs, and 16-18 sets of cymbals, tripling the size of the earlier ensemble. With support, communities around Lombok since the mid 1990s have established hundreds of clubs consisting entirely of

boys and young men from ages 8-20. Though not Islamic, it is considered purely Sasak and performed at official religious events, such as the celebrations on Lebaran Topat (held one week after Idul Fitri). Frequently, gendang beleq is also

performed (by Sasak) at major Balinese temple festivals, such as those at Pura Suranadi and Pura Lingsar, and has been accepted island-wide by all constitu- ent groups.

The earlier presentation format featured the two drummers dramatically con-

fronting and dancing before one another, and then moving to different spots of the performance space before returning to confront one another again. The other musicians moved slightly to and fro with their hips but mostly just stood and played. Officials felt that the dance clearly needed upgrading, as this would no longer be spectacular or exciting enough for the national stage, local display, or touristic shows.

Specialists turned to the cymbal players (now up to 18 strong) for new movement and had them perform synchronized gestures and syncopations and form snaking lines to weave in and out through the performance space, as well as stand in place for a time. The now four drummers would generally not confront one another, but would move back and forth together and emphasize accents and interlocking parts with gusto.21 On occasion, clubs featured dancers without instruments (including girls; often one girl and one boy) to dance forward and backwards while the musicians were in procession. By the new

century, both the music and the choreography had become very complicated. As with the kreasi beleganjur phenomenon in Bali, winning clubs at contests were those with the most colorful and spectacular elements, and those that

performed with the greatest precision. Also as in Bali, a number of rivalries

developed. Government officials, such as Bu Endah, Pak Hamid and Komang Kantun

(Pak Kantun, a local Balinese respected in Balinese and Sasak arts) were often contacted for new choreography and some of these officials had long-term commitments with particular clubs. I once accompanied Bu Endah to one of her sessions with the club Dende Seleh (Beautiful Princess) in the sub-district of Narmada in West Lombok to see her authority at work. After an initial run- through in preparation for a show at a hotel, she had them rehearse several




Figure 1: The gendang beleq club in Narmada, Dende Seleh, rehearses for Bu Endah, 2001. On the ground to the right are

the beakers with carved white faces for the kettle-gongs.

more times and then spoke to the club at length about their discipline and presentation. Being Javanese, Bu Endah was sensitive to the hip movements that the cymbal players were executing while standing in adjacent lines (a typical configuration for part of every performance), because in Java these are female movements. At the rehearsal, she told the club repeatedly that they must change those movements. Several takes later, she seemed satisfied that the male cymbal players would not execute the gerakan cewek (female side-to-side hip motions).22

(I attended the club's performance a few weeks later, however, to find that they had returned to the hip movements.)

Discussions and Conclusions

There can be no question about the success of the Arts Section's policies. Lombok needed arts on an Indonesian standard, a Java and Bali standard, and Bu Sri and others "dug" and "upgraded" appropriate forms. These forms would show a modernized, nationalized Sasak culture to local, provincial, national, and international audiences. Choreography would at least imply a gender and




Figure 2: The Dende Seleh cymbal players try not to swivel their hips in rehearsal, 2001.

class distinction; masks, if used, would indicate distinct personality type; tuning would approximate pelog or slendro, or, as in the case of rudat, a pan-Islamic diatonicism; precise musical elements would show sophistication (and often, Balinese flavor); language use would generally change from Sasak to Indonesian; costumes would be colorful and uniform; and presentations would be shorter, well-rehearsed and as spectacular overall as possible. These arts were not meant to enculturate or educate; they were meant to entertain, mediate, and defuse so- cietal tensions and engage citizens with a sanitized, ahistorical cultural ethnicity. It is important to note that other cultural processes were at work to assist these

developments. Tuan gurus and hajis (those who have completed the pilgrimage) went from opposing the government and all traditional arts to entering offices and furthering the detraditionalization and promotion of select arts. This trans- formation had a dramatic impact. Gendang beleq, in particular, was sanctioned

by many forces in and outside of the government and struck a powerful chord with communities, youth, and families.

