Reading Texts

Eva Nur Mazidah
120710209
Reading Texts
Final Examination





Damar Kurung of Gresik as the Cultural Representation of Past History

As time goes on, Indonesian cultures change because of orientation movement. Many cultural heritages evolve, develop, and even disappear because of many aspects. These cultural heritages appear as cultural representation of their people. They have such deep meaning towards its manifestation. It is believed that cultures can tell the history too. One of Indonesian cultures is work of art. Every region has their own traditional arts and one of them is Gresik, East Java, with its Damar Kurung (Darmar Kurung is a lampion with paintings on its cover) taken from word Damar (Lamp) and Kurung (like cage). I would like to explain the history of Damar Kurung, Damar Kurung as visual art, and the meaning of Damar Kurung for Gresik people.
According to local story of Gresik people, Damar Kurung firstly existed in the time of Sunan Prapen (XVI AC). He is one of people who spread Islam in Gresik the descendent of Sunan Giri (Koeshandari, 2009). Basically, one of the ways Islam was spread in Indonesia is through Cultures by enculturation, assimilation, etc. in order to be accepted by local people. Those people tried to blend Islamic culture with local culture which were Buddhist, Hindu, Animism and Dynamism. In short, the result of the hybridization of these cultures is a new culture and one of the results was found in Damar Kurung.
Damar Kurung becomes more complex in its philosophical ground because it represents the mix of Buddist and Hindu values, Islamic values, and local people tradition. Since it was as old as Sunan Prapen, the emphasis is that Damar Kurung painting has specific symbols as other religions have (for example Buddhist and Hindu with relief and statues in temple, Catholics with its pagan symbols, etc.). Turner in Koeshadari (2009) said that the symbol is the smallest unit of ritual that maintains particular properties of ritual behavior. Without knowing their truth, those religions always use such symbols through metaphor, myths, tales, holy books, songs, etc. These also happen in the stories given in Damar Kurung.
No one knows how the first shape of Damar Kurung at the age of Sunan Prapen. The last thing we know about Damar Kurung is made by Mbah Masmundari from Gresik. It is explained in Koeshandari that Damar Kurung is particularly given from generation to generation. Unfortunately, as Mbah Masnundari passed away several years ago, it is going to be difficult to revive again Damar Kurung as part of culture. Mbah Masmundari made Damar Kurung with a new shape painted on fiberglass. Still she used “rules” in painting her Damar Kurung. It is believed that Damar Kurung is categorized as naivetiesm. It depicts myths, tales, holy books and daily activities within its paintings.
Damar Kurung used to function as a lampion decorated with paper and paintings made on bamboo. It was used by people in Ramadhan month (Fasting month of Moeslems) in cemeteries as lamp. People usually visit cemeteries in thet month. It then changed to be used when children played during Ramadhan until Idul Fitri (the end of Ramadhan). In the late of 1980s and the early of 1990, Damar Kurung used electric lamp and it was put in living room or as decorating lamp.
The problem, after all, is not on the point how it looks like or it functions, but how it can portray myths, histories, traditions, and Gresik people inside the story of Damar Kurung paintings.
Soemantri in Koeshandari (2009) said that the concept, applications, and technology of Indonesian traditional art and crafts reflect various degrees of spirituality. It van be proved by, for instance, in the relief of Borobudur temple in Yogyakarta. It narrates certain story about Buddhist and how human should live. It delivers certain messages not mere relief. It is really influenced by the values of that religion at that time. Such thing happens in Damar Kurung. It has certain ways in telling its stories. If Venus of Willandorf can tell how primitive people wanted the fertility, Egypt lithographs showed how everything was calculated, Damar Kurung tells how Gresik people are influenced by Islamic values.
There are two parts of Damar Kurung which can be shared in other cultures, the first is its lampion and the second is its painting in fiber glass. Upon the lampion, basically, the similar thing can be found in Bali when they have Ngaben ceremony (ceremony for death). Faber glass painting can also be found in Cirebon, Madura, Banyuwangi, etc. They use painting as medium to tell certain messages about Islamic values. Somehow, it is still a bit different. The functions of lamp as an enlightenment and fiber glass or paper to paint certain messages are combined in one holistic work of art represented in Damar Kurung. Thus it can be said as combination of the two distinct works of art which has usage value and high art value.
Mbah Masmundari’s Damar Kurung are inspired by Babad Gresik (the history of Gresik) and portrait of her daily life experience. But still we can see the influence of stylistic of wayang kulit, wayang beber, and relief in temple in her drawings. Since the ability to draw Damar Kurung of Masmundari is given generation to generation, the transformation of ideology in drawing is obvious.
Another fact about the paintings that is also found in Damar Kurung is that they are imaginative and exaggerate the shape of things e.g. humans, trees, and other objects. It may be the basic concept within humans’ mindset that exaggerating is important. It can be seen from the shape, the color, and so forth. In short, this ideology has also been transferred to this work of art.
The drawing might answer the question in visual cultures that the ideology given within the subject is prevalent (Fuery and Mansfield, 2000). Here, Damar Kurung as the visual reflects the culture and it has contribution in the production, reproduction, and mutation of such culture. Fuery and Mansfield also argued that the visual also become a bridge to the past journey. Masmundari’s Damar Kurung may say that the paintings can give education implicitly how good values lives in our surroundings.
Based on the objects drawn in Damar Kurung , temple has Cara Wimba (how the sequence of object is made or drawn) and Isi Wimba (how the object is put orderly as sequence of scene and what symbols are used to tell certain story), and so does Damar Kurung. Its stories are also divided into genres because different theme uses different Isi Wimba. It is also influenced by the model in relief of temple, indeed. As explained before, Islamic culture in Indonesia is the hybrid of local cultures e.g. Buddhist and Hindu. Therefore it is also depicted in Damar Kurung painting. In conclusion, see the table below.


