Bujang Tan Domang. Oral Literature of the Petalangan

This book is extraordinary in several respects. After an extensive introduction (10 pages by Henri Chambert-Loir and about 70 pages by Tenas Effendy) the "Nyanyi Panjang", the long song, unfolds and develops over about 700 pages. Tenas Effendy provides the Petalangan text and an Indonesian translation together on each page, which facilitates the understanding of the former.

We are rather used to Western ethnological research on Indonesian cultures providing us with rare insights into significant texts and rites transferred to us for the first and probably for the last time. Western scholars seem to be pressed to transfer the fading traditions of indigenous cultures. These scholars are often looked upon as the last to learn the declining local language, and they are charged with keeping hold of tradition by video, tape, and translation into a Western language. Tenas Effendy, however, is an Indonesian scholar. His devotion to the Petalangan Malays means more than to save the last indigenous text or myth for a Western memory. This is an extraordinary fact manifested by this book.

In his introduction Tenas Effendy gives detailed reasons why he feels it is important to present the story of Bujang Tan Domang in Petalangan and Indonesian. To him it is not only important to preserve the literary value of the text so that it can stimulate comparisons with other texts and extensions of historical knowledge. The most important is the signification of the historical, legal, and social identity of the Petalangan people documented by the text, which they seem to have lost together with their land and their story of Bujang Tan Domang during the last few decades. Tenas Effendy follows a rather pragmatic strategy to provide the Petalangan people with their traditional values again though he may be called an idealist, too, when seen from another angle.

Probably the most extraordinary of Tenas Effendy`s tasks on the conservation of this "Nyanyi Panjang" was to make sure that the final written version of "Bujang Tan Domang" was accepted as a "tombo", an accurate story with the authority of law and no other version. He started with only fragments of the song, but like an archaeologist he looked for more and put bits together, eventually presenting his final version to 37 consultants, the keepers of the local tradition, to discuss the authentic form the text as a "tombo" in its written form should have. On the whole it must have taken years of "archeological work".

Introducing the text Henri Chambert-Loir (pp. 7-17) emphasizes the importance of Tenas Effendy`s efforts to save this story as a historical and legal document from being forgotten and neglected by the Petalangan people because of their desperation at being the landless heirs of a former hero who advised them to become his legal, historical, and moral heirs.

The "Nyanyi Panjang Tombo Bujang Tan Domang" starts with the birth of two daughters to Raja Alam and his wife who reign in the land of Johor. After urgent prayers a son is eventually born to the couple. Thus begins the story of the young hero Bujang Tan Domang who later on is regarded as one of the founding ancestors of the Petalangan Malays of Riau, the ancestor of the clan Monti Raja, formerly called Sialang Kawan, which is settled today in Desa Betung to the east of Pekanbaru. However, they sense the approach of the dangerous wings of Raja Garuda, hungry for human lives. The couple succeeds in hiding their three children in three vessels of different types normally used for preparing rice and present themselves to be taken away by Raja Garuda. The reader or listener of the "Nyanyi Panjang" has to read some 75 pages, or probably wait for the following night, when the stories of the two daughters have been told, before the song returns to the young hero. But reading the long prologue to the story in Petalan gan Malay and Indonesian side by side gives much of the music and the poetry of the song. One is woven into the rhythm while reading this lyrical prose and feels enchanted to follow the story, even before the third basket of rice opens into the story of the young male hero.

Bujang Tan Domang`s story, after that long prologue, is the story of all young heroes who grow into adulthood while travelling and collecting advice and knowledge of natural and supernatural kinds on a journey eventually to find the wife and the space appropriate for them. He is a good hero, never failing to learn from his experiences or from the many admonitions given, and is eventually able to free his parents from the captivity of Raja Garuda. During the second part Bujang Tan Domang individualizes to become the one "authentic" ancestor in history and law of the Petalangan people, not following his ancestors` line to belong to Johor but confirming the connection of Johor and Riau by becoming raja of Sialang Kawan.

Today`s Indonesia might have changed much from the time when Tenas Effendy started his task to bring back traditional values. The Petalangan people, nowadays, are probably not able to buy and read "their book". Are there still keepers of tradition and singers of "Nyanyi Panjang" among the Petalangan to maintain and encourage their culture? Or will this "long song" rather have been reconstructed for literary research purposes only? May the text be esteemed by the Petalangan people and all others.                                                     

COPYRIGHT 2000 Cambridge University Press

Source: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

05 mei 2010 00:07

Berhutang pada Rakyat

05 mei 2010 00:07

Mengenal Pelalawan Aneka Istilah Budaya, Permainan Rakyat, Peralatan, Makanan Khas, Flora dan Fauna

04 mei 2010 07:07

Hikayat Hang Tuah Analisis Struktur dan Fungsi

22 april 2010 07:07

Panggil Aku Osama

« Book Review Index

Back to top