I believe that a few of the arts mentioned in this article would not exist

today if not for the intervention of the government and for the decisions of




Figure 3: The young gendang beleq club from Montor

plays at the Lingsar Festival, 2001. The cymbal players have

momentarily dropped their cymbals and picked up fans.

far-sighted leaders like Bu Sri. By her choices, Bu Sri sought to privilege older, traditional Sasak forms of high quality that could strengthen the morals found within Pancasila, the unifying and founding principles of the nation crafted

by President Sukarno in 1945. Styles not meeting these standards were largely ignored. She organized teams to observe a variety of forms across Lombok, and then established contests to determine quality. Bu Sri selected those forms that "stuck out"-gendang beleq, rudat, and gandrung-for cultivation. After she co-founded PLK with Pak Pasha, that club synthesized these styles to perform for tourists and dignitaries; following an "upgrading," other clubs also had these

performance opportunities. I think that embedded within Bu Sri's thinking was a Javanese/Indonesian notion that the performing arts create good citizens and a good society, and, that without them, chaos might reign.23 In this understand-

ing, music and dance are repositories of cultural identity that can be shaped to become exponents of national and provincial values, and they can preserve identity in the face of westernization and globalization.

The phenomenon of detraditionalizing and transforming arts into spectacles is not at all restricted to Lombok. Sutton (2002), Hutajulu (1995), Acciaioli




(1985), and Aragon (1996), among others, mention similar developments in other Indonesian areas. Some of these were intended to craft spectacles for tourist consumption, others to retain local ethnicity, some to unify or represent dis-

parate ethnic groups, and most to nationalize ethnicities. The efforts in Lombok

targeted and met most of these goals. Underlying many projects throughout Indonesia was redesigning the art form for external consumption, meeting an outside aesthetic standard (Yampolsky 1995, 714), and dislodging music from local meaning and custom while undercutting local loyalties. Foulcher (1990, 302) even suggests that by incorporating forms into the Depdikbud aesthetic, "tradition" and "the region" are effectively disempowered.

Bu Sri's efforts (and those of Pak Pasha, Bu Endah, Pak Kantun, Pak Max, and Pak Mandia) resulted in cognitively separating music from the web of traditional belief and ritual association and asceticizing that music for public, contest culture. When I asked her about artistic changes, she denied that she directly caused

modification, and admitted only to purchasing new costumes, selecting appropriate clubs, and "cultivating" certain styles. Her staff and the officials after she

retired, however, encouraged more direct changes, and the entire process detraditionalized several forms. Bu Sri also labored to reintroduce women into music and dance; women had been discouraged, and, if involved, were ascribed a low social standing. After dancing in public along with "big people," Bu Sri succeeded in overturning this stigma.24 Whether or not some of these efforts undercut local

meanings or disempowered the region, her actions led to increased participation and the renaissance or reinvention of several forms. Since the changes resulted in shortened, attractive, and more colorful and spectacular performances, the Arts Section policies greatly benefited the tourist industry.25

These projects are not without local critics. Lalu Ged6 Suparman, a district- level culture officer, suggested that few officials really understood the arts that

they were inventorying and upgrading. He also felt that tourism was a poor reason for clubs to form. These developments, to him, were not necessarily"progress." I have heard some other complaints, generally about the use of Balinese or Balinese-like elements in upgraded versions of music and dance, and there are still some religious leaders who disavow even the detraditionalized arts while

permitting only pan-Islamic forms. But, overwhelmingly, Sasak have come to

appreciate and seek involvement with music and dance, and most forces on the island have joined together to endorse the arts to construct ethnicity, modernize and nationalize youth, preserve identity, and promote the province to both tourists and other Indonesians.

