1.0 Introduction
Kuda Kepang, also known as Kuda Lumping by the Indonesian people is a type of dance which originated from Java Island, is one of the Malay traditional dance theatre forms that incorporate trance in its performance. Brought over to Tanah Melayu (Malaya) by Javanese immigrants it is exclusively performed by members of the Javanese community who have acculturated into the Malay culture. The dance, now is commonly associated with people that lives in Johor. I was born & bred in Batu Pahat Johor thus, I am quite familiar with this dance as I always watched Kuda Kepang performances when I was a little kid. This is why, I chose to research more on Kuda Kepang and find out more about the issues regarding this dance that is now slowly being forgotten by the new generation.
1.1 Objectives of the research
There are few objectives of this research. There are :
- To research more on the history of the demographic of Batu Pahat.
- To study the history of Kuda Kepang and the features.
- To discuss about the relationship between Kuda Kepang and trance.
- To discuss the challenges and issues in Kuda Kepang and how to solve them.
2.0 History of Batu Pahat
The name Batu Pahat means "chiselled rock" in Malay. The origin of this name can be traced back to a local lore in the 1546, when the invading Siamese troops led by Admiral Awi Di Chu were chiselling rocks at a rocky spot in the coastal village of Kampung Minyak Beku, in hope of getting fresh water during their siege on the Malacca .
In 1982, the local mayors or Penghulu requested from Sultan Abu Bakar to develop a township in Batu Pahat. They put their trust in Dato Bentara Luar as at that time, he has successfully developed Bandar Maharani (Muar) into a new and coming township. On November 4 1892, Sultan Abu Bakar ordered Dato Bentara Luar to develop a town in Batu Pahat and the next month, Dato Bentara Luar started on the Batu Pahat township development. On 1 January 1894, Dato Bentara Luar officiates the opening of Batu Pahat in Bukit Bendera which is now the official residency of the Batu Pahat town administrator. In Dec. 1894, another events held to commemorates the naming of Batu Pahat into Bandar Pengarram which had taken names from Kampung Pengarram where the Penghulu Rahmat resides.
During his reign as the Government Commissioner, Dato' Bentara Luar modernises the administrative duties by appointing the administrative officers to do their duties. He also encourage the villagers to plant crops for self-sufficiency and pulls in investment from Chinese businessman to set up plantations or set up trading in Batu Pahat. This led to increases in the town council income from RM15,00 in 1894 to Rm55,375 in 1910.
2.1 Demographics of Batu Pahat
Batu Pahat is the second largest city in the state of Johor. The town area is located at the Simpang Kanan area. In 2012, Batu Pahat is said as the 16thlargest urban area in Malaysia in terms of population. As for the racial demography, Chinese make up the majority of the population at 62% followed by the Malay at 36% and Indians at 2%. Today, a significant number of Batu Pahat residents are Chinese. Batu Pahat is border to other district such as Segamat to the North, Kluang to the East, Muar to the West and shares border with Pontian. The closest district to Batu Pahat is Kluang.
The recent research stated that Batu Pahat has a population of more than 300,000 and is currently growing its number. The most populated mukim is Simpang Kanan which is also the town of the district with more than 250,00 people and least populated is bagan, with only 5000 people.
The Malays are the largest ethnic groups in Batu Pahat and they usually speaks the Johorean Malay dialect which is also known as the Johor-Riau dialect derived from the Johor and Malacca Sultanates. Most Malays are descended from ethnic groups such as Melayu, Javanese, Bugis, Banjar and Orang Kuala (orang asli, the indigenous group). The Chinese community in Batu Pahat are mainly descendants of people from southern Fujian (Quanzhou, Xiamen and Zhangzhou) and the Chaozhou region of Guangdong province. They usually converse in Mandarin. The Indian community in Batu Pahat is mostly made up of ethnic Tamils which speak Tamil language with a distinctive Malaysian accent.
In Batu Pahat, is consists with people coming from different religions and the major ones are Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Hindusim. There are over 400 temples in Batu Pahat district and temples are one of the tourists attractive place for tourists from other state of Malaysia (especially tourists from Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur) and even Singapore during weekends. Temples located in Segenting, Pantai Minyak Beku, Senggarang and Bukit Pasir are the hotspot places to visit by tourists.
