Art Festival and the Revival of Tradition in the Post-reform Era of

Indonesia

Neneng Yanti K. Lahpan, Yusuf Wiradiredja and Nia D. Mayakania

Department of Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts and Media, ISBI Bandung, Jl. Buahbatu 212 Bandung, Indonesia,

Keywords: art festival, Nyiar Lumar, the revival of tradition, post-reform era, West Java.

Abstract: The political crisis in 1998 had created feelings of anxiety and fears for Indonesians people including artists

and cultural activists. When many people remained their feelings unspoken because of high political pressure,

artists and poets in West Java channelled their feelings through artistic works. Nyiar Lumar festival in Ciamis,

West Java, is a biennial event created in this situation for the first time in 1998. Later, it becomes one of the

biggest festivals in West Java as it has attracted thousands of people attending the series of art activities in the

long day activity. Not only succeeded in creating outstanding artistic work, but also Nyiar Lumar has become

a symbolic work that brought its audiences into new ‘myths’ of historical, political, and cultural glory of

Sundanese in the past. Located in a historical site of old Sundanese Kingdom, Astana Gede, Ciamis, Nyiar

Lumar uses traditional and natural artistic elements representing old symbols that have conveyed the

Sundanese audience to celebrating their cultural glory in the past. Besides, the festival is also a medium for

the youth to learn their tradition. This means the festival is a bridge for transmitting Sundanese tradition and

its values to the younger generation.

1 INTRODUCTION

Art festivals, according to Waterman, are cultural

commodities in which culture is contested (1998: 55).

As a country with cultural diversity, art festivals in

Indonesia are about celebrating cultural identity

expressed in ritual practices and tradition including

religious celebration, harvest festivals, sea festivals,

carnivals or street festivals. They are cultural

commodities on one hand, yet they are cultural

identity formation on the other. Each year many art

festivals are held in a variety of events across the

archipelago, both old practices and new-created

forms. Festivals are ubiquitous. Some of them were

emerged and created in the post-reform era following

the vibrant of the revival of tradition as a result of

political change of the country in which

decentralisation policy demand uniqueness of locality

in each region of Indonesia (see Lahpan, 2015). Thus,

festivals as a cultural attraction are placed as an

important facet of the locality which significantly

expresses cultural identity.

In West Java, art festivals are also salient in public

spaces. One of them is Nyiar Lumar festival. Nyiar

Lumar was born during the political crises in 1998,

located in Ciamis, West Java, as a response to the

political situation at that time. The event was initiated

by the small circle of a theatre group called Teater

Jagat, a group from a senior high school, SMAN 1

Kawali, Ciamis. Further, this initiative got a lot of

support from Sundanese artists, poets, and cultural

activists in Ciamis in particular, and West Java in

general.

Political crises in 1998 had stimulated fear and

anxiety in social life among society by which the most

obvious movement is students’ demonstration in

almost every city in Indonesia, including in Bandung.

Meanwhile, in a small town like Ciamis regency,

some artists, poets and cultural activists chose to go

to the isolated place of the historical and sacred forest

(Sundanese: leuweung karamat or tabet) called

Astana Gede in Kawali, where inscriptions of old

Sundanese Kingdom, Galuh Kingdom sited. They

spent days to get together for informal conversations

and expressed artistic works through poetry reading.

Further, they planned to create art performance to

Lahpan, N., Wiradiredja, Y. and Mayakania, N.

Art Festival and the Revival of Tradition in the Post-reform Era of Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0008764803590362

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities (ICONARTIES 2019), pages 359-362

ISBN: 978-989-758-450-3

359

express their unease feelings of political tense

through artistic works, especially by reading poem

and theatre performance which later named after

“Nyiar Lumar”.

“Nyiar” means “looking for” and “lumar” is a

kind of mushroom grown in the forest by which it is

luminous in the darkness. Literally, it means “looking

for bright mushroom”. This mushroom could

beautifully illuminate the dark night in the forest by

its glowing light. The philosophical meaning of the

words is that people should always find the light

through the darkness in their life (interview with

Suwarna, 4 May 2019).