Bu Sri and her staff definitely deserve credit for some of these developments, but timing also played a key role. What appears to have been important for post-Independent Lombok was distinguishing itself from Bali and encouraging all Sasak to follow Islamic law (syariah). This meant prohibiting Waktu Telu




ritual and music and other forms with Balinese-like elements; these efforts, initiated in the nineteenth century when Islam represented opposition, intensified in the 1950s, when Islamic organizations and political parties formed, and

strengthened again following civil strife in the mid 1960s. As tuan gurus and

hajis entered the government in larger numbers in the 1970s, thus reorienting Islam from oppositional stance to central power, and the New Order arts policies were initiated, the attitude toward traditional arts slowly began to change. When Bu Sri's programs commenced in the 1980s, and the arts began the process of

detraditionalization, the stage was set for decreased resistance. Soon, religious leaders, whose presence again increased in government, were endorsing music and dance activity. Music is now largely uncontested. The Arts and Tourist offices (at the provincial, district, and village levels), along with religious and civic

organizations and the tourist industry, have banded together to construct Sasak music culture for their own overlapping interests. In 2001-2002, there were so

many contests and presentations, sponsored by so many different parties, that I could not attend many and did not even know about many others!

The Arts Section successfully negotiated the national government policies in accordance with regional situations and with a well-qualified staff. Though compromises were made and the outcome was never certain, Bu Sri's primary reasons for arts development-to prepare Sasak mentality and preserve identity in the face of globalization and Western values-have been achieved. Below the surface, these outcomes realigning traditional culture and identity with the national have been mediated by the unique history of Lombok. Bu Sri's decisions, and those of her staff, were made with an awareness of the explicit local conditions: the problematic relations with religion and religious leaders, the historical

positions of the Balinese, the values and locations of specific arts, and so forth. These parties, through agency, crafted policies that have impacted hundreds of

musicians, shaped touristic presentation, and negotiated the dialectic of national and local forces in defining Sasak performing arts in contemporary Indonesia.

Bowling Green State University

Notes II have conducted occasional research in Lombok on these issues for twenty years.

I want to thank the many who have helped me: Hj. Sri Yaningsih, Ida Wayan Pasha, Nengah Kayun, Max Arifin, Endah Setyorini, Komang Kantun, Lalu Ged6 Suparman, Abdul Hamid, Darma Setiawan, Drs. Arzaki, Rahil, Gde Mandia, Wayan Kartawirya, Made Darmi, Lalu Wiramaja, H. Lalu Wacana, H. Lalu Wiramaja, and Martinom.

2 This practice combined mysticism and veneration of saints and ancestors, thus fusing some notions of Sufism with local beliefs. Early Islamic leaders in the country were Sufis, and the legendary early proselytizers (including the Wali Songo or nine saints)




used the performing arts and their enculturative powers to popularize Islam. The syncretic north and west Lombok religious practice, however, did not implement syariah (Islamic law/requirements) and should not be conflated with "Sufism" (which encourages syariah and would exclude local beliefs) but rather understood as a form of Islam based on a Sufi model that was assimilated into a pre-existing, heterodox framework. Sufism has had a role in the development of Islam across Indonesia, particularly at religious schools (pesantren) (Howell 2001, 701). In Lombok and elsewhere, Sufi rituals, though occasionally challenged, have attained a large following among modernist Muslims in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (see Clegg 2004, 177).

3 History is poorly recorded and frequently debated in Lombok. A diversity of scholars both local, Javanese, and international have tried to write definitive histories-often

citing early treatises from the archipelago and early accounts by European and Chinese traders-but there remains little consensus on fine details.

4 Records show that the Balinese Gelgel Kingdom "controlled" West (and theoretically all of) Lombok in the sixteenth century (Vickers 1990, 41), but any rule would have been

very indirect.

