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.