After a short preparation, they held the first Nyiar

Lumar on 20 Mei 1998 amid the very high tense of

the political state. At the same time, unexpected

audiences came from Bandung and Tasikmalaya to

attend the event. They were university students and

artists who got information through words of mouth.

They left Bandung and joined the event in Ciamis

after participated in the big demonstration of May

1998.

In the tense political situation, security officers

from the military army of Ciamis branch warned them

not to make the performance as a political action. If

there were a political statement such as appeal to

Suharto to step down from his presidency, the crowd

would be arrested by a military officer. Performance

activity was surrounded by this tense and unpleasant

situation yet they continued the performance until

dawn. In this particular circumstance, the

performance is undeniably a political statement in

artistic form despite there was not a specific statement

about Suharto’s step down.

Besides as an artistic form, Nyiar Lumar is also

singular because of its distinctiveness in its venue in

the sacred forest with full of mythical elements and

the stories created to tell through performance by

which the story is highly political, that is about the

Bubat war, one of the controversial stories in

Sundanese history. This event has inspired Godi

Suwarna, one of the founders of Nyiar Lumar, to

write down the Sundanese novel based on this place,

entitled Sandekala (1998) as we will discuss later.

This paper explores the meaning of art festival in

relation to the vibrant of the revival of tradition and

celebrating local identity in the post-reform era, by

taking the Nyiar Lumar festival in Ciamis regency as

a case study. The data were collected through

observations and interviews during October 2018-

April 2019.

Despite their ubiquitous, art festivals are almost

neglected in the scholarship. In fact, the festival does

not something that stands alone as artistic forms. It is

intersected with various factors of interests including

politics, economy, ideology, and cultural expression

itself. In relation to this, Waterman (1998) discusses

art festivals as intertwined interests between cultural

politics, industry and art expression. Here, the festival

is defined and controlled by stakeholders including

the government, industries, and others. It is also the

destination culture of tourism. In its wider impact, the

festival is not just a ceremony or event, it is a place to

sound a political choice of silenced voices and to

strengthen a community bound (Fernandez, 2006).

This is also we found in our research of Nyiar Lumar

festival.

2 “NYIAR LUMAR” AS A

SYMBOLIC POWER OF

TRADITION

Shortly after its first debut in 1998, Nyiar Lumar got

wide attention from audiences across West Java, even

later national and international audiences came to the

event. The latest festival was held in October 2018 as

the tenth festival in 20 years (1998-2018). It was the

biggest event ever. There are several reasons why this

festival got big attention from various groups of

audiences hence it is unique and special, as we shall

discuss below.

The unique characteristics of Nyiar Lumar

compared to other festivals are its choices of very

local vocabularies in presenting the concept of the

festival. When other festivals choose a contemporary

form to make it attractive, or a combination of

traditional and contemporary, Nyiar Lumar

completely uses old, traditional and local symbols.

First, the main event of the festival held at night

started after isya around 8 pm until dawn; second, as

a night event, it needs light and it uses the traditional

light from bamboo called “obor” (Indonesian) or

“oncor” (Sundanese). It is a torch made from bamboo

with a wick burned by liquid fuel in the middle. This

obor becomes the most prominent symbols of the

festival as it needs hundreds of obor to light up the

whole series of event. In the last festival in 2018, they

need 1000 obor. Third, the choice of the place for the

event in a sacred forest of Old Sundanese Kingdom

makes this festival even has more symbolic power of

tradition. This is complemented by the concept of

performance which only performs traditional

performance: traditional music, theatre and dance.

The iconic traditional dance at the peak of the

event is Ronggeng Gunung with the only old lady

dancer left named Bi Raspi who comes from a very

ICONARTIES 2019 - 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities

360

remote area of Pangandaran regency. It is played

around 3 o’clock in the morning until dawn. The

characteristic of Ronggeng Gunung fits with the

distinctive feature of Nyiar Lumar. Ronggeng

Gunung is nearly extinct Sundanese traditional

performance. It is a dancing played by singing with

the unique voice of Bi Raspi. Meanwhile, dancing

movement is very simple with a particular pattern so

everyone among the audience could follow. Bi Raspi

as the star was dancing in the middle of the open stage

on the ground as commonly found in a traditional

performance. Afterwards, some men dancers wore a

sarong and headband dancing in a circle in clockwise

around her (Nopianti, 2014: 85). In the long run,

anyone in the audience could join the dance. This is

to be done during the rest of the night until dawn. The

close interaction between dancer and audience as

found in Ronggeng Gunung, following Turino

(1998), called a participatory performance by which

there is no distance between performers and audience.