5 According to some treatises, the term "tuan guru" was used in the sixteenth century for leaders continuing Islamic teachings from the original Javanese teachers (see Wacana

1992, 42). A cult of tuan guru figures, however, developed in the nineteenth century and

expanded in the twentieth century. Other Indonesian cultures call related figures ulama

(scholar-teacher). 6 It's important to note that these Arabic terms, among others referring to modernist

Islamic practice, were not in common circulation in Lombok until the 1970s.

7 Though such divisions already existed, local scholars believe that this was when these terms were coined. Some hold that the Dutch developed the terms to foment ethnic divisions and make each group easier to control.

8 Unlike Bali and most other provinces, there are no arts academies in Nusa Tenggara Barat. Since few civic organizations service the arts, the Arts Section was working with little assistance from any arts communities.

9 Pak Pasha has been a major organizer in Lombok, and he disagreed with the federal credo that Sasak "village arts" could become "national arts." If nationalized, he said, they would no longer make sense to villagers. He agreed, though, that they could be acknowl-

edged as "village arts in Indonesia." In addition to traditional music and new works in Sasak and Balinese styles, Pak Pasha developed clubs to recite the early Islamic hikayat scripts and others to perform the modern Islamic qasidah rebana ensemble. Balinese friends at that point asked him if he had "become Muslim"; he responded that he did it for "art." He has sometimes been criticized by Hindus (for promoting Islam) and Muslims

(for corrupting Islam or Sasak arts with his influence) for his efforts. 10 In 2002, Pak Pasha related that the PLK in West Lombok disbanded in the late

1990s.

11 Culture specialist and official Lalu Ged` Suparman made similar comments about music in interviews over twenty years. He claimed that most Sasak gamelans-the vast

majority of which have Balinese instrument names-feature Balinese-influenced music; he wondered about the original Sasak sound. He also asserted that well-respected




Balinese specialists, such as Pak Pasha, continue to infuse Sasak music with Balinese sensibilities.

12 Later, she revisited some of these forms and invited performers to the Pawd Pem-

bangungan ("Development" processions for all holidays) without modifications. One of

these, the sacred gamelan Maulid from the Waktu Telu stronghold of Bayan, combines rice trough pounding with a small bronze gamelan, traditionally performed only for

Maulid (Muhammad's birthday). Sasak audiences were amazed to know that this music existed in Lombok. Such a decontexualized performance no doubt helped desacralize the form for future, secular events.

13 Bu Sri coined the term "keunikan" (uniqueness) as a goal for her search; Pak Pasha

preferred the term "khas" (original, ethnically Sasak), though he felt that two of these forms have Balinese connections.

14 Great epics, featuring moral and supernatural heroes, were familiar from Hinduism.

Early evangelists throughout Indonesia dramatized Islamic counterparts with similar entertainment and didactic elements to help the spread and acceptance of the new reli-

gion (Riddell 2001, 102-03).

15 This was not the first time the government had involved itself with wayang Sasak. In the 1970s, there were exhibitions and conferences in an effort to promote wayang and

"upgrade" puppeteers who were enlisted to educate audiences and impart government information and national ideology (Ecklund 2003, 214).

16 Her office published other research, including music and dance encyclopedias and

monographs on particular forms, such as rudat and zikrzamman. Teams also explored a few regional festivals and produced at least one video dramatization of a local festival

myth. 17 Max Arifin (Pak Max) worked on many projects. He and Pak Pasha were given the

task of updating a theatre form, Amaq Abir, and sending a troupe to perform in Jakarta. A man of mixed heritage from Sumbawa, Pak Max thought the performers should speak and sing in Indonesian, rather than in Sasak, to modernize the form for a larger audience.

