Ikranegara stays true to his spirit
Yenni Djahidin, Contributor, Washington
Born and raised in Bali, Ikranegara cannot put a distance between him and his artistic path, even when he lives far away from home.
The gray clouds had been pouring rain all day long. It was cold, damp and miserable outside the house. But inside, the room was filled with the voice and laughter of one of the best-known contemporary artists in Indonesia.
Ikranegara has published four books. He has written and performed plays in Indonesia and around the world. He also teaches contemporary Indonesian theater in universities around the United States.
With one of his hands on his face, Ikranegara sat at the dining room table. He was recalling his time in Indonesia, fond memories of his early days in Bali and Yogyakarta and his new adventures in Washington, DC.
"I'm still organizing myself here before deciding my next steps," he said.
He had just moved to DC two months earlier from the American state of Indiana. He was in Indiana since 1999 because his wife was teaching there. While in Indiana, he said, he saw a flier for a show titled, Soul Makassar. He called the organizer, asking if they misspelled the title because the singer to perform was a beautiful woman from Madagascar, not from Makassar, South Sulawesi.
To his surprise, he said, they had not misspelled it. And that was the start of his three-volume novel, Abad demi Abad (Century After Century).
"I have finished the second book, but I'm not going to publish it until the first book has been completed," he said.
As Ikranegara did research, he came to believe that the ancestors of the people of Madagascar came from either Sulawesi or Kalimantan between the first and the fifth centuries A.D.
"Many of their languages have similarity with the language of a native Kalimantan tribe, Dayak Ma'Anyan," he said.
Ikranegara said he decided on a storyline after the terrorist attacks against the United States three years ago. As the plot goes, a singer from a faraway island was searching for her ancestors. Her show took her to New York City on the day of the attacks. Because no planes were permitted to fly immediately after the attacks, the singer took a road tour across the country.
"The novel told stories about how Americans reacted after September 11th," he said.
One story describes the killing of a store clerk who wore a traditional Sikh turban. The attacker thought he was a Muslim. It also talks about how people around the world reacted to the attacks. He gave the book a title: Tarian Sepanjang 15 Abad (A Dance Lasting for 15 Centuries).
The plot for his first book, Nenek Moyang (Ancestor), is more mystical. It involves a priest who traveled back in time from the 1970s to the fifth century.
Ikranegara said the first novel will explore what happened in the past, when and why the ancestors left their homeland. And after the characters find their homeland, they are disappointed that it is not what they imagined.
"It was opposite to what you might expect. The characters found that the islanders actually still keep the culture of their ancestors," explained the 61-year-old man.
Ikranegara said his third novel will be a futuristic one. Ada Aurora di Ujung Jalan (An Aurora at the End of the Road) will discuss what would happen when the lead character and islanders meet.
"By the time they had found their ancestors, something happened to the world. Scientists announce that people will live forever," said Ikranegara who looks fits and energetic.
As Ikranegara's lead character searches the world for her ancestor, the story of his own ancestor can be written in two novels.
First, it started in a small village south of Negara on Bali. The people who live in the Loloan village have occupied the area for three centuries. Ikranegara said that people there speak a form of Malay that is similar to the one from Malaysia, not bahasa Indonesia.
As the story goes, the first people who came from Makassar were led by a Daeng, a nobleman from South Sulawesi. The Daeng had a dispute with Sultan Hassanuddin of Makassar. He disagreed with the Sultan's agreement with the Dutch colonial ruler. The Dutch, according to Ikranegara, called them, the Bogeymen.
"That's what I think where the Bugis word came from," he said proudly. A hundred years later, he said, a second group came from Pontianak.
All these newcomers brought with them Islam, which is different from the local religion.
Second, his father came from a small island off Madura. The people who live in Talango on Puteran island also came from South Sulawesi. Unlike the ones that ended up in Bali, Ikranegara said, this group was sent by the Dutch colonial rulers in the seventeenth century.
"They are Daengs," Ikranegara said. "Not many people know this, but my name is Daeng Ikra because my father was a Daeng, too."
So, how did the Daeng from a small island in Madura meet with the girl from Bali? Well, as Ikranegara said, his father was a merchant who took a salt boat to Bali. And there, every time he anchored his boat, he ate at a restaurant owned by the girl's parents. The rest is history, as they say.
Ikranegara was born and raised in Bali. The first of 10 siblings, his parents wanted him to become a medical doctor. He said that he was very much into theater during his high school years, but his parents opposed his aspirations to be an artist.
"They sent me to Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta," he chuckled. In the city known for its cultural atmosphere, he met some artists and became involved with theater. While attending chemistry class, he memorized his lines, he said.
After two years in Yogyakarta, he said, he was called home because the political situation at that time was not conducive to learning.
"I went home to Bali and helped my father run his business," he said. But he still kept his dreams alive and wrote a play and performed it in Denpasar.
In 1968, Ikranegara said, he made a decision that changed his life forever.
"I told my parents that I was going to Jakarta to chase my dream to become an artist," he said. This time nothing held him back. He went to Jakarta and lived, as he called it, a Bohemian life.
"I studied and performed at Taman Ismail Marzuki by day and slept at the same stage every night after it closed at ten o'clock."
Ikranegara now lives outside Washington, DC, with his wife, Kay. They have two adult sons.
Ikranegara is now preparing a play that he plans to perform next spring. The play, he said, is based on his book about a dancer who decided to stop dancing for pay.
"The play is about social issues and violence," he said. The title of the play is The Voice. Ikranegara will perform alone using a mask as a second character. The play is about 30 minutes long and he is still looking for sponsors.
"I came to DC to perform again," he said. He also said that Washington is one of the most beautiful cities in the U.S.
"People are friendly and I'm not afraid to talk to people." He also likes the cultural atmosphere in the city, although he said he hasn't seen the other side of life in DC where crime is higher.
"Maybe, when I've organized myself, I will have time to see the real life in DC."
Ikranegara was involved in politics briefly when he supported Amien Rais of the National Mandate Party (PAN). But he gave up on politics after the party didn't receive strong support during 1999 national elections.
He is also interested in learning how the human brain works.
"In my plays, I try to understand not only politically but also I want to see beyond politics, beyond human nature." He added that part of the human brain inherited part of a reptile's brain through evolution.
"It's called a reptilian complex, where you are either fight or flight." According to him, the complex is the source of violence in the world today.
"If you are threatened, there are only two ways; either you fight back if you think you can win or you run away if you think your enemy is too powerful."
He said that also includes hunger, where people would steal if they are hungry.
"For these people, morals don't mean anything," he said, looking out of the window where the rain still fell.