This participatory performance is common in a

traditional performance. Art performance is not

enjoyed from distance, but it needs involvement,

proximity, and plays together.

Series of the event in Nyiar Lumar includes

several stages: 1) introduction session (ngawalan)

consist of seminar series, cultural dialogue, and street

festivals during the day; 2) walking activity

(lalampahan) by tracking down the particular route

from the local city square to the sacred place of

Astana Gede site started from around 7 pm to 8 pm;

and 3) the main event, the performances (magelaran)

started from around 8 pm in the main stage, in front

of Astana Gede and continued to perform inside the

forest which mostly performed old art forms (seni

buhun) and poetry reading. The several stages of the

festival were closed by two main performances,

theatre performance of Palagan Bubat and Ronggeng

Gunung dance.

There are several aspects in the Nyiar Lumar

festival considered a powerful symbol of tradition. To

interpret these symbols we follow Peircian semiotic

approach with his concepts of icon, index, and

symbol (Turino, 1997; Lahpan, 2015). Semiotics is a

valuable tool for tracing the life signs in situated

society since it enables us to grasp the situated

meanings of sign (Geertz, 1973). For this particular

approach, Geertz suggests.

If we are to have a semiotic of art... we are going

to have to engage in a kind of natural history of signs

and symbols, an ethnography of the vehicles of

meaning. ... meaning in use, or more carefully, arise

from use...an investigation of signs in their natural

habitat... (1973:118-119).

Following this, the interpretation of main signs in

Nyiar Lumar brings the audience to old, historical and

powerful symbols of the past about the Sundanese

kingdom, as symbolised in a place where the festival

takes place, a sacred site of Astana Gede Kawali

where the Sundanese kingdom resided.

Astana Gede site is a historical place of the oldest

Sundanese Kingdom, Galuh surrounded by myths

and stories of Sundanese ancestors, especially the

epic story of Palagan Bubat or Bubat war. Not only

historical, but this story also has a symbolic power of

glory in the past for Sundanese. Palagan Bubat is a

story about the most tragical war between the

Sundanese Kingdom and Majapahit where the

Princess of Sundanese Kingdom killed.

According to Suwarna (63 years old), the story of

Palagan Bubat performed in Nyiar Lumar has evoked

new interest among young students and artists to learn

the history of the Sundanese. They read together some

history books about Sundanese, including Yoseph

Iskandar’s novel. Palagan Bubat is a story about the

heroic princess of the Sundanese kingdom, Prabu

Maharaja, named Dewi Citraresmi or popularly

known as Dyah Pitaloka. She sacrificed herself by

taking her own life when the king of Majapahit,

Hayam Wuruk, wanted to marry her as a symbol of

the mastery of Majapahit to the Sundanese kingdom.

This refusal had caused the attack to the Sundanese

kingdom troupe that accompanied the princess

including her parents in a place called Bubat, in

Majapahit area. After all the troupes were killed, the

princess finally killed herself. She becomes symbols

of pride and loyalty to her motherland, the Sundanese

Empire, and a determination not to surrender to the

mastery of Majapahit (Ekadjati, 2006: 31-39).

In this historical context, the story of Bubat is

index, in Peircian term, for the Sundanese heroes in

defending the motherland from the mastery of others.

It is the spirit of freedom and the refusal of

colonialism although the kingdom was defeated. The

death, as symbolised by Dyah Pitaloka, is more

honoured than giving up the life under other’s

mastery. Meanwhile, the site of Astana Gede that is

believed as a place where the Sundanese Kingdom

resided is an icon for the glory of the Sundanese

ancestor. It was a place where the symbolic hero of

Dyah Pilatoka was born. Moreover, with its symbolic

power of tradition, Nyiar Lumar has become a symbol

of Sundanese history in which the Sundanese people

could refer their story, their identity to this particular

event.

