Indonesia Traditional Dances

Indonesian dance reflects the diversity of cultre from various ethnic groups in Indonesia. Each ethnic group has its own style of dances. There are thousands of styles from Sabang to Merauke. Taditional dances of Indonesia can be divided into three eras. The pre-historic era, Hindu-Buddha era and the Islamic era.

The traditional dances in the pre-historic era is a very old kind of dance. Now it is rare to find, or maybe it is already forgotten by the Indonesian people. Because it was found in the ancient times. Then there is the traditional dance from Hindu-Buddha era. It originated from the Kingdom and people of Hindu-Buddha. The example for the later is the Kecak Dance. It is from Bali also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant. This dance is performed by a circle of 150 people or more performers wearing checked clothes (kain sarung kotak-kotak) around their waist, percusively chanting "Cak" and throwing up their arms. The dance depicts the battle from the Ramayana legend. It is showing the scene of the monkey-like warrior "Hanoman" help prince Rama fight the evil King Rahvana. There is also the Islamic era of traditional dance and it came from the Eastern people who traveled to Indonesia and shared their dances to the native Indonesian. The dance eventually became a unique blend of Middle East and local cultures. One of the example is the Saman dance from Aceh.

We can find various traditional dances from the Western to the Eastern part of Indonesia. From the Western part of Indonesia, we can find Saman dance from Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. This has became a very popular dance in the last few years. It is like a body percussion and singing/chanting the Islamic song. The movement of the performers have to be precisely organized. We have also piring dance from Minangkabau West Sumatera. This dance has a motion that resembles the movement of farmers during plantation. This dance also simbolizes joy and gratitude with the results of their corps. This dance needs a special skill where the dancers are holding plates on their palms with a very quick movement accompanied by a song played by talempong and saluang. Also we have Musyoh dance from the Eastern Indonesia, Papua. Musyoh is a sacred dance in an effort to expel ghost of people died in accidents.

We have to preserve our rich traditional culture as our national heritage. We have to be proud of our own culture and show our strong local identity to the world. We can learn a great deal of history and wisdom of our ancestors by studying and preserving our national heritage.

Izza Hafiz Hilmi
X-E

Angklung

‪Indonesia is a country rich with culture. With 17508 islands, its not a surprise that Indonesia is home to hundreds of distinct dances, religions, foods, clothes and last but not least, music. One of the most well-known Indonesian instrument is the Angklung.
Angklung is an instrument that is made out of two bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. A person plays it by holding the base of the frame with one hand while shaking the instrument rapidly with the other. It may sound simple, but with an ensemble of angklung players, an angklung performance is truly worth watching.
Making The Angklung is not an easy job. Only trained people can do it. The bamboo they use to make angklung can't be too old or too young or else the sound of the angklung won't be right. The chosen bamboo tubes are then carved to have a resonant pitch when struck and are tuned to octaves.
The Angklung has been famous in Indonesia for hundreds of years. But it is now making its way to becoming a world-known instrument. Not long ago, precisely on 9th of July 2011, 5.182 people from all over the world gathered in Washington DC to play angklung together and is listed in the Guinnes Book of Records as the largest angklung ensemble.
One of the great facts of angklung is that it can not only play traditional songs, but it can also play modern songs. One of witch you can watch in this following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gkMvpSWxKs
So, we should be proud to have such a beautiful instrument and treasure it.

Name: Nadia Rahmadiani Nugrahadi
Class: XE

Batik

Indonesia has so many great cultures, because of the multiethnicity in this country. Not to mention there are so many different tribes, such as Javanese people, Sundanese, Dayak, and many more. Every tribe has something that makes them different than the others, and different cultures that if we combine them are what people call Indonesian Culture. Right now I'm about to tell you about one of Indonesia's most popular culture, the traditional fabric, Batik. It would be impossible to visit or live in Indonesia and not be exposed to one of the country's most highly developed art form.

The word "Batik" is thought to be derived from the word 'ambatik" that means "a cloth with little dots", or from the Javanese word "tritik" which describes a process similar to tie-dyeing. another phrase that is thought to be the origin of the word is the Javanese phrase "mbatik manah" that means "drawing a batik design on the heart". Some experts feel that batik was originally reserved as an art form for Javanese royalty. Javanese royalty were known to be great patrons of the arts and provided the support necessary to develop many art forms, such as silver ornamentation, wayang kulit (leather puppets) and gamelan orchestras
  
Modern batik still utilizes canting and cap to create intricate designs. Fashion designers such as Iwan Tirta have introduced batik into the world fashion scene. They have done much to promote the Indonesian art of batik dress, in its traditional and modern forms.
  
