Barongan

Reog or Réyog (Javanese: ꦫꦺꦪꦺꦴꦒ꧀) is a traditional Indonesian dance in an open arena that serves as folk entertainment and contains some magical elements. The main dancer is a lion-headed person with a peacock feather decoration, accompanied by several masked dancers and Kuda Lumping. Reog is one of the performing arts from the northwestern region of East Java and Ponorogo is the region where Reog originated. The city gate of Ponorogo is decorated with warok and gemblak, two characters who were present at the time when Reog is performed. Reog is one aspect of Indonesian culture that remains firmly linked with mystical elements and mysticism. In 2013, Reog Ponorogo tradition was recognized as National Intangible Cultural Heritage of Indonesia by the Indonesia Ministry of Education and Culture. On 3 December 2024, Reog Ponorogo performing art was inscribed on the UNESCO list of Intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding.¶

Etymology

In the book of "Pedoman Dasar Kesenian Reog Ponorogo dalam Pentas Budaya Bangsa" published by the Ponorogo Regional Government in 1993, it is stated that the words reog or reyog is Javanese in origin. It comes from the Javanese riyeg or riyet means 'noisy or crowded'.¶

History

The dance describe Klono Sewandono the king of Ponorogo on his journey to Kediri to seek the hand of the Princess Songgo Langit. On his journey he was attacked by a vicious monster called Singo Barong, a mythical lion with peacock on its head. Historians trace the origin of Reog Ponorogo as the satire on the incompetence of Majapahit rulers during the end of the empire. It describe the innate Ponorogo liberty and its opposition on centralist Majapahit rule. The lion represent the king of Majapahit while the peafowl represent the queen, it was suggested that the king was incompetent and always being controlled by his queen. The beautiful, youthful and almost effeminate horsemen describe the Majapahit cavalry that have lost their manliness. In society there is another version of the origin of the Reog. History of Reog Arts began with the revolt of Ki Ageng, a man of Majapahit Kingdom in the 15th century, where at that time the Majapahit Kingdom was under the rule of the King of Kertabhumi Bhre, the last Majapahit Kingdom. Ki Ageng Kutu, who held wrath against the corrupt behavior of his King, saw that the powers of the Majapahit Kingdom soon would end. He left the Kingdom and founded a college of martial arts in hope of raising seeds which can be held as under. Aware that the army was not able to compete with the Majapahit army, political messages of Ki Ageng Kutu were submitted through the performances of Reog. Ki Ageng Kutu utilized performance of Reog to build resistance to the Royal Society.¶

Performance

Reog is a traditional dance that became the main identity for Ponorogo Regency. Reog National Festival is held every year along with the anniversary of Ponorogo regency and the Grebeg Suro celebration. Reog dance is also staged nightly on the full moon in Paseban, Ponorogo town square. Reog tells the story about the struggle of a prince who will propose to a beautiful princess. Reog Ponorogo tells the story of a mythical battle between the King of Ponorogo and the magical lion-like creature called Singo Barong.¶

Singo Barong mask (Dadak Merak)

The Reog dance of Ponorogo involves a lion figure known as the singo barong. Singo Barong is a large mask usually made from a tiger's or leopard's head skin, on the mask is a large fan adorned with real peafowl feathers. The Singo Barong mask is notoriously heavy and the dancer of the Singo Barong has to carry the mask of about 30–40 kg (66–88 lb) in weight and is supported by the strength of their teeth. A single dancer, or warok, carries the heavy lion mask by his teeth. He is credited with supernatural abilities and strength. The warok may also carry an adolescent boy or girl on its head. When carrying an adolescent boy or girl on his head, the Reog dancer holds weight of up to 100 kg (220 lb) in total. Holding the heavy big mask by biting, the warok relies on the strength of his jaws, neck and shoulder muscles. The great mask spans over 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) with genuine tiger skin and real peacock feathers. It has gained international recognition as the world's largest mask.¶

Performers

The leading figures in Reog Ponorogo performance include:¶

Klono Sewandono, A man in regal attire wearing a mask with a proud and pompous dance and plays the role as the King of Ponorogo Bujang Ganong are rough youthful men wearing red masks, they perform acrobatic dances and sometimes also involve trances. Jathil, the youthful and handsome men riding horses made of weaved bamboo, similar to the Kuda Lumping dance. Today, Jathil is usually performed by female dancers. Warok, plays as the Singo Barong, the mythical creature. The one who is allowed to perform this dance is called warok. A warok is the honorary title of the local hero or strongman of the village who possesses both exceptional spiritual and physical strength. The dance itself is a demonstration of physical strength. Reog Ponorogo usually consists of three sets of dances; each dance is performed by several dancers:¶

The first dance is the opening dance, performed by Bujang Ganong, male dancers who wear black costumes. The costume describes rough men with intimidating moustaches and other masculine symbols. The second dance is the Jaran Kepang dance performed by Jathil; it is originally performed by a gemblak, a handsome and youthful teenage boy wearing colourful costumes. Today female dancers usually play this role. The third dance is the main attraction of the show; it is performed by all the Reog dancers. The warok as the main male dancer, wearing the large and heavy lion mask, dances in the centre of the stage while the other dancers dance around him. To demonstrate the warok's extraordinary strength, the Jathil rides on top of the lion mask and is carried around.¶

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Barongan”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.¶

Barongan is traditional Indonesian performance arts and culture originated from Ponorogo of East Java, Indonesia, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition.¹¶

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation.¹¶