Minangkabau Philosopical Folklore in a Multicutural Society as

Indonesian Identity

Sri Rustiyanti

, Wanda Listiani

and Irma Rachminingsih

Institut Seni Budaya Indonesia (ISBI) Bandung, Jl. Buah Batu No.212, Cijagra, Kec. Lengkong, Bandung, Indonesia

Keywords: folklore, Minangkabau philosophy, multicultural, identity.

Abstract: Minangkabau is one of the etnic groups in Indonesian archipelago that owns philosophical folklores popular

among its society. Philosophical folklore is a way of life containing cultural and religious dimensions. Behind

these dimensions, there is a philosophy of tali tigo sapilin (three interwoven threads) covering ninik mamak

(tradition affairs), alim ulama (religion affairs), and cadiak pandai (intellectual affairs) that play an important

role in the life of Minangkabau people. Another Minangkabau philosophy of ‘alam takambang jadi guru’

(nature as the root of experience or knowledge) is a laws-of-religion-and-nature based philosophy. It views

natural phenomena as sources of ideas and inspirations. However, it does not mean to serve as objective

knowledge of nature itself. Instead, nature serves as an analog to form set of values and set of behaviors within

the context of communal living for Minangkabau society. Minangkabau customary philosophy regards

knowledge as a synthesis of empirical and rational aspects. The knowledge of Minangkabau cultural folklore

is based not only on physical and rational senses, but also on emotional aspect that lead to ethic-argumentative

concept. The relevance of Minangkabau philosophical folklore study for art, religion, and culture lies on

dialogue process done by Minangkabau society. Culture and religion are inseparable elements that constitute

a way of life for Minangkabau people.

1 INTRODUCTION

Minangkabau philosophical folklore as a

development in aesthetics shows multiple

perspectives from its dialectic process in finding a

more representative comprehension up to now. This

is because of its broader dimension coverage and also

its strong influential power that resulted from various

connections within construction of conception on

several variables of ever-dynamic life. Consequently,

philosophical study perspective develops to comply

its relation with multiple variables of life that keep

improving. In other words, the perspective of

philosophical folklore is a cultural aesthetic within an

ethnic cultural group. Thus, this study uses

philosphical folklore perspective in order to unravel

the cultural background of Minangkabau ethnic

cultural group. This perspective may reveal

Minangkabau people’s responses on their bodily

experience. Therefore, its element of continuity can

be considered as a philosophy folklore. In that sense,

folklore does not only contain aesthetic perception

(values), but also sense in its broad coverage, human

responses through their senses: sight, touch, smell,

taste and hearing. Aesthetics is related to human

responses on their bodily experience, viewed from

cultural quality embedded in human being ((Kapferer

and Hobart, 2005: 1-20; Sumardjo, 2000: 33-38;

Simatupang, 2013: 6-8).

Multiculturalism or “cultural diversity” is evident

in Indonesia. In terms of plural society, Indonesian

culture is constituted of culture of large ethnic groups

and local ethnic groups inhabiting smaller territories.

The current population of Indonesia is nearer to 261

million and spread throughout Indonesian islands

with various geographical conditions, ranging from

mountain, edge of the forest, coast, lowland, rural

area, to urban area. The level of civilization varies

among tribal societies. Minangkabau, one of

Indonesian cultural groups, has a variety of societal

structure, cultural art, politics, and economy typical

to Indonesian identity. These varieties and differences

show that human history is varied and full of

dissimilarities. History of tradition might have been

developed, reduced and added throughout time and

space. Human tradition has been passed on from

generation to generation. However, a tradition can be

394

Rustiyanti, S., Listiani, W. and Rachminingsih, I.

Minangkabau Philosopical Folklore in a Multicutural Society as Indonesian Identity.

DOI: 10.5220/0008765503940403

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities (ICONARTIES 2019), pages 394-403

ISBN: 978-989-758-450-3

defined and assocciated to another tradition that result

in differences and diversity (Al Makin, 2016:7).

A concept closely related to ethnicity is identity.

Though the term ‘identity’ is very popular and

commonly used especially in politics and

international affairs, the identity concept associated

with ethnicity is diverse. In a society, identity can be

classified into three categories, namely cultural

identity, social identity, and personal identity.1

Firstly, cultural identity appears when someone

belongs to a particular ethnic group, for example, we

always identify a Minangnese as a Moslem.

