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Contact Name
Regina Veronica Edijono
Contact Email
wacana@ui.ac.id
Phone
+6221 7863528
Journal Mail Official
wacana@ui.ac.id
Editorial Address
Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia Gd 2 , Lt 2 , Depok 16424, Indonesia
Location
Kota depok,
Jawa barat
INDONESIA
Wacana: Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia
Published by Universitas Indonesia
ISSN : 14112272     EISSN : 24076899     DOI : https://doi.org/10.17510/wacana
Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by the Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia. It invites original articles on various issues within humanities, which include but are not limited to philosophy, literature, archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, history, cultural studies, philology, arts, library and information science focusing on Indonesian studies and research. Wacana seeks to publish a balanced mix of high-quality theoretical or empirical research articles, case studies, review papers, comparative studies, exploratory papers, and book reviews. All accepted manuscripts will be published both online and in printed forms. The journal publishes two thematic issues per year, in April and October. The first thematic issue consists of two numbers.
Articles 647 Documents
Tradition, ritual, and art of the <i>Baliatn</i>; The conceptualization of philosophy and the manifestation of spirituality among the Dayak Kanayatn Olendo, Yudhistira Oscar; Dewantara, Jagad Aditya; Efriani, Efriani
Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia Vol. 23, No. 2
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Abstract

Rapid globalization has slowly eroded the survival of the Baliatn ritual of the Dayak Kanayatn. Nowadays, the locals only rarely perform this ritual which is a manifestation of their culture. This study describes the Baliatn ritual pointing out it is pregnant with the meaningful philosophy of the ancestors. This tradition sets out the relationship between the people and nature; an example of gratitude and spirituality in this modern era. It also discusses the importance of cultural conceptualization through philosophy, art, and spirituality. Importantly, the Baliatn is an expression of the Dayak Kanayatn idea of how to live and appreciate life. They believe their closeness to nature allows them to create a harmonious relationship with God. This culture is founded on ancestral traditions, including literature, art, music, and incantations. The writers claim that a good description of the Baliatn is essential because it is nearly extinct. They are continuing their research on the Baliatn ritual
“The wandering poet”; Depictions on ancient Javanese relief panels Kieven, Lydia
Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia Vol. 23, No. 2
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A bstract There are about 60 panels with narrative reliefs from the area of Trowulan in East Java depicting mountains, rivers, bridges, trees, fields, dwellings, pendopo, and palaces. A male figure wearing a cap-like headdress accompanied by a little panakawan-like figure, walks along a cobbled path through a beautiful landscape. The figures are carved in the simple style of East Javanese reliefs on Majapahit temples. The predominance of nature, in amazing detail, is unusual compared to other narrative temple reliefs. The exact provenance is difficult to determine. The artefacts are scattered in museums all over the world: the majority in Trowulan, as well as a large convolute in Jakarta, in Amsterdam, and elsewhere. Fixing the order of the panels is a challenge. This paper discusses two major topics: (A) presenting depictions of landscape and nature in visual art; (B) comparison with Old Javanese texts narrating journeys through landscape and nature. These exercises will provide some conclusions about the function of landscape and nature in the reliefs and their purpose at their original sites. Questions on provenance will also be raised, including the documentation practice of the colonial Dutch and Indonesian Archaeological Services. A number of the panels have been documented by the OD (Dutch Oudheidkundige Dienst), archived in OD photos entitled “Reliefs from Trowulan”, other panels have been documented as being from the site Menak Jinggo in Trowulan. In my paper, I call the reliefs under investigation the “Trowulan reliefs”. N.J. Krom’s (1923) suggestion of doing research on the convolute of these reliefs has never been undertaken, now 100 years later it is time to do so.
Primates and birds of <i>sabulungan</i>; Roles of animals in sculptures, shamanic songs and dances, and the belief system of traditional Mentawaians Tulius, Juniator; Burman-Hall, Linda
Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia Vol. 23, No. 2
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Mentawaians sing ritual songs enshrined in archaic texts referring to particular primates and birds, while ritual and traditional dances imitate how gibbons, sea eagles, and other animals live in the natural world. Mentawaians craft sculptures of endemic primates and unique birds. The bilou gibbon ape and various other animals also symbolize specific sacred knowledge within the sabulungan spiritual belief system and traditional cosmology of Mentawai society. Although some do succeed in surviving, many older traditions have faded away. Among the traditions which continue intact, this report aims to examine the roles of primates and birds across the arts and in the Mentawai belief system to reveal the profound depth of connection between humanity and the natural world throughout Mentawai traditional culture.
<i>Purwaka</i> Bogaerts, Els; Day, Tony; Kleinman, Danielle Chen
Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia Vol. 22, No. 3
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A <i>wali</i>’s quest for guidance; The Islamic genealogies of the <i>Seh Mlaya</i> Meyer, Verena
Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia Vol. 22, No. 3
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The Seh Mlaya is a narrative tradition of Sunan Kalijaga’s conversion and becoming a wali that is well-known for its drawing on pre-Islamic narrative and discursive legacies. In this article, I explore the Islamic genealogies of the narrative as told in a Surakarta manuscript (RP 333). I argue that the author uses the verse narrative to articulate two prominent, yet seemingly opposed, intellectual and spiritual traditions in Islamic Java and the relation between them: the speculative and ecstatic teachings of the Sufi lineage of the Syattariyah on the one hand, and Ghazālī’s work with its emphasis on obedience and the purification of the soul on the other. Sunan Kalijaga’s quest narratively holds together these two currents and even gestures at a transcendence of their difference as Sunan Kalijaga’s efforts, even as they fail, lead to his realization of guidance.
