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.