Secondly, social identity resulted from someone’s

membership in a certain cultural group. This type of

identity is based on age, gender, occupation, social

class, and religion. Based on age, in general, young

people are energetic, temperamental, reckless, and

impatient; on the other hand, older people are more

patient, wiser, and slower. Based on gender, males are

more rational than females who are more emotional.

Thirdly, personal identity is based on uniqueness of

individual characteristics. A choreographer has

talent, skill and preference which are different from

another choreographer. Cultural behavior, voice,

gesture, tone, speaking manner, clothes color, hair

cut, all of these indicate someone’s personal image

that is different from others.1 One’s personal identity

and social identity formed cannot be separated from

his cultural identity. Human cannot choose in which

culture he grows, eventhough when growns up, he

can deny his original culture and pick another culture,

yet, he is still embedded by his original culture.2 This

is confirmed by Claire Holt who said that “Show me

how you dance, and I’ll know where you are from . .

. “3.

Multiculturalism is a discourse that covers

multiple interests of power relation. The discourse is

then developed and supported by media. Diversity

has existed in Indonesia for ages. However,

multiculturalism is about comprehending the culture

itself. Liberalisation of performing arts gives a chance

to creative process. Creative process has some

important things and it is correlated to creativity,

innovation, initiative, productivity, and efficiency.

Creativity is very personal because it appears as a

result of intrinsic forces and environmental climate

that enable someone to imagine and create something.

Minangkabau philosophical folklore is

understood by the community through a proverbial

expression pepatah petitih that complies with

Minangkabau society’s mindset that is metaphorical

(Navis, 1983:21). Minangkabau customary

philosophy based on laws of religion and nature is

reflected in the proverbs adat basandi syarak-syarak

basandi kitabullah (customs rest on syarak or Islamic

Law, syarak rests on the Holy Qur’an) and alam

takambang jadi guru (nature as the teacher). The

cosmocentric understanding of the philosophy alam

takambang jadi guru is not served as an objective

knowledge of nature itself, but nature is an analogue

to form a set of values and behaviors in the context of

communal living for Minangkabau society.

Therefore, all of their teachings and life philosophies

are expressed through metaphors in the form of

pepatah petitih that take its idioms or sayings from the

forms and features of natural life.

Cultural changes that took place in traditional

society, namely the changes from closed to open

society, from homogenous to heterogenous values

and social norms were one of the impacts caused by

globalisation. In a broader context, multicultural

education helps to unify the nation democratically by

giving emphasis on societal pluralist perspective of

multiple lineage, ethnic and cultural group. This is

certainly part of the academic responsibility to

research the education system and cultural art

development of the nation to be later constructed into

guides and models of cultural art learning that are

applicable to the real world. By reconstructing ethno-

aesthetics, and then developing kind of ‘grounded

theory” through philosophical study, this research is

intended to generate eatetika aparapa as

Minangkabau ethno-aesthetics.

2 METHOD

In terms of methodology, research problems are

investigated by using a multidisciplinary descriptive-

qualitative approach. Investigation was initiated by

finding relevant literatures followed by ethno-graphic

observation on art and culture in Minangkabau. In this

study, data analysis was done by using Spradley

(1980) ’s stages of research as follow: (1) conducting

domain analysis; (2) doing taxonomy analysis; (3)

conducting componential analysis; and (4) doing

cultural-theme analysis.

Domain analysis is a way of systematic thinking

in giving or testing something to determine the

relation between parts, and the relation between parts

and the whole. Taxonomy analysis was done to find

out the relation between components of each domain.

Componential analysis was conducted in order to

discover components containing systematic meaning

related to cultural category. Theme analysis was

carried out based on componential analysis that had

been previously done to find out similarities between

contrast dimensions from selected domains.

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395

3 DISCUSSION

The arrival of Islam had completed the Minangkabau

customary teachings and the philosophical saying of

adat basandi syarak, syarak basandi kitabullah means

Minangkabau customs are based on rules of Islamic

teachings originated from Quran and Hadits.

Garraghan gave three definitions of history, namely

(1) events related to human in the past; (2) writings

about things happened in the past; (3) and history as

a research method (Gilbert J. Garraghan, 1957: 4).

However, in Islamic’s perspective of history we

believe that Qur’an is a discipline that covers broader

definition than Garraghan’s definition of history.