3.0 History of Kuda Kepang
Kuda Kepang is one of the Javanese people cultural arts performances. It is a traditional art that is so full of magical impression and spiritual value. Kuda Kepang was brought to Tanah Melayu, which is now known as Malaysia by the Javanese immigrants and initially performed by the Javanese community people. It was first introduced in the early 20thcentury and was said created by the Wali Songo, or Nine Saints. These Wali Songo are a group of religious people from the Indonesian Island of Java and thus, the dance dramatizes the tales of holy wars won for Islam. It speaks of the strength of warriors, the forces of good and evil, and beautiful princesses and their suitors.
Kuda Kepang performance serves both the secular and ritualistic functions. Secular functions include the celebratory aspects of wedding receptions and ceremonies, national holidays, cultural festivals and as a welcoming gesture to honour visiting dignitaries. It is also a communal expression of camaraderie, an event organized by the village for the secular and spiritual consumption of the villagers. It binds the members of the community physically, spiritually and mystically. In ritualistic functions, it is used to cleanse the village from evil spirits by acknowledging their presence and interact with them.
Kuda Kepang is famously known specifically in Johor because, Javanese people migrated from Indonesia and lived in Johor. They brought over the cultural influences in Johor and was being practiced widely by them and also people who were already permanently living in Johor. This is also caused by the cross-migration by the people of both countries.
3.1 Features of Kuda Kepang
Kuda Kepang is commonly performed by nine to 15 dancers, all wearing the traditional Javanese clothes. These dances performed by men most of the time and each dancers will mount a mock horse which is made by rattan and generally colourfully decorated with beads and sequins. A kuda kepang dancer which is known as Danyang will lead the dance and direct other dancers by using a whip. The dance will be accompanied by music played with traditional instruments such as the saron demung, angklung, gong and gendangare played. The four musical instruments must be present; if one of the instruments is not there then when summoning the spirit that they called endang respectively, the players cannot experience trance.
Some movements in the kuda kepang dance is from the traditional martial arts, Silat. The performance ends when a dancer enters a trance, which is traditionally said to be caused by spirit possession. The dance is believed by the Javanese community to have a strong linked to the spirit world and dancers will usually enters the state of trance during the performance. I will talk further about state of trance in this research. When Kuda Kepang is performed for entertainment purposes like at a weddings, it focuses on its aesthetic aspects mainly the dance movement, music and the choreography. However, if it is performed for ritual or to exorcise evil spirits or negative energy from the village, the dance involves the dancers to be in state of trance and focusing on the mystical aspects.
KUDA KEPANG ISSUES, CHALLENGES AND THE SOLUTIONS.
4.0 Relationship of Kuda Kepang and Trance
Trance and possession happens when someone is in a state of loss of awareness of the environment and their self-identity and sometimes are being possessed by other identity or personalities or supernatural powers. Attention and alertness are limited or focused on one or two aspects that exist in the environment and often movements, body positions and expressions of words are also limited and being repeated. The concept of trance is a phenomenon about spirits who controls the mind feeling, intelligence as in the ability to make decision in a person by uniting on consciousness. In a performance, trance is induced by non-invasive stimuli such as music and chanting, smell or movements or all of these elements.
In Kuda Kepang, it is commonly associated with trance. The dancers will experience ecstatic experiences where they will seem to merge with the universe created by their cosmological beliefs. Before the beginning of the dance performance, there will be a Bomoh, or a Shaman who will recited prayers over they horses as he smokes them some kind of smokes called ‘kemenyan’ to invoke the spirits to possess the dancers and let them enter the state of trance. The dancers who have ascended into the trance state will continue roaming around the performance area in a circular anticlockwise motion within the area demarcated by the Shaman. They will not wander beyond the delineated space except when they leave the trance state. The other dancers not in a trance state will leave the performance area and sit at its perimeter. I remember this situation vividly as a kid where the dancers will not leave their delineated space. The dancers who are already in the state of trance will have a clueless look and looking slightly upwards as they move following the music. During this time, the audiences who are easily incited by the Kuda Kepang performance will be easily go into the state of trance as well. This will leave the people in state of trance having a euphoric feeling, like feeling high and they will crave for more of this experiences.
