Museum makes brave attempt to revive traditional games
Museum makes brave attempt to revive traditional games
By Rita A. Widiadana
JAKARTA (JP): It's Ani's turn to be a "blind man". Her eyes
are blindfolded with a big, yellow handkerchief, while another 10
children stand around her.
Ani's friends stand around her in a circle and tease her.
"Blind man... blind man, what are you looking for?" shout the
children. "I am looking for my lost stick," answers "blind" Ani.
Then one child steps into the circle, he turns Ani around four
times and then he steps back. The children scream and run away
when Ani reaches out to catch them, but it is very dark behind
the blindfold.
Tono is clumsy, making him an easy target. He is caught and it
is now his turn to be the "blind man".
Ani and her friends are playing hai buta, blind man.
This "find me, catch me" game was once performed by millions of
children around the globe. Roman children played this game 2,000
years ago and called it murinda. Chinese kids called it tsoo,
tsoo. In England, children called it blindman's bluff.
However, the game is no longer popular among today's children.
It was only performed by these Jakarta school students during a
traditional game competition at the National Museum last Sunday.
The game is part of a one-month exhibition and competition of
Indonesian traditional games to run from Feb. 25 through March 25
in an attempt to introduce Jakarta's youth to the country's rich
indigenous toys and games.
The event is jointly organized by the directorate general for
culture of the Ministry of Education, the National Museums and
the museums from Indonesia' 27 provinces.
Director General for Culture Edy Sedyawati said at the opening
ceremony last week that Indonesia's valuable cultural heritage
includes diverse traditional games.
"Traditional games embody high moral values. They also served
as a way to hone children's emotional and intellectual competence
as well as to enhance their social skills," said Edy.
According to James Dananjaya, professor of anthropology and
specialist in folklore at the University of Indonesia, most
traditional games are rapidly disappearing under the heavy
pressure of industrialization and fast technological progress.
"Times are changing. People keep adjusting to current
conditions. Even in villages, it is hard to find children playing
traditional games. They prefer to watch television programs," he
added.
Historically, traditional games reflected social and cultural
lessons in certain communities. "Each game portrayed a close
relationship between a community with its surroundings,"
Dananjaya explained.
People might find marble games, kites, and many other games in
almost every country in the world, explained Dananjaya.
Anthropologists believe that the basic function of games is to
intensify human experience in ways that are relatively safe while
providing entertainment and excitement.
Dananjaya explained that, originally, games were divided into
three categories: games of physical skill, games of chance and
games of strategy.
Games which require vigorous physical activity, such as tugs-
of-war, marathons, wrestling and ball games were closely related
to communities that lived in tough environments.
Games of strategy, such as card games and chess, were usually
practiced by communities that had developed complex social
structures.
Games of chance, such as dominoes monopoly and other games
like Nini Thowok and Jaelangkung are usually found in societies
that strongly embraced mystical beliefs.
They equipment employed in these folk games was usually made
of natural materials like wood, bamboo, stones, fruit, animal
bones.
"Don't expect urban kids to make a toy cart from orange peel.
Such materials can hardly be found in big cities, " he said.
Adults must realize, he said, that children live in their own
period of history. "Don't blame them if they don't like and don't
understand how to play those centuries-old games because they are
not part of the past," Dananjaya said.
The ongoing exhibition on traditional games serves more to
remind adults of their childhood experiences.
Gunarni, 65, seemed quite eager to show her granddaughter how
to play congklak, an ancient game originating from the African
continent displayed at the exhibition.
Congklak, also called mancala in Egypt, is played by two
people. The materials needed are a one-meter board with 12 holes
in two rows and two larger holes used as barns. Each player has a
number of stones or seeds that are distributed about the playing
board. On each move, each player must make estimates involving
numerical skills and good judgment in order to capture the
opponent's pieces.
In Indonesia, this game varies in every province. In Central
Java, people called it dakon, menciwa in West Nusa Tenggara,
nograta in Central Sulawesi and makaotan in North Sulawesi. In
Central Sulawesi and South Sulawesi, the game is performed in
funeral ceremonies.
"By playing this game, children were naturally trained in
maths and various strategic moves in. It is the first time for my
granddaughter play congklak," Gunarni said.
Robby, an employee in a computer company, regretted that he
never taught his son how to play marbles, gasing (tops) and other
traditional games.
"We felt that we had already given them a lot of toys, video
games and electronic things. I thought they were happy. Now, I
know it is not enough," Robby said.
The exhibition, held in the left wing of the National Museum,
displays hundreds of items used in traditional games from
Indonesia's 27 provinces.
Among toys on display are anjing-anjingan (puppets shaped like
dog) from West Java, which is popular among Sundanese children,
Kakebau (puppets shaped like buffalo) from Lampung.
A wide variety of kites, such as Layang Kuway and Sri Bulan,
kites made by people from Riau and West Sumatra are also on
display.
Decorative congklak boards from Central Java along with
similar instruments from Jambi (Permainan Gunung), makaotan from
North Sulawesi.
Hamzuri, a member of the exhibition committee, said that
during the one-month period, the National Museum will also hold
competitions of traditional games, including galah asin (guard
games), egrang (stilt walking), gasing and congklak.
"The games, held every Sunday morning, are intended for school
students from around Jakarta," he said.
One of the main goals of the exhibition is to introduce
traditional games to school students around the country.
"It is expected that the traditional games could be included
in school curricula as local content," he explained.
To achieve the goal, the organizing committee also held a
number of workshops and training sessions for local elementary
and junior high school teachers.
In cooperation with a private radio station, the committee
also plans to carry out a game competition for the public --
young executives in particular.
"We are trying to persuade yuppy groups to come and to
appreciate the museum. Besides, they are mostly young parents who
will bring their kids along to the museum," Hamzuri said.
Dananjaya, however, said the organizing committee should
immediately take action to ensure the work of this valuable
exhibition is not wasted.
"Many times, valuable exhibitions were just finished without
any continuing efforts to take the results to the public. It is
such a waste of energy," Dananjaya said.
But this begs the question: Can today's world of short
attention spans and throwaway consumerism accept these pro-active
diversions of the past, or will the traditional games and toys be
forgotten as soon as the one-month exhibition is over?