Therefore, it is very reasonable to consider Qur’an as

the most comprehensive construction of human

civilization history. Our proudness of art should be

fulfilled with spirit of treasuring its practitioners’

historical values, indication of the phenomena they

had created, and also the intellectual experience as a

discipline in analysis process. If we fail to put a

historical event within a functional-evolutioner

frame, our history will remain a narration or

chronology (Kaplan and Manner, 2000:94). If

somebody eliminates or intentionally disregards an

artwork’s complexity, then the best thing that art can

give to us will disappear (Sedyawati, 1981: 139). In

addition, an artist’s obligations are related to demands

for historical product and cultural-development

product. If these two things are not acknowledged,

arts as human resources will disappear.

Adat bersandi syarak, syarak bersandi kitabullah

is a universal philosophy of Minang. In

Minangkabau, culture and society are like two sides

of a coin that are inseparable. Society is a patron of

culture as long as the culture is still needed and

supported in societal life. It is in line with Ralph

Linton’s statement as cited in T.O. Ihromi that every

society has a culture, and every human is a cultural

being, therefore there is no such thing as a cultureless

society or individual (2000:18). West Sumatra people

call their homeland as Alam Minangkabau

(Minangkabau Nature). Minangkabau people are

well-known for their habit to merantau (migrate).

Based on the teaching “di mana bumi dipijak di situ

langit dijunjung” (“wherever you walk down the

earth, there you hold up the sky”), they have the

courage to leave their homeland to pursue their goals.

Most Minangnese have the tendency to migrate.

Then, they find many opportunities outside their

home as they must be able to survive in new

environment in search of knowledge, experience,

education, wealth, career, and better living. This is in

line with Al Makin’s explanation in his book entitled

Antara Barat dan Timur: Batasan, Dominasi, Relasi,

dan Globalisasi: “I belong to two different worlds:

East serves as the essential identity and education,

whereas West serves as self-development and wider

networking (2015:2), that is how West studied and

wrote about East (Orientalism), whereas East

responded and made West as the object of study

(Occidentalism).

Members of Minangkabau society are Islam

believers. This religion has been accepted and united

with their culture so that their livings are guided by

inseparable religion and custom values. Before Islam

entered Minangkabau, its society had adopted

celestial belief. It can be seen from the proverb ‘alam

takambang jadi guru’ (nature is the teacher of

humankind) that serves as a basis for building

someone’s characters in Islam. This proverb teaches

society to continously study the nature as well as the

might of God, The Creator. Islam has taught us that

people who are good at reading will get many lessons

from nature.

Speaking of Islam perspective for Minangkabau

society cannot be parted from the existence of a surau

(mosque). An ideal view within religion dimension

toward a surau has made a mosque as part of

Minangnese’s religious life. The most fundamental

thing in Islam is that people embrace Islam because

they believe in one thing, that is Allah ‘God the

Almighty’. Everything in Islam is centred on

principal reality, which is God or Allah (Smith, 1985:

270). According to that belief, supposedly mosque is

attached to Minang people’s confession that Islam is

above everything else.

Social and communal life in Minangkabau,

viewed from religiousity aspect, cannot be separated

from arts. The relation between the existence of arts

implying aesthetics truth and structural thinking can

be illustrated by Gadamer’s opinion that arts contain

truth values (Richard, 2005:92). There is something

unique about Minangkabau society. In general,

Minangkabau people recognize surau merely as a

place for worshipping (sholat). In the past, surau had

been a staying place for teenage boys who spent most

of their time there everyday. Islamic teachings do not

recognize enculturation concept in which religion

often uses culture for its needs. A moslem’s duty in

terms of religion spread is merely to convey Islam

without forcing other people to embrace it; ‘for you is

your religion and for me is my religion’ (Smith, 1985:

292). In context of local genius, actually only local

people who express their culture in order to carry out

Islamic teachings. Thus, it is clear that Islamic values

and norms are made ideal by Minangkabau society.

This framework is supported by Ismail Raji Al-

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Faruqi, that Al Qur’an actually contains fundamental

principles for human to form a comprehensive culture

for humanbeings (1999:2).

If we take a look at Minangkabau history, we will

find diverse richness of customs and culture. Local

genius of Minangkabau customs and culture based on

Islamic values are the distinctive feature of this

country. In addition, one of philosophies known by

Minangkabau society is Adat Basandi Syara’, Syara’

Basandi Kitabullah, Syara’ mangato, Adat mamakai.

