chapter 1 Introduction In April 1976 a man called Talsim came to Jakarta to sell a gamelan. He was the first Baduy I met. We met at the Faculty of Arts of the National University, where I was taught to play the Sundanese kacapi zither. It was obvious that Tal- sim came from a rural area: he had short black trousers, a black shirt, a black- and- blue head cloth and he was barefoot. Although I had no intention to do anything with this gamelan, I bought it. Talsim turned out to be a fascinating man with a strong character. Two months later we met again at his home in Kanékés village (Figure 3) to record music. Talsim’s young son, Pulung, was very interested in the recording. I hope this book will stimulate the interest of present- day and future young boys and girls like Pulung in their culture. The Baduy practise asceticism and they do not easily give permission to do research in their land, which is sacred to them. This is an important reason why so little has been written on their music. During my first two visits in 1976 they only allowed me and my companions to stay in their village for a few days. That had changed in 1992, when the Baduy authorities allowed me to stay in Kanékés for three weeks and also to record music during the ritual for planting rice. On the whole, the Baduy encouraged me to record their music and dance for documentation purposes. In their small village in West Java, Indonesia, Baduy musicians perform el- ements of their identity, their culture, and their long history during a time of rapid change. Social and economic developments affect their ascetic life, in which they grow rice on non- irrigated fields and make music during the rituals according to the rules passed on by their ancestors. In January 1977 the Baduy storyteller Sajin recited the text ‘Singing is a med- icine …’ (see Section 6.5). This book can be seen as an attempt to understand what the Baduy mean by these words. What is the symbolic meaning and what is the role of music and dance in the life of the Baduy? How is music used to prevent and cure people as well as rice plants from illnesses? In the present book Baduy music and dance are described in their cultur- al context, with limited attention for technical analysis. The first four chap- ters are anthropological. They include a description of the Baduy indigenous group, their music for rituals and entertainment and their relation to the out- side world, and some methodological issues, such as reflections on European visitors in the 19th century. Chapters 5 to 8 contain more detailed information © Wim van Zanten, 2021 | DOI:10.1163/9789004444478_002 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.Wim van Zanten - 9789004444478 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:05:47PM via free access 2 Chapter 1 figure 3 Talsim with his wife and children, including Pulung with white shirt, near his house in Gajéboh, Kanékés, 12 June 1976 on music practices: music and dance for rice rituals, weddings and circumci- sions; storytelling and music for entertainment, with some song texts; music with two rarely heard flutes in particular. The final Chapter 9 summarizes the earlier chapters and provides some suggestions for future research. The following two sections of this chapter provide a short overview of Baduy life and their music and dance practices. Section 1.3 gives a more detailed out- line of the book. 1.1 The Baduy People of Kanékés Village and Their Music and Dance The people of Kanékés village are an indigenous group in Banten Province of western Java. They are usually called Baduy, which is also the name that they prefer themselves nowadays. In July 2016 the Baduy population numbered about twelve thousand people. They live in a hilly area of 51 km2 that lies, in bird- flight, approximately 80 km southwest of the centre of Jakarta: see map in Figure 1. The northern part of Kanékés is about 400m above sea level and the most southern part about 800m. Especially the southern parts of the Kanékés area are difficult to access. Baduy speak a Sundanese dialect, like the people Wim van Zanten - 9789004444478 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:05:47PM via free access Introduction 3 living around them, but their social organization and religion differ from those of the surrounding Sundanese Muslims. Nowadays the Baduy call their religion Sunda wiwitan and this denomi- nation was mentioned on their identity cards between around 1972 and 2011. Sunda wiwitan means ‘the beginning, the origin of Sunda’, the ‘original’ Sun- danese belief system that is supposed to date back from the Hindu kingdoms and earlier, and definitely before Islam