Of Sinden and Blue Eyes

I was just toying with the remote control, changing the channels, when something very peculiar shown on the TV. A woman, complete in her authentic Javanese Kebaya, was singing as a sinden. What’s amazing is that, she is not a Javanese, not even Indonesian. She is in fact a leggy Caucasian woman born in Wisconsin, USA.

She was sitting there among the other sindens and belted some pitch perfect Kromo Inggil (Javanese Language of the highest caste - according to my wife who is from Malang). She also dance and mime in a flexibility often attributed to the most veteran of dancers.

My wife and I were just sitting there with our collective jaws hit the floor.

Now being a sinden is not like your run of the mill singing technique. It requires theatrical ability, wide range of pitch control with atypical (pentatonic?) notes, and most importantly the comprehensive grasp of Javanese language and folklore. That made the achievement of one Karen Elizabeth Sekararum all the more remarkable.

The number of professional sinden across the nation has been in a steady decreasing trend for quite sometime now. This is inline with the decreasing number of Wayang Show – Indonesian traditional puppet, confirmed by Tribun Indonesia, a local newspaper.

With young ones like us pursuing careers that would make all of our parents proud. Working as engineer, IT geek, architect, and other field deemed more promising financially. Even those into art, prefer western type of art such as hip-hop, R&B, and break-dance. Traditional heritage has been neglected over the years. It is encouraging to see the attention is now gaining momentum.

After some Google research, I found out that there are other budding foreigner sinden around, apart from Mrs. Sekararum. One Briton by the name of Esther Wilds, a Chinese descendant Meyling Sri Bowo. and another American, Susan Pratt Walton.

Several shows has been a sell out, with people intrigued by the sight of white women singing Babad Tanah Jawa. They could even let slip some English during the show, with the audience all laughing and amused. It was fantastic.

If Karen Elizabeth could fall in love with Indonesian art and culture. Indonesians should be even more proud that our traditional art can be as admirable as that of foreign culture. Hopefully not only our government authority but the private sector able to seize this opportunity to introduce them to broader audience.

With the world having a better appreciation of our cultural history, might as well become a counter balance of all the negative issues that has blighted our nation’s journey.

Note:

• Photo taken and edited from http://www.mangun-dharma.com/