This philosophy seems to confirm the existence of

Islam that is embedded in Minang society’s daily life.

3.1 Religion and Custom as

Minangkabau Cultural Arts

Generally, there are three elements influencing the

formation of traditional cultural art, as mentioned by

Edi Sedyawati, namely: 1) ceremonial system of life

cycle and ceremonial system of time cycle, 2) social

custom, and 3) arts (Sedyawati, 2006: 429). The

ceremonial system of life cycle and of time cycle are

rich of ritual cultures and myth nuances as the basis

and background of traditional spirit; meanwhile the

social custom is the system of culture itself, set of

rules or behavior patterns that become the convention

of local cultural tradition. Arts in this context is

media, embodiment, creative product, product or

cultural work itself and not a goal.

Folk traditional games in Minang such as

pamenan and pancak were preserved as lessons in

Minangkabau traditional education. These lessons

were taught in accordance with other lessons, such as

Islam (read: Al Quran and all teachings related to it),

knowledge of Minangkabau customs, and other

practical lessons. All teachings were aimed at

preparing Minangnese to overcome problems in life,

that are getting more and more complicated, without

giving up their identity as Minangnese. The practice

of pancak usually started after Isya prayer. All

students and teachers dressed in black training outfit

called galembong pants, loose top and head cloth.

Then they sat in circle and prayed together in the yard

of the mosque called sasaran. This collective prayer

was meant to ask protection from Allah during

pancak practice so that everyone would be safe and

no one got injured. Afterwards, each pair of students

that were going to practice should stand face to face

and give greetings to teacher and other students

present. They greeted by shaking hands. Students

greeted their teacher by approaching their teacher and

shake their hands. They pulled their teacher’s hand on

to their forehead and then put their palm on their

chest. On the other hand, students greeted their

fellows by shaking hands and put their palms on their

chest. Then, they practiced under their teacher’s

guidance.

As a martial art that bases its teachings on Al

Quran, pancak focuses on skills to defend, dodge,

grab, strike, trick and train self-intellegence to handle

situation. All skills are used to protect and defend

oneself. A proverb of Minangkabau silat says that

“indak ado gayuang nan indak basambuik, indak ado

tangkok nan indak balapehan”. It means that the skills

of pancak martial art are not meant to hurt one’s

opponent, instead they are aimed to give lessons to

one’s opponent as to not do any harmful deeds to

others. Therefore, the purpose of pancak is to build

good relationships between people as reflected from

the word silat that derives from the word ‘silaturahmi’

that means good relationship (Murgiyanto,1991:

276). The skills are embodied in doing a transitional

move from straight position to basic silat posture, that

is putting one leg in front in a low position

(pitunggue). In that posture, knees are bent and body

weight is supported on one leg in front of or behind

the body. Sometimes in the middle of a move, body

weight may be distributed between two legs in a fixed

position of pitunggue. Afterwards, when both legs are

in that position, two hands move to prepare parts of

body like chest, head and lower abdomen by crossing

them on chest, or placing one hand in front of body

no higher than shoulder and another hand close to

abdomen in defense position. Meanwhile, the

position of head is straight and eyes gaze sharply at

particular parts of opponent’s body. Self-defense

position is a common basic posture in Minangkabau

silat, and considered as a significant cultural product

because it serves not only as a fighting technique but

also as an element of performing art that has inspired

other Minangkabau performing arts (pamenan).

From the above explanation, we can conclude that

pancak is an activity closely related to Islamic

teachings, viewed from the concept underlying

pancak, the ethics of conduct and also all elements

that constitute pancak moves. If its concept of idea,

ethics of conduct and overall elements are really

comprehended in terms of Islamic meanings, then

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pancak as a fighting art that has inspired various

forms of Minangkabau performing arts will become

one of outstanding Malay-Minangkabau-Islam

cultural products. All of its objectives and guidances

direct the concentration of silat player toward tauhid

(Islamic monotheism). This is in line with Islamic

teachings that advise its believers to synchronise his

thoughts and deeds under Allah’s command.

Today the above conditions have changed.

