Karen Kartomi Thomas

Popular at the turn of the 20 th century but in serious decline since the early 1980s, the little-known traditional genre of mendu theatre in the Natuna archipelago (also performed in the neighbouring Anambas archipelago) staged episodes of the mythical Dewa Mendu story as in the literary epic Hikayat Dewa Mandu (Story of Dewa Mandu). Natuna regency is located in Indonesia's far north between the Malay Peninsula in the west and the Malaysian state of Serawak in the east at the southern edge of the South China Sea. Performing arts' groups in the Mempawah region of West Kalimantan also performed mendu theatre, however its history, form, style and function differ significantly from that of Natuna (and Anambas). My ethnographic video recordings of four mendu performances I attended in 1984 held in one of Natuna's main centres of the traditional arts (Ceruk and Teluk Selahang villages (kampung) near the capital Ranai) on Bunguran island, inform this study. To my knowledge these are the only recordings of the traditional Ranai-style form in existence as it was known in 1984. Mendu songs were integral to every performance, and actors structured their lyrics in pantun form. The traditional poetics and the compositional method underlying the lyrics were, and remain key to the theatre even in its rejuvenated, revitalised form.

Popular at the turn of the 20 th century but in serious decline since the early 1980s, the little-known traditional genre of mendu theatre in the Natuna archipelago (also performed in the neighbouring Anambas archipelago) staged episodes of the mythical Dewa Mendu story as in the literary epic Hikayat Dewa Mandu (Story of Dewa Mandu). Natuna regency is located in Indonesia's far north between the Malay Peninsula in the west and the Malaysian state of Serawak in the east at the southern edge of the South China Sea. Performing arts' groups in the Mempawah region of West Kalimantan also performed mendu theatre, however its history, form, style and function differ significantly from that of Natuna (and Anambas). My ethnographic video recordings of four mendu performances I attended in 1984 held in one of Natuna's main centres of the traditional arts (Ceruk and Teluk Selahang villages (kampung) near the capital Ranai) on Bunguran island, inform this study. To my knowledge these are the only recordings of the traditional Ranai-style form in existence as it was known in 1984. Mendu songs were integral to every performance, and actors structured their lyrics 1 The original field research on mendu theatre conducted on Natuna's Bunguran island in 1984, formed the basis of my BA Honours thesis (1986), written jointly at Monash University and the University of California under the careful supervision of the late professors Cyril Skinner and Amin Sweeney respectively, both of whom introduced me to Malay literary and oral traditions. This study would not have been possible without, firstly, the generous assistance of Bp Idrus M.T., senior high school teacher, and Bp Syamsuddin from the office of the District Head in Ranai, who organised the four mendu performances we recorded, and secondly the directors and the many actors, musicians and assistants, in particular Bp Bujang Ahmad, who made these performances possible. I am grateful to my interlocutors the late Bp Ahmadiah Zulman, Ibu Sulfarini, Ibu Erlina SH, and Bp Jafri Dusai among others, who kindly and patiently shared their deep knowledge with me, and the researchers and theatre directors of mendu theatre, namely the late Bp Asmui Bakar, Bp Syafaruddin, and Bp S. Ismail, who documented four of the six sets of lyrics included in part 2 of this study. My thanks to the late Bp Tenas Effendy, well known author and guardian of Malay culture from Pekanbaru, ethnomusicologist Ashley Turner with whom I travelled to Natuna in 1984, to the then Monash Music Department for the loan of a video recorder, and to the Monash University Music Archives for the loan of photographic and recording equipment to record a mendu performance in 2013. My thanks to Professor Stuart Robson for his criticisms and useful suggestions for this article; Professor Harry Aveling for his encouragement and expertise in Indonesian-Malay translation of song-lyrics-any errors are my own; Dr Gijs Koster for his insights in the Hikayat Dewa Mandu among other hikayat; Jesse Kartomi Thomas for helping with editing earlier drafts of this article; and the editors of IJIS Yacinta Kurniasih and Matthew Piscioneri for their kind editorial assistance at every step of the way.

Lampung's ethno-lingual groups turned their attentions to reviving their performing arts more than two decades ago, activities which gained momentum after 2004 when the newly elected governor of the province Sjachroedin ZP instigated a revitalisation (revitalisasi 1) cultural program. Lampung's minority indigenous population resulted from large-scale transmigrations especially from Java that began under Dutch rule from 1908 and continued well after independence and into the present. With encouragement from the government regents (bupati) in the province's regions sought concrete ways to revive and promote the local arts. In West Lampung they arranged the staging of both traditional and modern contemporary forms in ceremonial processions and festivals that take place on significant holidays such as Independence Day celebrations, regional government official welcoming ceremonies, and other large-scale local festivities including the week leading up to the end of the Muslim Fasting month (Idul Fitri or Lebaran).

For more than a century, generations of Acehnese people have suffered through conflict. The battles against Dutch occupation were particularly harsh in Aceh. This was followed by the Japanese invasion and internal conflicts that arose after World War II. Conflict raged again when Aceh's struggle for independence from Indonesia started in 1976. For decades, Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM, or the Free Aceh Movement) fought against the Indonesian military, and most outsiders were prohibited from visiting the province – that is, until the more recent tragedy.

The Boxing Day tsunami that occurred on 26 December 2004 killed an estimated 180,000 people in Aceh province alone. The Acehnese suffered further losses not only of human life but also many aspects of their culture. The negotiation of a peace accord in Helsinki between GAM and the Indonesian government enabled the post-tsunami reconstruction to begin.

