Traditional toys still 'exist' along Malioboro

Traditional toys still 'exist' along Malioboro

Text and photos by R. Fadjri

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Along Jalan Malioboro, Yogyakarta's main shopping promenade, there are at least 50 vendors of traditional toys, such as bamboo flutes and spinning tops. Most sell toys only in addition to other wares, like batik cloth. Only a few specialize solely in toys.

One such specialist is Muchlis Yudhiarto, a 27-year-old man who has spent more than half his life in the toy business on Jalan Malioboro. Muchlis not only sells toys, he also makes them with his own hands. He learned the art from his parents-in-law.

In the village of Mandesan in the Semin district of the Gunung Kidul regency the craft of making traditional toys is still being handed down from generation to generation in Muchlis' wife's family. It is no coincidence that this particular craft flourishes in Mandesan: during most of the year, the soil in the Semin district lends itself poorly to agriculture. But bamboo, among the most important materials used in toy-making, is plentiful. Particularly useful to the toy maker is the dwarf bamboo, known locally as pring petung.

Making traditional toys is not a complicated process and no special skills are needed. To make a flute, for example, the bamboo is first washed with water and then laid out to dry in the sun for a day. Then it is cut into lengths and, using a red-hot iron nail, finger holes are made at fixed intervals. Finally, decorative motifs are burned onto the flute using a carbide burner.

At least three kinds of flute are made by craftsmen in the village of Mandesan. The largest has a length of about 45 centimeters and a diameter of about two centimeters. Producing a low, sonorous tone, it is used in the gamelan orchestra. By contrast, the "Sundanese" (West Javanese) flute is only about 30 centimeters long, one centimeter in diameter and produces notes of a higher pitch. The smallest type of flute is 20 centimeters long and is used to accompany the Indian-influenced Malay music, known as dangdut.

According to Muchlis, the current popularity of dangdut music has made a significant contribution to the revival of the art of flute-making in Mandesan. For craftsmen and vendors such as Muchlis, things are looking much better now than they did in the 1970s or early 1980s, when very few people bought flutes. Around the mid-1980s, however, dangdut music started to gain in popularity and for Muchlis and his colleagues business began to pick up. Muchlis says that these days he is selling about ten flutes a day.

Tourists, too, appear to appreciate the delicate sound of the bamboo flute. They also seem to like the sound of the bird whistles. These come in two varieties. The smaller ones are about ten centimeters long and can imitate the call of the turtle dove. The bigger ones are 15 centimeters long and are able to mimic the calls of many other birds. The buyers of bird whistles and spinning tops are mostly children.

In Muchlis' trade windfalls are not too uncommon. Occasionally, Muchlis says, tourists will spend as much as Rp 100,000 to buy up his flutes, bird whistles and spinning tops, presumably for sale abroad. Such events are warmly welcomed, since vendors like Muchlis usually make only about Rp 5,000 a day.

Of the Rp 5,000 which Muchlis makes on an average day, about Rp 2,000 is spent on food for himself, his wife and his child. Another Rp 2,000 goes on other daily necessities and only Rp 1,000 can be saved -- towards payment of the Rp 100,000 annual rent for their simple house beside the Code river.