However, the changes do not trigger any conflict

since people have realized that arts and culture

develop according to dynamics of society’s life. This

is in line with Claire Holt’s argument that the

presence of new elements in a series of cultural

development does not get rid of former cultural

elements. Old culture and new culture can stand side

by side, be mixed, or even be overlapped (Holt,

translated by Soedarsono, 1991:3). There is an

argument proposed by Toynbee Arnold J that

reception of a new culture is a misery and a chaos that

stirs a feeling of unhappiness in someone because his

traditional way of life is being threatened as it causes

little or many changes (1987: 88). This is not the case

in Minangkabau because in fact when a new culture

enters Minangkabau, it does not change the overall

cultural values of Minangkabau society. In other

words, it does not totally affect all aspects of social

life. Instead, it adds new facets of social life. The

elements of foreign culture penetrate domestic culture

unintentionally and unforcibly.

In history point of view, such penetration of

culture is called penetration pacifique, meaning

‘penetrating peaceably’ (Kontjaraningrat, 1990: 245).

Many changes that occur in human-self and his

surroundings, in which each change is always

followed by new forms, are the result of mixture and

blend between the old and new forms. The changes in

social norms and values give impacts on artistic life

in Minangkabau, or according to A.A.M. Djelantik,

the condition is called assimilation. The encounter

between two cultures of acculturation leads to a new

culture, called enculturation. In Indonesia, the

acculturation process happened by chance and

unclearly, accelerated by urgent situation (such as

colonialism), yet slowed down by conservative

beliefs held by its societies.

Basically there is a mainstream that

spontaneously accepts foreign elements of culture,

particularly which are beneficial according to

people’s opinion. During the process, there is a

reaction caused by their inharmonious feeling

towards the foreign culture. Sooner or later the

inharmonious feeling is replaced by a custom that

they consider appropriate. Social system consists of

human activities that interact, connect and socialize

to each other from time to time, according to certain

patterns which are based on general customs. The

result of the activity itself is shaped through

internalization as deepening that makes somebody as

a member of society (Kuntowijoyo, 1987: 43).

Speaking of social life and society in Minangkabau,

we cannot separate society’s religious aspects from

their daily lives. There are some uniqueness about

Minangkabau society.

Minangkabau customary norms were shaped by

tali tigo sapilin namely: alua-patuik, anggo-tanggo,

dan raso-pareso. These norms are crystalized in

Minangkabau custom and used in various custom

considerations. These three things are like stove for

custom ‘cookery’ and custom leaders are like its fire.

All custom leaders must understand and comprehend

the three norms so that their customary leadership can

‘cook’ sense of fairness and prosperity for their

groups. Javanese philosophy implicitly describes the

relationship between micro, macro and metacosmos

that goes in line with Indonesian mystical culture way

of thinking known as teachings of tribuana or triloka

namely alam niskala, sakala-niskala and sakala

(Dharsono, 2014:66).

In artistic process, visual image plays a role as a

medium to bridge conscious and unconscious mind,

to record and present symbolization of someone’s

past, present and future. Visual manifestation appears

in the narrative, symbolic and metaphorical forms

(Tridjata, 2014: 200). As Randai art that in the past

functioned as a medium to deliver Islamic teachings,

played by nine males, later is known as Tari Bujang

Sambilan (Interview with Dt. Indo Marajo, 58 years

old, Head of Randai in Nagari Tambangan Padang

Panjang). Bujang Sambilan dance combines pencak

silat fighting art and song with Islamic teaching

lyrics. After bujang sambilan dance developed, story

elements were added and developed into Randai

Dampieng. Randai Dampieng is a sequel from bujang

sambilan dance that originally was developed in a

mosque and now it is performed in a field or an arena.

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With added story elements, randai is not only a dance

but also a folk teather that tells story from kaba

Minangkabau. Religion does not restrict Randai

players. They do not have to be devoted Moslems.

However, the majority of Minangkabau people is

Moslem. Therefore, it is not impossible if the Randai

players are all Islam believers. With religion

underlying it, religious-themed stories are enclosed.

In religion perspective, art (aesthetic) is needed as a

verse in hadits said that God loves beauty or

aesthetics and art.

Minangkabau people are so persistent in

preserving their customs and practising Islamic

teachings that they put forward adat bersandi syarak-

syarak bersandi kitabullah. In its realization, both

customary and religios activities, related to traditional

art performance, involve many rituals containing

animism and religio-magic elements basically

contradict with the principal teachings of

Minangkabau custom and Islam. Although Islam had

given a new paradigm for Minangkabau people at that

time, old tradition could not be detached right away.