Mahdi Abdullah has endured some of the Acehnese people’s pain, fear and loss throughout his lifetime. Born on 26 June 1960 in Banda Aceh, the multi-award winning artist now lives in Yogyakarta, and is involved with the Arts Institute of Indonesia. He returns to his home province whenever he can, however, and paints his response to the expressions of suffering in the faces of the poor, in particular of women and the elderly. His artworks force the viewer to reflect on the sustained terror inflicted on the Acehnese during the protracted wars and tragic 2004 tsunami. They send a powerful message: that terror has gradually led to a diminished humanity and the loss of a clear sense of Acehnese identity. In place of this terror, Mahdi’s paintings offer a welcome vision of peace, one that seeks to contribute to the restoration of hope and dignity.

Radical changes in the performance practice of a Malay theatre form called
mendu, located in the Natuna Islands in the South China Sea, have paralleled major socio-political change. New kinds of audiences were added to the traditional village audiences since1979 when the discovery of natural gas began to take effect among the people of Natuna. The popularity of film, television, radio, and the cassette industries from the 1960s led to a decline in local audience attendance at live theatre shows. From the late1970s, a leading mendu theatre director allowed female performers to join the previously all-male cast on stage despite arousing controversy, thus contributing to changes in gender attitudes. From 2004, when the province of the Riau Islands province separated from mainland Riau and achieved autonomy, the Natuna local government and commercial audiences gave mendu more prominence that eventually extended to the national level. Changes in the mendu style resulted from the performers' need to comply with new government directives. When the first
governor asked the new province’s regencies to select symbols of their Malay cultural identity, the Natuna regency chose mendu theatre as one of its symbols, a decision that helped save the artform from extinction.

Radical changes in the performance practice of a Malay theatre form
called mendu, located in the Natuna Islands in the South China Sea,
have paralleled major socio-political change. New kinds of
audiences were added to the traditional village audiences since
1979 when the discovery of natural gas began to take effect
among the people of Natuna. The popularity of film, television,
radio, and the cassette industries from the 1960s led to a decline
in local audience attendance at live theatre shows. From the late
1970s, a leading mendu theatre director allowed female
performers to join the previously all-male cast on stage despite
arousing controversy, thus contributing to changes in gender
attitudes. From 2004, when the province of the Riau Islands
province separated from mainland Riau and achieved autonomy,
the Natuna local government and commercial audiences gave
mendu more prominence that eventually extended to the national
level. Changes in the mendu style resulted from the performers’
need to comply with new government directives. When the first
governor asked the new province’s regencies to select symbols of
their Malay cultural identity, the Natuna regency chose mendu
theatre as one of its symbols, a decision that helped save the art
form from extinction.

Due to a vast transmigration program instituted by the Dutch from 1905 and persisting under the Indonesian government from the 1950s to the present, the ulun Lampung (indigenous Lampung people), comprising just 13 percent of the total population of Lampung province in Sumatra, have for decades remained a forgotten and neglected minority in their own province. The indigenous Lampung performing arts illuminate this social problem as demonstrated by the topic of this article—sakura masked theater performed by the Saibatin ethnic group living in Lampung’s
mountainous northwest. Unlike the performing arts in Java and other parts of Indonesia, which were largely regulated by the national arts’ policies of Depdikbud (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Ministry of Education and Culture) out of the national capital, Jakarta, the history of sakura masking has been determined by the marginalization of the ulun Lampung via the century-old transmigration program; this has resulted in their social stigmatization, perpetuated by communities of pendatang
(newcomers). Reviving the arts was to take place through a program of promoting the Lampung philosophy of pi’il pesenggiri (self-respect) by drawing on components of traditional hospitality, including bestowing Lampung titles at traditional ceremonies on both guests visiting—and immigrants residing in—the province. This program wasinitiated by the current ulun Lampung governor not long after his appointment in 2003, and continues to be implemented today.

This article begins with a description of a sakura event, which took place in 2010 in Canggu village, West Lampung, and discusses its traditional meaning and social function. It then traces the history and changed function of sakura under the colonial through the national New Order and Reformasi governments to the present.

In this article I focus on the performance practices of one of Sumatra's little-known mask varieties, that of sakura theater, performed in the southernmost province of Lampung. I also draw attention to four other Sumatran mask types, namely, those used in funeral ceremonies of the Karo Batak in North Sumatra, mak yong theater of Bintan, gobang ritual of the Anambas islands, and mendu theater of Natuna. In order to gain a greater understanding of the Sumatran mask images and to illuminate their use in performance, I first trace the history of Sumatran mask design, sourcing relevant iconographical and archeological data dating back to the migrations to the island in the Dongson era (500– 1000 bce) and the subsequent Hindu-Buddhist period (first to fourteenth centuries ce). The masks' facial features and their functions in Lampung personify animals, gods, demons, and humans and resemble carvings of supernatural beings on Buddhist temple remains throughout Sumatra. The ancestors are believed to have traveled along South Sumatra's and Lampung's extensive river system to Skala Brak in West Lampung along the southwestern Bukit Barisan mountain range, bringing with them their cultures and artistic skills. Moreover, the later interethnic contact between southern Sumatrans and the Benanek Dayak community in Kalimantan may have influenced the designs of the masks, given the similarities between them in the two areas. Today Lampung sakura masking in its various forms, dating back to the pre-Hindu-Buddhist period in Skala Brak, takes place in mystical healing and village cleansing ceremonies, at pole-climbing festivals, and in street processions on the Muslim feast day of Idul Fitri. As an indirect means of affecting the people's mindset, sakura processional performance practices and their allure affirm the Lampung worldview. Karen Kartomi Thomas is an adjunct senior research fellow in the Performance Research Unit, Centre for Theatre and Performance at Monash University. Her primary research projects focus on theater in Sumatra, including the Riau Islands.