Just before the show in Jakarta, the performers didn't feel comfortable with the language switch, and Pak Pasha permitted them to use Sasak. The show was a success, though Pak

Pasha sometimes had to translate between scenes. With his forthright character, theatre

expertise, and NTB credentials, Pak Max was an asset to the Arts Section. Culture officials Pak Pasha and Lalu Gede Suparman, who both took troupes to

Jakarta, reported that the Sasak musicians were nervous and felt lost in the nation's

capital. Pak Suparman mentioned that some simply could not find the strength to go and replacements had to be found. Several were uncertain if their music and dance

measured up to those of other regions, such as Java and Bali. Sutton (1995, 672) states that musicians on one tour from South Sulawesi confided to him their embarrassment about their arts.

Troupes from Lombok sometimes perform in Jakarta several times a year, often at Ta-

man Mini Indonesia Indah (Beautiful Indonesia Miniature Park), the venue established

by Suharto's wife, Tien, that welcomes and celebrates nationalized, sanitized performing arts from throughout Indonesia. In addition to isolated opportunities to perform at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, or elsewhere in the city (such as the well-known Hotel




Mutiara), Pak Pasha mentioned several festivals-Festival Kesenian Nasional (Festival of National Arts), Festival Kesenian Tradisional (Festival of Traditional Arts), and Festival Kesenian Kontemporer (Festival of Contemporary Arts)-that have involved Sasak clubs.

Wayang Sasak has also been performed nationally and internationally by the best known Sasak puppeteer, H. Lalu Nasib.

18 At one event in 1983 in which the "winner" was sent to Jakarta, most of the Arts Sec- tion staff and myself felt that the "winner" should have been an ensemble called "gamelan preret." The musicians were highly enthusiastic and skilled, and the preret (wooden oboe)

player had tremendous control over his instrument. The "winner," however, was a troupe from East Lombok that performed a pastiche of various music styles and featured smil-

ing dancers combining several forms and one carrying an impressively huge, central

(mountain/forest) puppet from the shadow puppet theatre. The jury apparently felt this mixed and colorful performance was the best to represent NTB in the nation's capital. To the staff, appearance won out over ability, and I had the feeling that they had experienced similar situations and frustrations before.

19 There is no set fee for groups; these must be negotiated. Some clubs have long-term contracts with hotels, and a few of these can perform both Sasak and Balinese forms.

20 I attended a few of these trips. While they were searching for dazzling elements that could be spread throughout the island, the officials, largely musicians themselves,

appreciated the village styles but recognized the lack of promotional potential. I believe that some officials were conflicted about scrutinizing and upgrading local, traditional

styles for aestheticized display. In a similar case, Sutton (1995, 689) found that specialists comparing village and staged performances in South Sulawesi concluded that the staged spectacles were contrived and lacked spirit.

21 Some former Arts Section officials, such as Pak Pasha and Pak Kantun, were disap- pointed to know that the cymbals players were recruited for new movements over the drummers, who had always been the dancers.

22 While it could be seen that Bu Endah was imposing her Javanese sensibilities onto these boys, she had lived in Lombok for years, was trained in both Javanese and Sasak

styles, and felt that it was her mission to help establish specific gender-associated movements as part of cultivating and upgrading the arts.

23 1 was reminded of this while watching the video, Gamelan Music ofJava (East West

Center, 1983), in which Pak Hardja Susilo comments that his teachers believed that playing gamelan made students better human beings and better members of society, and that these were the larger goals of arts activities.

24 Bu Endah told me that women have "progressed" more quickly into the arts in Sum- bawa than in Lombok, where women could occasionally be accepted as singers or dancers but not instrumentalists. Other officials concurred that the districts in Sumbawa are more

progressive and better organized and energized. In Islamifying, Sumbawa discarded most traditional music and dance, but these have been reinvented with a nationalistic, display- oriented flavor and are flourishing with little opposition from any sector.

25 Yampolsky (1995, 716) reminds us that although the interests might have over-

lapped, the aims of the tourist industry and Depdikbud differed. Tourist establishments, such as hotels, cared little about retaining traditional values or preserving identity.




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Documents

Harnish Digging and Uppgrading