In other words, the elements of local genius culture of

animism and dynamism are still attached to it until

now. For example, saluang sarumpak traditional art

that exist and develop in Taeh Simalanggang

Kabupaten Lima Puluh Kota (Payakumbuh)

Sumatera Barat, is seen as a ritual-magic music

performance (Sina, 2012: 186). As was explained by

Kuntjaraningrat that magic in its practice is an effort

and action performed by human to influence his

surroundings beyond the capacity of human logic and

knowledge system to achieve his goals and desires

(1987: 62). Furthermore he explained that in the past

or pre-Hindu era ritual and sacred ceremonies were

performed as an action based on magical power

(Soedarsono, 1985: 2).

Minangkabau as one of the ethnic groups in

Indonesia is the only tribe that adopts matrilineal

system. Every newborn in the group will

automatically be a member of his or her mother’s

group family because the lineage is determined

according to mother’s family. In addition to its

matrilineage (matriliny) system, there are other

distinctive features of Minangkabau ethnic group.

Among other things, Minangnese are being known as

devoted moslem and having a tendency to migrate

(merantau). With the rise of globalisation and

modernization currents flowing into Minangkabau

society nowadays, restoring the function of a mosque

as it was is hardly possible. Making a mosque as an

institution that build children’s Islamic characters and

personalities are quite possible to be done today.

Instead, we could maximize any role held by a

mosque today. For example, we can fill the mosque

with various Islamic activities. It seems that today the

activity in a mosque is limited to Quran learning

instead of Islamic-character building. It is a collective

hope that a mosque can regain its role to build Minang

children’s Islamic personalities. The nuance of

religiosity seems to be faded in Minangkabau

people’s daily life. By maximizing the function of a

mosque to develop Islamic characteristics, we expect

to restore the nuance of religiosity.

The principal teaching of Minangkabau custom

has many things in common with that of Islam. The

power of custom and religion as stated in the proverb

‘‘adat bersandi syara’, syara’ bersandi kitabullah’.

Custom and religion are inseparable views for

Minangkabau people. In Islam, art (aesthetic) is

highly needed as is stated in hadits.

Meaning: “Allah is beautiful and loves beauty”

3.2 Mosque and Gadang House as

Minangkabau Cultural Art

Speaking of social life and society in

Minangkabau means that religiosity and society are

conjoined in daily life. For Minangkabau people, a

mosque is not only known as a place for worshipping

God. In the past, a mosque was a living place for

teenage boys. In a mosque, they spent most of their

time to learn how to recite Quran and its tafseer,

hadith, aqeedah, religious service, muamalat and

other Islamic materials. In a mosque they learn about

petatah petitih (proverbs and sayings) of

Minangkabau custom, fighting arts, randai and other

Minangkabau culture and arts. They were taught and

prepared to bear burden and responsibility in the

future.

Mosque in Minangkabau did not only serve as a

worship place but also play many important roles in

social life of Minangkabau society. Thus, a mosque

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can be regarded as a social institution for

Minangkabau people. Institution, as defined by

Kondjaraningrat is a particular norm system to

organize a series of steady-pattern actions to meet

particular needs of people in a community. A mosque

in relation to its function as an important institution

for Minangkabau society has played its role in social

life. A mosque serves as an educational institution for

teenagers in Minangkabau and a media for spreading

information to public. Undeniably, a mosque held a

strategic role in shaping Minangnese’ characters.

Some well-known figures of Minangnese today

are those who had received education held in mosque.

Although nowadays a mosque is still a place for

children to learn how to read Quran, its role in

building the characters of Minangnese children today

is not as significant as in the past. To comprehend

these changes, we should consider the situation and

condition faced by today’s society. Today,

globalization and modernization currents have

flooded in heavily and greatly affected Minangkabau

people’s life all over the country.

In addition to surau, Islamic boarding school has

managed to survive in the middle of time

advancement. Islamic boarding school persists to

maintain itself from cultural penetration that is

degrading religious and traditional aspects of rural

society’s life. Uncontrollable cultural transformation

has given negative impacts on traditional culture. As

its consequence, some traditional arts are starting to

perish such as ungkapan sisindiran, petatah-petitih,

sajak, puisi rakyat, kawih, beluk, dan pantun. The

degrading traditions need to be overcome by

preservation, development and maintanance.

Whereas in its golden era, literary art that was

expressed through oral traditions held significant

roles in the life of rural society as media to deliver

cultural values, ritual functions attached to cultural

ceremony (Supriatna, 2009: 230). As is confirmed by

Prof. Yus Rusyana that both oral and written literary

arts are aimed at giving both education and

entertainment at once (1981: 51).