established itself in the coastal areas of west Java around 1300. In the Dutch literature of the 19th and 20th century, the Baduy belief system was mostly described as Hindu- Buddhist. There are no other groups living in Kanékés village except the Baduy and that has been the case for at least two hundred years. In 2001 the authorities of the Lebak Regency (seated in Rangkasbitung) in Banten Province recognized the Baduy as an indigenous community (masyarakat adat) with collective land rights (hak ulayat) in Kanékés village: see Figure 4 and Kabupaten Lebak 2001. The Baduy only consider the people taking part in the ritual life of Kanékés village to belong to their indigenous group. Hence in the area around Kanékés we may find people who were born as Baduy but are no longer considered as such, because they do not live according to Baduy rules. Baduy life is regulated by many prohibitions and regulations, as handed down by the ancestors. One very important regulation is that in Kanékés the rice and other agricultural products should be grown on non-irrigated fields (huma, also called ladang) with shifting cultivation. This is in contrast with the surrounding areas, where mostly irrigated rice fields (sawah) are used. Further, the Baduy are not allowed to use chemical fertilizers or pesticides, to have wa- ter buffalos, horses, sheep, goats, or fishponds. They are only allowed to keep chicken and you will find chicken near or under almost every house that is built on poles of about 40- 50cm high. Baduy are also not allowed to grow, for instance, cloves or tea. Baduy are monogamous, but allowed to divorce and to marry again. The people of Kanékés are supposed to live in a very modest way. They should be ritually pure, as they ‘consider themselves as the guardians of the forest, sources [of rivers], and the soil, and at the same time they hold themselves responsible for the destiny of the world’ (Berthe 1965: 216–8). Thus, the Baduy ascetic way of life is for the well- being of the world. The essence of their way of living has often been described as tapa di nagara, ‘asceticism in the kingdom’, or tapa di mandala, ‘practising asceticism in the holy region’ (Danasasmita and Djatisunda 1986: 5– 7; Garna 1988: 180, 221; Bakels 1989; Van Zanten 1989: 9, 72, 79).1 ‘Practising asceticism’ means in the first place that the 1 Whereas Danasasmita and Djatisunda, Garna and Bakels speak of mandala communities that used to be more common in west Java in the past, Dinda S.U. Budi speaks of eleven Wim van Zanten - 9789004444478 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:05:47PM via free access 4 Chapter 1 figure 4 Concrete structure with text ‘Welcome to the region with collective land rights of the Baduy community’ at one of the west entrances to Kanékés village at Nangerang, 16 July 2016 agricultural work on the huma fields is done properly, that is, according to the ancestral rules. Some of the Baduy music is closely linked with the Kanékés rituals and the agricultural year. Making music is one of the ways to practise asceticism: it should be done in a ‘proper’ way, because it affects the harmony of human beings and the cosmic balance: ‘all individual actions have to be judged in the context of society and in relation to the cosmic order’ (Van Zanten 1997: 41; see also Van Zanten 1994: 87– 88, Permata 2001: 71 and Budi 2015: 25– 26). The prohibitions and regulations concerning Baduy life are not all cast in iron: during the forty years between my first visit in June 1976 and last visit in July 2016 to Kanékés, the boundaries between what is allowed or not have been shifting. For instance, the Baduy are not allowed to go to school, nor to have electricity, radio, television or hand phone and are not allowed to wear shoes or Kasepuhan that still exist near Halimun mountain, including Kasepuhan Ciptagelar, Kasepu- han Cibedug and Kasepuhan Citorék. Wim van Zanten - 9789004444478 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:05:47PM via free access Introduction 5 long trousers. Nevertheless, in current practice almost every adult in the ham- lets of the northern part of Kanékés has a radio and a hand phone and so far this has been tolerated by those responsible for enforcing the customary rules. The common use of hand phones also means that many Baduy have learned to read and write in a non- formal way.2 According to the rules, during darkness palm- oil lamps should be used for lighting, but lamps using batteries that can be re- charged in the sunlight and used at night are common. In December 2013 and June 2014 I observed some solar panels for producing electricity on the roofs of houses in Kanékés.