There are occasions during trance state allowing the dancers to adopt wild movements as their energy will surge so powerfully that it allows them to execute extraordinary physical actions such as eating glass and grass, razor blades, husking a coconut with his teeth and getting whipped without bleeding. They can also perform acts like jumping up to the roof or galloping water like a horse. Spiritually, this is where the mind will takes over everything without them realising it. The dancers in a trance will dance until the Shaman stops them. Only the Shaman can exorcise the spirits from the dancers. He calls the dancer to come to him by sounding the whip and whistling. The dancer approaches the shaman and stops in front of him. With the help of a handler, he grabs the dancer from behind around the waist. He presses his thumb, at the dancer’s navel and recites a prayer to release the spirits. As the spirit leaves the dancer, he momentarily collapses before getting up and running to the back of the performance area. He stops when he regains his conscious self.
In cases where the spirit is reluctant to leave the body, the Bomoh or Shaman with the help of a handler first coaxes it by sounding the whip several times, holding and releasing the dancer momentarily. In the event that it is adamant, the Shaman will forcibly exorcise the spirit by holding the dancer tightly from the back and pressing his thumb deep into the dancer’s navel as he recites a prayer. By the third attempt, the spirit is successively exorcised.
5.0 Relationship between Kuda Kepang and Culture
Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. Culture can also be defined as shared patterns of behaviours and interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding that are learned by socialization. Thus, it can be seen as the growth of a group identity fostered by social patterns unique to the group. Culture is a reflection of a community or nation. This makes culture a vital and important determining factor of how the community reacts, responds, and grows. Culture plays a major role in the lives of everyone in the society. Culture gives you a sense of belonging, especially when everyone speaks the same language and do the same thing. For example, language evolves with the culture as an intimate product of the way those within the society communicate.
As for Kuda Kepang, it is a living heritage culture preserved by the Javanese people for generations by their ancestors. The Kuda Kepang dance is usually performed wedding and feast occasion . It also being included in major celebration in Johor such as Johorean Goverment festivals, cultural displays and Sultan of Johor's birthday celebration. It is also as a way for the Javanese people to strengthen their relationship as a community and as a way of their bonding because this is an occasion where everyone in the community gathers together to watch the performances.
5.1 Culture vs Religion
Since Kuda Kepang is associated with people in the Malay community, most kuda kepang dancers are of Islam religion. As being discussed earlier, Kuda Kepang dance involves mystical features and ritualistic practices to awake the other spirits for the sake of the performances. Due to this practices, it has caused sociological issues and formed debates among Islamic scholars and has been under fire from the religious bodies in Johor for the past decade. The use of foreign spirits is technically against Islam and our beliefs. Due to that, a fatwa by Department of Islamic Development Malaysia and Mesyuarat Jawatankuasa Fatwa Negeri Johor declared that Kuda Kepang is illegal to be practiced by the people. This has caused multiple dialogues and debates among Kuda Kepang groups and art practitioner calling for a take back on the declaration as it jeopardizes the cultural heritage that has been preserved and also it will affect their livelihoods.
According to En. Ramzan bin Mahfol, Patron of Kuda Kepang Seri Budaya – Kulai, he believes that the practice of Kuda Kepang is in accordance to the practices of Islam. The ayat-ayat, or invocations which they use to start the ceremony are lines from the Quran and does not warrant the labels of polytheism or superstition. To solve this matter, Kuda Kepang association and practitioner has agreed to compromise the involvement of spiritual aspect and being in a state of trance in a performance and just retained the choreography side of Kuda Kepang. The fatwa however is still in a grey area because even though it has already declared, it was not gazetted and therefore not being recognized as part of the legislation.
In accordance to that, Kuda Kepang is still being practiced widely with some community still incorporate trance and spirits in their performances. This time, they just have to pay extra cautious to prevent the local councils or polices to come and disband their gatherings. This fatwa does not really concern the Kuda Kepang practitioner as most of them believes that they did not go against the principal of Islam. However, this fatwa means that kuda kepang can no longer be associated officially with any schools and universities in Johor.
6.0 Kuda Kepang and the preservation for younger generations
Due to the fast-paced advancement in technology through the use of social medias especially, younger generations no longer seek fun out of their technological devices. They no longer being involved in sports as much, play with their friends, and even get involved in arts such as dance and theatre. Kuda Kepang is included as well. Also, the rapid rise of western performance and cinemas such as Netflix, saw the decline of the organic indigenous folk performances art of South East Asia and no longer practiced and be seen as irrelevant.