But even though Batik is a  great culture that we have, we didn't really appreciate it in the past. Because we didn't appreciate it, another country claimed Batik as they're original culture. We didn't guard it well enough, and we didn't appreciate it as much as we do now, after we claimed it as ours. Therefore, I think that we shouldn't let something like that happen again to us. we should protect the cultures we have now by not neglecting any of it even the smallest ones. If we do, other countries can claim it as theirs, and said that we're not taking care of it well. It would be a disadvantage to all of us. So starting from now, we should appreciate what we have, and don't let it be taken by other countries :-)

-Amyra Putri Larasati

Indonesian Food

Food is a need for every single person in the world, it is a source of energy that we use so we can do our activities such as studying, working etc. There are so many kind of food in this world and each place have their own signature dish. And that is what I'm going to discuss in this report, Indonesian Food.

There are so many Indonesian Food that spread in Indonesia, and each place have their own signature dish. Example, the signature dish from Bandung (West Java) is Siomay; a Bandung dish made from aci flour, fish and some special spices and then steamed. There's also Rusip, a signature dish from Bangka Belitung. Rusip is made by salted anchovies and its being fermented for a week, then they're being preserved in a jar. 

Sometimes what makes the dish is special from where it come from is the spices that makes the flavor special. Example, Padang food is mostly spicy. Because most of them use chili, such as Rendang, Satay Padang, and Dendeng Balado. Well most of the Indonesian food use different spices like fennel, onion, garlic, cloves, ginger, cardamom, pandan, basil and turmeric.

There are some weird food at some places, like fried cockroaches. In Bangka Belitung, there is a food called Wa' Wa' a.k.a sea worms. It is made from sea worms that is being dried, salted and then fried, they say if you eat it properly it can cure typhus.

According to this report and the knowledge that I know, every country has its own signature dish that they like. Because it is a part of their own culture and people should respect each and every food from different places. I hope every people can enjoy different dishes from different countries and they would respect that.

"We are what we eat" - Unknown source

By         : Reni Samara

Class     : X.E

Bugis Tribe

Hello friends! I want to tell you about Bugis tribe. I read an article about that and I found many facts about bugis tribe:

Language:

Bugis have their own language called “Bugis Language”. It has similarity with Western Austronesia language.

Literature:

They have poems called “Sure’ Galigo” mean “classical poems of bugis”. Example:

De’ga pasa’ ri lipumu

Balanca ri kampommu

Mulinco’ mabela?

Meaning:

There isn’t market in your place

So you wander far

Just for shopping?

Natural Environment:

Their climate is tropical climate. Residential areas located in lowlands, hills, and mountains. Most of their livelihood is as fishermen and farmers.

Culture:

Their culture called “Panngaderreng”, Panngaderreng consist of “Ade, Bicara, Rapang, Wari, dan Sara”

Ade contains norms in the kinship system and norm in the domestic system of government. Bicara contains norms relating to judicial. Rapang is an analogy, figurative, or traditional expressions to maintain continuity of law. Wari is the classification of objects, events, and activities in social life. And Sara is the rules derived from Islam.

The interesting fact about them is that they like to wander and trade from island to island. I was surprised to find out that their principle is “where they feel calm and comfortable living at their business, there’s their own land” so they don’t like to spend their money in their hometown, but they’ll spend their money on their overseas.

~Fikriansyah Adzaka~

Television for kids

Now these days in the modern life where the parents are busy working and they don't have a time to control what their children do at home.in the free time they usually watch many television programs that contents assaulting, fighting and sex. Children are supposed to watch education television shows instead they are watching soap operas. Watching television is enjoyable for everyone until they forget the time. If only children will not be able to control themselves, they will became so addicted to television and they forgot to do their homework.

This is an example: There is a boy who is really likes to watch television most of his time. One day when the boy is watching the soap opera,so suddenly in the middle of the show, he see a fighting scene and the show is getting more exciting for him. So that's why he forget to do his homework.And the next day,when he plays with his friends without he realize his behaviors already change. By the time one of his friends do something wrong to him, he suddenly hit his friend and occur  a fighting between them.

After all,there is a good side and the bad side from watching television. The important is as long as we know which program can give us a good influence to us or which one we have to avoid. Nowadays tv cable is very common for everybody. It means children very easy to get an access to watch Western tv programs and we all know that Western culture is totally different with our culture.So thats why,the parents have responsibility to control their children while they are watching the television programs.

Sinta Ramani
     X-E