Dikia Mauluik

Audio 5.3: Audio Example 3 in Chapter 5 of book: Margaret Kartomi, ‘Musical Journeys in Sumatra’, Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012. In the Minangkabau region of West Sumatra, “dikia Mauluik” (“dikir Maulud” in Indonesian) performances take place nightly in different homes during the month of “Maulud”, the third month of the Muslim calendar, and can last till dawn. “Dikir” means “remembrance of Allah” and Maulud is the month when the Prophet Muhammad was born. The remembrance takes the form of singing and chanting religious passages from the Qur’an in Arabic, both from memory and by reading copies lying open on the floor. The “dikir Maulud” performers are also seated on the floor, cross-legged, as they accompany themselves on large frame drums (“rabano”) while they sing. The type of rhythm they play is determined by the page of religious text chosen for performance. The leader (“tukang dikia”) of the performing group is responsible for page choice, and sings two lines of the text before all, in unison, join in. In our excerpt, recorded in December 1985, the “tukang dikia” is the famous blind musician Bp Islamidar. “Dikir Maulud” performances take place, usually with feasting, to celebrate a harvest, a life event such as a birth or wedding, a successful completion of a Qur’an-reading examination, or a pilgrim’s departure for Mecca. Duration: 2 min. 12 sec.

Copyright 1985. Margaret J. Kartomi.