Sound of giant gong anticipated by all
Sound of giant gong anticipated by all
By Ahmad Solikhan
JAKARTA (JP): Although Trimanto Wiguna is not a detective
novelist, he is just as apt at creating suspense.
The 70-year-old man from the Central Java ancient city of
Surakarta has stirred quite a sensation with a gong he created.
The big deal is its unusual size: almost six meters in diameter.
It weighs 3,000 kilograms.
The giant brass musical instrument is now hanging in Jakarta's
Ancol Dreamland and will be struck at midnight when we enter the
third millennium. The suspense is about how the gong will sound
because it has never been tested in public. Will it make the
whole of Jakarta tremble because of its size? How big is the
stick to beat it and who will strike it?
The gong is believed to be the world's largest and Jaya
Suprana, owner of the Semarang-based Jamu Jago herbal medicine
giant, wants to enter it in his Indonesian Records Museum, the
local version of the Guinness Book of Records.
The brass used to make the gong was imported from Germany. It
took 20 blacksmiths two months to make.
Trimanto, a father of eight, cannot tell how much it cost to
make the huge gong.
He said the idea to make such a large gong came to him in the
1970s but he could not realize his dream until this year due to a
lack of funds. The project started in September when PT Jaya
Ancol in Jakarta placed an order for a big gong.
Trimanto accepted the order right away because what counted
was the availability of the funds.
"My dream to create a giant gong has come true at last," he
said, beaming with pride.
But he will not be content to hear only the sound of the gong
when the clock strikes 12 on New Year's Eve. He also intends to
feature another 15 bedug (drum) with sizes ranging from 40 cm to
200 cm in diameter. The gong and the drums will be played
simultaneously.
Trimanto employed the help of 12 people who took one month to
make the drums and arrange them in a sturdy wooden structure. He
said he found it difficult to find oxen leather to make the
drums.
"I spent about Rp 17.5 million to make all the bedug," said
Trimanto, owner of CV Pradangga Yasa, a gamelan maker.
He said the sound of gong and drums at the turn of the
millennium would symbolize the hope for a harmonious Indonesia.
Indonesia can become a prosperous and democratic nation only if
peace prevails, he said.
Trimanto, the third child of eight, decided to become a
gamelan empu (specialist) when he was under heavy financial
hardship.
His profession as a senior high school teacher from 1952 to
1976 in Yogyakarta was not financially rewarding enough to make a
good living. He then entered the provincial bureaucracy in charge
of arts before he became a teacher at the Indonesian Arts
Institute in Yogyakarta in 1980.
But his fortune did not change for the better. To make ends
meet, he moonlighted by making toy gamelan instruments which he
hawked on Jl. Malioboro after office hours. He was surprised that
the toys sold like hotcakes. Then he decided to make real gamelan
instruments.
Trimanto is probably the most successful gamelan maker in
Yogyakarta. Many of his works are collected by gamelan lovers in
many countries.