Geundrang Keling

For male participants. A pair of musicians playing the geundrang (double-headed drum) keling (Indian) in their home on the beachfront in the town of Sigli. Each drum rests on a wooden peg on the right. With a curved wooden stick that is held in the right hand, each player beats a variety of rhythms on the right-hand leather head of the drum. Rhythms that are usually different to those by the right hand are beaten directly onto the left-hand leather head with the player's left hand. The geundrang keling used to accompany Shi'a ceremonies, including the tabut pageant in which the effigy of a chariot that is said to have carried martyrs Hasan and Husein to heaven was thrown into the sea. Tabut has been obsolete in Sigli since the early 20th century, but is still performed in Bengkulu and Pariaman on Sumatra's west coast. (For more information, see Margaret J Kartomi, "Tabut: a Shi'a Ritual Transplanted from India to Sumatra," in David P. Chandler and M C Ricklefs (eds.), Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Indonesia; Essays in Honour of Professor J D Legge, Melbourne: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1986, pp. 141-62)

Copyright 1982. Notes prepared by Bronia Kornhauser with Margaret Kartomi, School of Music-Conservatorium, Monash University. Photography by Hidris Kartomi.