The tradition & historical record
2 min read · 1 sourceDikir barat, dikir hulu or lebe ulu is a musical form, native to the northeastern coastal region of Malay Peninsula, that involves singing in groups—often in a competitive setting. Dikir barat may be performed either with a percussion instrumental accompaniment, or with no instruments at all. The art originated among the peasantry of Patani who would incant verses back and forth with each other (dikir, from Arabic: ذِكْر, romanized: dzikr) as a form of entertainment while harvesting their paddy fields; this would be later be developed to be performed in functions for guests from faraway lands (jamuan lebe ulu, 'banquet of inland/upstream imams') hence the art would be known as lebe ulu. It was only the spread to Kelantan in the 1930s where it is given the popular name dikir barat– barat ('west') referring to the location in relation to Kelantan. It is still performed in both modern nation-states of Malaysia and Thailand, the former's National Department for Culture and Arts actively promotes it as an important part of Malaysian national culture. Since the mid-1970s, the art form has also gained popularity among the Malays of Singapore, who have adapted it into a distinctive style known as Dikir Barat Singapura, also referred to as Dikir Singapura.
The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Dikir barat”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.
Dikir barat is Malay folk genre and a form of music often sung competitively between groups, 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 8 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. 1