Rumah gadang (big house), a traditional house of

Minangkabau, was intended for woman and toddlers

only. Tenaage boys only interacted with their family

at noons and went back to the mosque in the evening.

Randai is another Minangkabau traditional art

known as pamenan anak nagari. Minangkabau

custom is rich of a variety of arts. Thus, customary

leader would provide everything needed to art

development. Rarely found a group of society that did

not have arts whether it was dance, randai or silat.

There would be plain and quiet without arts. In randai,

older generation likes to relate custom and religion.

They would not like any art that did not include

religious matter in it. It seems that in general the elder

generations like randai, yet they would criticize re-

made randai that did not comply with norms run in

Minangkabau. However, that did not mean that randai

in Minangkabau has not developed according to the

era, yet its developments are in line with the cultural

dynamics of customary norms exist in its supporting

society.

Minangkabau customary norms were shaped by

tali tigo sapilin, namely: alua-patuik, anggo-tanggo,

and raso-pareso. These norms are cystalized in

Minangkabau custom and used in various custom

consideration. They are like stove for ‘ripen’ the

custom and its fire is customary leaders. In archaic

Sundanese manuscript there was tri tunggal (trinity)

principle that consists of resi (religious leader), rama

(leader of rural society) and prabu (king of all areas).

Every customary leader should have understood and

comprehended their ruling areas so that their

leadership could bring out justice and prosperity to

their people (Suhaenah, 2014). Whereas for

Minangkabau children in general, they have to

understand alua-patuik, anggo-tanggo, and raso-

pareso in order to uphold their identity and limitations

in social life. According to Minangkabau custom, art

is a refreshment from custom that is elaborated in Act

of IX Pucuk (Undang-Undang nan IX Pucuk)

constituted by: 1) Act that requires people to comply

with rules of King or tambo; 2) Act that requires

people to comply with rules of customary leaders or

limbago; 3) Act that requires people to comply with

rules of religion or syara’; 4) Act that requires people

to comply with rules of clothing or dandan; 5) Act that

requires people to comply with rules of games or

pamenan; 6) Act that requires people to comply with

rules of feast or badunie; 8) Act that requires people

to comply with laws or hakekat; 9) Act that requires

people to comply with rules of natural greatness or

hadits. The Act of IX Pucuk consists of four pucuk

specifically intended for art and five pucuk for

custom and religion. Therefore, the Act is like a

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400

taman sari (cultivated park) of Minangkabau arts.

Here, grows and blooms the flower of custom,

namely art (Jamal, 1985:16). According to Law in

Hindu conception, the relationship betweeen human

(microcosm) and nature (macrocosm) is the

relationship of equality. Human body consists of

eight elements which are divided into five rough

elements, namely earth, water, fire, air and ether and

three soft elements such as logic, manner, ego.

Therefore, the universe is referred to as macrocosm

while human is microcosm (Arsana et.al., 2014: 116).

The existence or position of a mosque unified in

Minangkabau culture is evident as every nagari owns

at least one mosque. A mosque in a nagari is

considered as a nagari mosque into which men come

every Friday to do Friday shalat. Its existence in terms

of norms is closely related to requirement to establish

a nagari. To establish a nagari, it should has a mosque

first according to Minangkabau society perspective.

Furthermore, regarding the requirement to establish a

nagari, one can see LKAAM which in traditional term

is called babalai bamusajik (LKAAM, 19987:50). It

means that to constitute a nagari, it should have a

balai or balairung and a mosque.

Such traditional rules indicate the close relation

between mosque and Minangkabau society. A

mosque serves two functions which are firstly, as a

worship place to fulfill human religious needs and

secondly, as a cultural, custom and social institution.

As Islam believers, Minang people ideally see

mosque as a worship place. This is also general view

held by most moslems as stated below:

A mosque is a sacred place. Therefore, all saying

and bearings conducted inside it should also be

sacred, motivated by taqwa. Thus, not all

activities can be done inside the mosque...

personal errands are not allowed. The activities

permitted to be done in a mosque are those related

only to prosperity and socially unified wellness of

Muslim people around the mosque, religion

matter, humanity, public mutual interest, and

other principal or primary matters (Gazalba, 1989:

135).

