Thursday, March 8, 2012 | By: Erwin Hadi Wijaya

Sasando (Traditional Musical From Indonesia)

Sasando is a harp-like traditional music string instrument native of Rote island of East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.
The name ”sasando” derived from Rote dialect ”sasandu” means "vibrating" or "sounded instrument". It is believed that sasando already known to Rote people since 7th century.
The main part of sasando is a bamboo tube that served as the frame of the instrument. Surrounded the tube is several wooden pieces served as wedges where the strings are stretched from the top to the bottom. The wedges function is to hold the strings higher than the tube surface and also to produce various length of strings to create different musical notations.

Sasando Music Instrumen Nusa Tenggara,Indonesia

Angklung (Traditional Musical From Indonesia)

The Angklung is a musical instrument made of two bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. The tubes are carved to have a resonant pitch when struck and are tuned to octaves. The base of the frame is held in one hand, whilst the other hand shakes the instrument rapidly. This causes a repeating note to sound. Each of three or more performers in an angkalung ensemble play just one note or more, but altogether complete melodies are produced. The Angklung is popular throughout Southeast Asia, but it originated in today's Indonesia and has been played by the Sundanese for many centuries.

Angklung Musical Instrument

Piring Dance

Originated in a town called Solok in the province of West Sumatra, Tari Piring is one of the most enchanting traditional dances of Indonesia. Piriang, as it is called in its original Minangkabau language, symbolizes the farmer’s joy for a successful harvest.

Tari Piring literally means plate (piring) dance (tari). It is the cultural dance of the Minangkabau people, influenced by the late Pagaruyung Kingdom, which ruled West Sumatra in the 14th century.

The dance ritual was originally performed by young ladies and men carrying food on the plates, to give thanks to the God for a successful harvest. Nowadays, this fast tempo dance is performed with dancers with only plates on each of their hands.

Cultural Minangkabau, Indonesia Piring Dance

Saman Dance

Saman (or dance of thousand hands) is one of the most popular dances in Indonesia. Its origin is from the Gayo ethnic group from Gayo Lues and is normally performed to celebrate important occasions.
This dance is done by a group in one line (sometimes with some displacement) and dancers perform while kneeling.
On November 24, 2011 UNESCO officially recognized Aceh's traditional Saman Dance as an intangible element of world cultural heritage, which needs UNESCO's urgent protection.
The ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA) named on Saman Dance as the best ASEAN cultural preservation effort at the 25th ASEANTA Awards for Excellence 2012
.

ACEH Traditional Saman Dance

Pendet Dance

Pendet is a traditional dance from Bali, Indonesia, in which offerings are made to purify the temple or theater as a prelude to ceremonies or other dances. Pendet is typically performed by young girls, carrying bowls of flower petals, handfuls of which are cast into the air at various times in the dance. Pendet can be thought of as a dance of greeting, to welcome the audience and invite spirits to enjoy a performance.

Dance Pendet From Bali, Indonesia Cultures

Kecak Dance

Balinese Cultural Dance of Indonesia
Kecak dance is a typical Balinese performing arts was created in the 1930s and played mainly by men. The dance is performed by many (tens or better) male dancers who sat lined up with the rhythm of a particular circular and called for "cak" and raised both arms, depicting the story of Ramayana when the sequence of apes to help Rama against Ravana. However, Kecak comes from ritual trance dance, the dance traditions of penarinya will be on the conditions weren't aware, communication with God or spirit ancestors and then convey his expectations to the community.


Dance Kecak, Cultures Of Indonesia
Wednesday, March 7, 2012 | By: Erwin Hadi Wijaya

Batik

Indonesian Batik
Batik (Javanese pronunciation: [ˈbateʔ]; Indonesian: [ˈbatɪʔ]; English: /ˈbætɪk/ or /bəˈtiːk/) is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. Batik or fabrics with the traditional batik patterns are found in (particularly) Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and Singapore.

Javanese traditional batik, especially from Yogyakarta and Surakarta, has notable meanings rooted to the Javanese conceptualization of the universe. Traditional colours include indigo, dark brown, and white, which represent the three major Hindu Gods (Brahmā, Visnu, and Śiva). This is related to the fact that natural dyes are most commonly available in indigo and brown. Certain patterns can only be worn by nobility; traditionally, wider stripes or wavy lines of greater width indicated higher rank. Consequently, during Javanese ceremonies, one could determine the royal lineage of a person by the cloth he or she was wearing.

Wayang Kulit


History of Wayang Kulit
Wayang is a generic term denoting traditional theatre in Indonesia. There is no evidence that wayang existed before Hinduism came to Southeast Asia sometime in the first century CE, brought in by Indian traders. However, there very well may have been indigenous storytelling traditions that had a profound impact on the development of the traditional puppet theatre. The first record of a wayang performance is from an inscription dated 930 CE which says "si Galigi mawayang," or "Sir Galigi played wayang". From that time till today it seems certain features of traditional puppet theatre have remained. Galigi was an itinerant performer who was requested to perform for a special royal occasion. At that event he performed a story about the hero Bhima from the Mahabharata.

Wayang Kulit