However, there are still some groups of younger people who proudly upholds this traditional dance by highly involved in preserving them. Most of these youths grew up in the same community that practices Kuda Kepang. Since Kuda Kepang is described as a more relaxed stance, it is widely accepted as the norm and ingrained in the culture of Johor. It is seen as a hobby with traditional roots, just like kompang. Although seen as hobby, kuda kepang has a strong element of discipline and structure for those who practice the art of Kuda Kepang. Group meetings and practices are held regularly, and members spend years training in order to achieve the highest levels of ílmu or skills before eventually leading groups of their own and guiding a new generation of practitioners.
The older generations of Kuda Kepang practitioner should introduce this dance to their children so that it is not gone throughout the years. It is a cultural heritage that was once very popular and should always be preserved as part of the history. In addition to that, a non-profit organization like PUSAKA is expected to take proactive measures to ensure that this dance is properly preserved for future generations. Pusaka is a cultural organisation which promotes, revitalizes, documents and archives the traditional performing arts of Malaysia which might have been lost. They engage, nurture and encourage local communities of this unique culture to pass on their knowledge, not only helping with youth instruction programs to develop this valuable asset to a succeeding generation, but also to enable a platform to perform to a wider audience in Malaysia commercially. We need more organisations like PUSAKA to keep our culture and tradition alive.
7.0 Solutions and Conclusion
Kuda Kepang is a very precious cultural heritage that needs to be preserved because it is the pride of the Javanese community and in Malaysia we have a big community of Javanese people. It is rich in history, and background stories of the dance which makes it so special. Everyone in the community should play an important role for example the authority such as Mesyuarat Jawatankuasa Fatwa Negeri Johor should never look at the banning of Kuda Kepang in one scope only which is the relationship between Kuda Kepang and the use of trance. But instead, they should take into account why it is important to let the Javanese community keep practicing this culture as it is a cultural heritage that needs to be preserved. Mesyuarat Jawatankuasa Fatwa Negeri Johor should reconsider their decision in banning the dance and give other options and solutions instead. With this, the older generation will feel free to deliver their knowledge to the younger generation who is interested in learning the dance without being afraid being charged by the authorities.
Also, Kuda Kepang practitioner can modify the dance and just consider practicing it for secular functions such as at wedding ceremonies and festivals and as a performing dance art where they can promote their culture to people outside of the community. They should reduce or maybe do not use at all any mystical features in the dance, such as being in a state of trance as it can portray bad image to the dance itself as well as can give bad influence to the younger people. It can also disrupt the faith of the Muslims people as to some extent, this practice can go beyond our faith and beliefs in Islam.
Not just that, we should never deny the role of NGOs and how important it is to have them help in preserving our cultural heritage. As being stated earlier, we need more NGOs like PUSAKA to promote, revitalizes, documents and archives the traditional performing arts of Malaysia which might have been lost by engage with local communities to pass their knowledge. Also, the existence of many independent Kuda Kepang societies like Persatuan Kuda Kepang Bukit Cheraka and Kuda Kepang Sinar Warisan will prolonged the livelihoold of this dance in Malaysia.
In conclusion, each and everyone of us need to play our roles and work hand in hand in preserving this dance coming from the Java Island, because if not, the younger generations will not know about our cultural heritage and will have no sense of identity, especially the younger generations in the Javanese community.
References
Au, D. SEPARATING MYTH, RELIGION AND CULTURE – HANGING ON TO TRADITION. Retrieved from https://www.bfm.my/article/kuda-kepang-myth-religion-culture
Batu Pahat Retrieved from https://placeandsee.com/wiki/batu-pahat
Effendy, E. Kuda Kepang: A Case Report of Javanese Cultural-Related Trance in Medan.
Hukum Permainan Kuda Kepang Negeri Johor (2009 ). Retrieved from http://e-smaf.islam.gov.my/e-smaf/index.php/main/mainv1/fatwa/pr/10529
MAF73. (2011). Kuda Kepang The Star Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/travel/malaysia/2011/04/13/kuda-kepang/
