Tolaki festival has tourist potential

Tolaki festival has tourist potential

By Zainuddin Bakulu

KENDARI (Antara): Four wooden beams, driven fast into the
ground, stand firmly in the center of a wide field supporting two
medium-sized gongs, while a man of advanced years is sitting deep
in reflection, holding two wooden sticks.

Moving his lips as though reciting a magic spell, he then
beats the gongs in an even rhythm to produce a flat sound and
tone.

As soon as the sound of the gong reverberates, young and old,
as if following instructions, emerge from every corner, hand in
hand forming a circle.

All of them dance merrily, their arms and legs moving
sideways, then to and fro.

This was the prelude to a social dance known to the Southeast
Sulawesi people as molulo, a cultural legacy of the Tolaki
people, an ethnic group of the Kendari district, Southeast
Sulawesi, who make up 50 percent of the province's total
population of 1.4 million people.

This social dance, performed en masse, was the core activity
in the Tolaki Cultural Festival held from Oct. 7 to Oct. 12.

Kendari regent, Abdul Razak Porosi said this molulo dance was
originally performed in the rice fields at the conclusion of a
harvest, or when threshing the rice.

Molulo is a Tolaki word formed from mo meaning "to do" and
lulo, meaning "to trample", which is the traditional way to
thresh rice before the introduction of a rice huller.

During the glorious days of the Konaweeha kingdom, the
largest in the Kendari regency, in the 19th century rice planting
was conducted on a large-scale and a lot of people would be
needed to thresh the rice.

A harvest feast held by the royal family would include
entertainment, not only to express gratitude, but also to
stimulate the people to work harder.

Bamboo music and gong beating would accompany feast
participants doing meanggo (singing traditional songs).

However, in keeping with modern development, the molulo dance
has undergone some modification and is now even performed at
wedding parties or at parties thrown to welcome honored guests of
the kingdom.

The music has also been modernized. Traditional gongs and
drums have now given way to modern electronic musical instruments
playing the folk music in a cha-cha rhythm, for example.

For young locals, the molulo dance, performed hand in hand, is
an opportunity to express feelings. However, failure to comply
with "procedures" would create a commotion -- compliance with
these procedures requires any newcomer wishing to join the dance
to come from the front and ask permission from the person whose
hand she or he is going to hold.

Modern

There are many more Tolaki cultural and dance pieces, all of
which need conserving against the influx of modernity.

Some cultural items, customs and mores of the Tolaki people
seem to have been forgotten even by the Tolaki themselves. At the
village level, for example, a customary administration unit which
may pass a customary ruling no longer exists.

Trying to preserve what remains was the aim of the festival.

One main part of the program at this year's festival was an
exhibition of the peohala traditional wedding.

Head of Kendari tourism service, Mantu Mustafa, said in the
four previous festivals there had been no cultural items unique
to Kendari which could be placed on a par with the tourist-
flocked Toraja burial ceremonies.

This year the festival featured a number of local customs,
historical and archaeological objects and native flora.

Also featured were the kalo sara rite, a sacred ceremony to
welcome dignitaries, and the curious peohala custom, a penalty
exacted to a young unmarried man caught peeping on a bathing
girl.

The kalo sara is a significant symbol, it is made of rattan
and circular in shape, and is considered a unifier. It is the
Tolaki people's symbol of the highest order.

A wedding, for instance, cannot take place in the absence of a
kalo sara.

The symbol exerts great influence. If someone, out of revenge,
comes to kill you, you present him a kalo as a token of respect
and a sign that you hold yourself in lower esteem than your
would-be killer. He will then drop his intentions.

Mantu explained, "If the plan is carried out despite the kalo
held by the would-be victim, the murder will be considered a
violation against customary law and (locals believe) the person
committing the murder will be punished by God."

Mantu said the festival also featured some traditional
performances such the moanggo, a musical repertoire with songs of
sacred value.

There were also other attractions during the seven-day
festival such as mehule (a top game), mebiti (a contest involving
kicking on the calf of one's leg), molili (arm wrestling) and
kumati (catching a woodcock/woodhen by means of a snare).

Head of the regional tourism office, Sukarna Himsany, admits
the lack of promotion for the Kendari Festival and heritage of
the Konaweeha kingdom.

Mantu added the absence of customary institutions at the
village and district levels has led to the disappearance of
Tolaki arts and culture.

Kendari regent Abdul Razak expressed his commitment to
reviving tradition; he said, when opening the festival, that the
administration is planning to re-establish customary institutions
at all administrative levels from the village to the regency.

A representative of elders, he added, would be set up at the
regency level at the Tolaki Cultural Park, though it is not yet
clear how their influence will take shape.