Genre Theme Cara Wimba
Sight-seeing Meaning and structure of expression
Sacred • Idul Fitri celebration
• Pengajian (Islamic service)
• Ikan duyung (Mermaid)
• “Raja Mina’s show”
• Syukuran (Thanksgiving)
• Pasar Bandeng (Bandeng Market)
• Top to down
• Right to left

The story starts from the right side

Prasawya

A formline represent a sequence
Profane • Activities around house
• Activieties in markets
• Festivals • Bottom to up
• Right to left

The story starts from anywhere the reader likes

Pradaksina

Dream time

There are several important things about Damar Kurung made by Mbah Masmundari. Isi Wimba is basically the object drawn for instance a coconut tree. Cara Wimba is how this coconut tree is drawn including the size, angle, scale, perspective, etc. Structure of expression tells how to organize Isi Wimba and its Cara Wimba in a frame so that we can get the message given trough the images. About the concept of Prasawya and Pradaksina, we can fin them also in relief in temple e.g. in Borobudur. They show the symbolism of the Stupa (part of temple) (Koesjandari, 2009). Prasawya shows the heaven’s life (the world above) while Pradaksina shows the life on Earth (humans). Seeing the genre above, Prasawya deals with sacred themes e.g. religion, cultures, and myths in Gresik. Those themes may remind us to our life in here after because basically Moslems believe in the hereafter world. It also influences how we read Damar Kurung, that is from top to down. Profane genre deals with daily activities that usually happen in Earth, human’s life. Thus, the story goes bottom up. Another important distinctive point of Damar Kurung is dream time concept. It is actually from the pre-historical primitive story at which they do not use chronological term in seeing some things. They can read that from wherever they like.
Image 1


Image 2

Seeing the images above, Holm in Koeshandari (2009) says that there are some influence of symbols and language of drawing given in Damar Kurung. The first is stylizing that shows the style of drawing opposes the reality though it tells about daily activity (as opposed to realistic representation. Second part is the illogical transformation of details into new representation. If you look at the images, they are colored in unnatural way. The shapes are also quit irrelevant in some places. The third is the schematic characterization by accentuating certain features. Symbols on scheme are unchanged. Isi wimba are about humans, bird, trees, lamps, horse, chicken, etc. which are drawn with “en profil” and “en face” techniques and the shape of hands and legs are obvious. The use of colors, dots, zig-zag lines, arrows, etc. are also important to know how to read Damar Kurung.
In conclusion, Damar Kurung can be regarded visual art of Gresik cultures. It portrays values penetrated in Gresik people. The stories within Damar Kurung are not mere have-fun paintings but it has deep value toward its aspects, the objects drawn, and the way they are arranged. They have rules in its production process. We have to see that Damar Kurung is also the development and hybridization of Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic cultures with local cultures which ideology is perpetuated through the paintings on the Damar Kurung.


REFERENCES

Koeshandari, Ika Ismoedijahwati. (2009). Damar Kurung Dari Masa Ke Masa. Surabaya: Dewan Kesenian Jawa Timur.
Fuery, Patrick and Mansfield, Nick. (2000). Cultural Studies and Critical Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.