Rethinking the name; The problem of the name <i>Candrakiraṇa</i> in the oldest Javanese prosody Aminullah, Zakariya Pamuji
Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia Vol. 22, No. 3
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The oldest written text in Javanese literature is Candrakiraṇa, one of its parts, the Amaramālā, mentions “Indra” as a king of the Śailendra dynasty. This work is essential because it includes various elements of prosody which the authors of kakawin needed to compose their literary work. For many years, some Javanese scholars had been debating the proper name of this text, using only one manuscript, LOr 4570, a copy of the incomplete gebang manuscript from the PNRI, which does not have a prologue or an epilogue mentioning its precise name. However, reading L 298, a lontar in the Merapi-Merbabu Collection, this manuscript clearly demonstrates that the name of this oldest text is Candrakiraṇa. This begs the question: Is there any relationship between the name and the content itself? This article presents pertinent arguments indicating that the name proposed can be accounted for both factually and conceptually.
Flora and fauna based on Old Javanese literary reading in the Malang Highlands Region Suprapta, Blasius
Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia Vol. 22, No. 3
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Towards the end of the twelfth century (1104 Ś = AD 1182) until the middle of the fourteenth (1281 Ś = AD 1359), a Hindu-Buddhist civilization, consisting of the Akuwu of Tumapĕl - the kingdom of Siŋhasari – and the kingdom of Majapahit, developed a well-organized social and cultural life in the Malang Highlands Region of Java. This included the management of natural resources, flora and fauna. Although their variety has been well documented in Old Javanese literature and inscriptions, so far there has not been an in-depth study identifying the diversity of flora and fauna of the region during the late Hindu-Buddhist era. This is a study of diverse flora and fauna and how people managed these resources based on reading the source of Old Javanese literature. It begins with library research, followed by diplomatic analysis of various types of flora and fauna in Old Javanese inscriptions, zoological analysis, ethno-zoology, and geographical spatial analysis. The results of the study include the use of various types of flora and fauna in sima ceremonies and everyday agricultural activities. One type of flora, alang-alang (Imperata) which thrives on Gunung Lĕjar, was controlled by the state as it was a fire-risk. Alang-alang was an important thatching material. The trade in endemic plants, herbs, and spices, was protected and regulated by the state. It is also known that the profits from tropical forest management in Bantaran were used for the maintenance of sacred buildings: prāsāda in Hĕmad.
When dad and mom are away from home... <i>Panji Paniba</i> 11.20-45 Molen, Willem van der
Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia Vol. 22, No. 3
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Access to the pre-modern world of Classical Javanese literature (seventeenth- nineteenth centuries) starts with a sound knowledge of its idiom. “When dad and mom are away from home...” leads the novice through grammatical constructions and vocabulary not found in Modern Javanese literature. The light-hearted story providing these examples is taken from the Panji Paniba. This early nineteenth-century text belongs to a famous group of Javanese romances of chivalry going by the name of “Panji stories”, all set in the Hindu era of the East-Javanese kingdom of Kediri.
The song of Samsu Tabriz in Ronggasasmita’s <i>Suluk Acih</i> Florida, Nancy
Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia Vol. 22, No. 3
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The article contributes an excerpt from the Karaton Surakarta poet Ronggasasmita’s Suluk Kutub (also known as Suluk Samsu Tabriz) along with an annotated translation of the text into English. Suluk Kutub is one of the metaphysical poems that belong to this Sufi poet’s Suluk Acih, a text that he compiled in Aceh in 1815. The poem is a Javanese rendition of the meeting of Jalaluddin Rumi (Jav. Mulana Amir Kaji Rum) with his beloved, Shamsuddin Tabrizi (Jav. Samsu Tabriz). The commentary forms a short meditation on, and guide to, the specific practices of translating Javanese poetry into English – performed in part in dialogue with Ronggasasmita.
Prophets, <i>pegon</i>, and piety; The Javanese <i>Layang Ambiya</i> Ricci, Ronit
Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia Vol. 22, No. 3
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The tales of the prophets are among the most popular textual traditions across the Islamic world and Java proves no exception. Beginning with the first human and first prophet Nabi Adam, these often vast collections recount the biographies of all those viewed as prophets in Islam, ultimately leading up to the “seal of the prophets”, Muhammad. Many manuscripts of this genre were composed and copied in Javanese, in different periods, locales, and milieus, opening a window to how these core Islamic stories and the messages they carry were understood and transmitted in Java. The essay explores one example, a Layang Ambiya composed in the pĕsantren milieu in the mid-nineteenth century and written in pegon (MSB L12), currently housed in the Museum Sonobudoyo, Yogyakarta.