Art Festival and the Revival of Tradition in the Post-reform Era of Indonesia

361

3 NYIAR LUMAR FESTIVAL

AND THE TRANSMISSION OF

TRADITION

After 20 years, Nyiar Lumar festival has shown the

continuity of the process of transmission of tradition

among the younger generation to learn the Sundanese

tradition and its art forms. Those who involved in the

festival are mostly young people as the festival itself

initiated by young community artist in Ciamis. Artists

and organisers of the festival are mostly from a

university and senior high school students.

Hundreds of students, artists and communities

involved in this event performing a variety of

performance forms including a dance studio, Studio

Titik Dua, that consist of young children. In 2018, at

least there were twenty groups of traditional

performances involved in the event. Among them are

rare and unique art forms, such as Bebegig, exclusive

traditional art from Ciamis. Furthermore, for twenty

years, the audiences coming from different cities in

West Java as well as the communities in Ciamis

always looks forward to the event. They are loyal

audiences who don’t miss attending the event. This

biennial event is worth awaited-event for many

people.

Moreover, in the organisation of the event, for

twenty years, the committee has been changing over

generations yet some of them keep entangled to the

event. Didon (40 years old), for example, is always

involved the festival since he was a university student

until now, and in 2018 he was a manager of the

program. Meanwhile, Dewa (30 years-old) was 10

years old when the first time he involved in the

festival and he now has an important role in the event

as an artistic manager. These two young people are an

example how the festival continuously transmit

values and the spirit of tradition among young people

4 CONCLUSIONS

Art festivals in the post-reform era of Indonesia

signify the revival of tradition amid the complex

intersection of politics, economy, ideology and

industries. Art festivals are controlled by stakeholders

such as government and industry sectors, so that they

are modified to meet these interests. However, Nyiar

Lumar is an interesting case when the artists offer

unique and particular concepts which bring the

performance to the ‘authentic’ sense of Sundanese

through traditional symbols they created: a sacred

place in the forest, traditional torch (obor), artistic

elements, art performances, and the symbolic story

performed by which refer to the most controversial

yet interesting story of Palagan Bubat.

For young audiences and artists, the festival has

brought them to the experience of historical moments

where they could trace their own story to their

ancestors while enjoying old and rare traditional

performances coming from different areas in Ciamis.

The festival has shown that tradition is the important

elements that attract so many audiences in the new era

of Indonesia.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper is ongoing research of Hibah Kompetensi

2019 (the second year), funded by The Ministry of

Higher Education and Technology of Republic

Indonesia. We thank to Kemristekdikti RI for the

research funding..

REFERENCES

Ekadjati, E. 2006. Dari pentas sejarah Sunda (Sangkuriang

hingga Juanda). Bandung: Pusat Studi Sunda dan

Kiblat.

Fernandez, S. 2006. "More than just an arts festival:

Communities, resistance, and the story of Desh

Pardesh." [In English]. Canadian Journal of

Communication 31, (1): 17-34.

Geertz, C. 1973. The interpretation of cultures: Selected

essays. New York: Basic Books.

Lahpan, N. Y. K. 2015. "Negotiating ethnicity and Islam in

musical performances in West Java Indonesia." (PhD

Dissertation), Monash University, Australia.

Nopianti, R. 2014. Dari Ronggeng Gunung ke Ronggeng

Kaler: Perubahan nilai dan fungsi. Patanjala 6, (1): 81-

92.

Suwarna, G. 2007. Sandekala. Bandung: Kelir.

Turino, T. 2008. Music as social life: The politics of

participation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

------------. 1999. Signs of imagination, identity, and

experience: A Peircian Semiotic theory for music.

Ethnomusicology, 43(2): 221-255.

Waterman, S. 1998. "Carnivals for elites? The cultural

politics of arts festivals." [In English]. Progress in

Human Geography 22, (1): 54-74.

ICONARTIES 2019 - 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities

362