The ideal perspective within religious dimension

on mosque has put mosque as part of Minangnese

religious life. This was driven by their belief that one

upholds Islam as his religion only because he believes

that Allah is ‘the Almighty and Capable of

Everything”. Everything in Islam takes God or Allah

as the center of primary reality (Smith, 1985: 270).

Therefore, a mosque is highly valued as Islam is

above all matters for Minangkabau people.

As authority shifted, the functions of a mosque as

symbol and cultural asset are slowly fading (Hanani,

2002:115). Previously, a mosque was regarded as a

social institution for holding numerous roles such as

educational institution for Minang teenagers, and as

media of information for all people. Social institution,

according to Koentjaraningrat ,is a norm system

specifically intended to organize a series of steady

pattern behavior in order to meet particular needs of

a person in society (1990: 167).

The delevelopment of social life in Minangkabau

more or less will affect the development of traditional

arts. In other words, societal life, social structure and

set of values also give impacts on art life. The

development in terms of structure, forms and

relationship between art and its society show that

human journey is not static, it keeps going through

changes along with the dynamic process of

surrounding cultures. The Javanese culture

perspective on this matter is called catur marga ‘four

ways’ that desccribes a journey of human life from

the day he was born, lived his life, got his success,

until the day he died (Hadiprayitno, 2014: 33).

Therefore, in human life, culture is continuously and

dynamically going through development and

improvement. Thus, culture as a totality of mind, taste

and human work will go along at a dynamic

movement of human life so that all forms of culture

is within this changing movement

(Koentjaraningrat,1982: 11)..

4 CONCLUSIONS

In Minangkabau, initially art was used as a media to

deliver religion teachings and refine set of values in

societal life. Art has significant roles in society, with

its complex functions. Eventhough some may feel

that art only gives entertainment, art is also used in

various occassions, such as in socializing government

programs of development, family planning or fund

raising. It means that art is used as a communication

medium. In academic setting such as ISBI Bandung,

art practitioners can be the ‘agent of change’ because

they have acquired experience and operational or

technical skills. Dance students can dance, karawitan

students can play traditional instruments, theatre

students can act, and visual art students can draw.

Minangkabau Philosopical Folklore in a Multicutural Society as Indonesian Identity

401

These agents of change obviously have gained three

powers that include: pathos (sense sensitivity), logos

(logic), and technos (skill, technique). However,

another aspect that defines a success in developing

creative moment in society is ‘social behavior’

closely related to ethics or socializing norms. These

four aspects could become power for ‘agents of

change’ to give motivations to other practitioners in

their own field.

There are two kinds of custom elements according

to Minangkabau people, first, the permanent and

second, the temporary. The permanent is called ‘nan

indak lapuak dek hujan, nan indak lakang dek paneh’,

(not mouldy because of rain, not shattered because of

heat). Those elements fall into category of ‘adat nan

sabana adat’ (custom that is truly custom), whereas

other elements belong to category of ‘adat nan

teradat, adat nan diadatkan dan adat istiadat’ that can

be changed. The category of truly custom that is not

mouldy because of rain, not shattered because of heat

is called cupak usali that means laws of nature or truth

coming from Allah. Therefore, the philosophy of

Minangkabau custom is based on natural laws that

ensure Minang custom to exist as long as the nature

does. Custom and nature are life lesson for

Minangkabau people. Adat basandi syarak, syarak

basandi kitabullah is custom or norms of law based

on syarak, whereas syarak and kitabullah is Al-Quran.

As for alam terkembang jadi guru, it means that there

are many verses of Allah scattered all over the

universe and only those who think can read them.

Adat bersandi syarak, syarak bersandi kitabullah is a

universal aesthetic concept of Minang.

The presence of Islam amidst Minangkabau

people eventually go deeply, quantitavely and

quatitavely, so that Islamic values become the ideal

foundation of its culture. In Minangkabau, in terms of

structure, mosque is part of kenegarian institution

system. Minangnese knowledge system based on

Islamic values finally is able to get rid of values based

on previous beliefs or religions, either Budha-Hindu

or animism (except for inland natives who inhabited

forest). In fact, Islamic teachings have been absorbed

by most Minangnese and made an ideal fundament

for their culture. Basically, their knowledge system

ideally framed and guided by Islamic teachings in

almost all aspects of their life. Although some

conducts did not reflect Islamic deeds, those might be

seen as a tradition that did not contain any religious

essence.

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