CUPAK GERANTANG
VERSI BAHASA INGGRIS
CHAPTER
1
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Every Nation claiming to be a part
of the civilized world is proud of its cultural heritage. Culture is a system
of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members
of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and they are
transmitted from generation to generation through learning.
Indonesia is a country with profuse
and varied cultures. The diversity reflects the history,development, and
civilization of Indonesia as a great nation.
Therefore, the diversity of Indonesian’s culture must be preserved and
safeguarded, particularly in order to prevent allegation of the culture as
other countries’ asset.
The Government of Indonesia has been
doing some efforts for maintaining and perpetuating the national cultural
heritage from extinction and to promote and develop national culture. There are
provisions in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, first
edition, for the protection of national culture. Article 32 states that “The
Government shall advance the national culture of Indonesia”. In the explanation
that follows Article 32, it is stated that “The nation’s culture is the culture
which grows as the outcome of the endeavours expressing the identity and
vitality of the entire People of Indonesia. The ancient and indigenous cultures
which are to be found as cultural heights in all the regions throughout
Indonesia are part of the nation’s culture. Cultural efforts should lead toward
advances in civilization to enrich the nation’s culture as well as to raise the
height of humanity of the Indonesian Nation.”
Folklore is probably the most
important and well-acclaimed component of the cultural heritage of a nation. It
can reflect the essentials of a nation’s cultural attributes as in a mirror and
is recognized as a basis for its cultural and social identity. Based on the
characteristics that have been associated with it, ‘folklore’ can be defined as
the sum total of human creativity. It encompasses the customs, games, beliefs,
festivals, and practices which human societies have owned through tradition
from generation to generation. It includes literature, performing and
non-performing arts, paintings, sculptures, arts and crafts and designs, which
have been handed down orally, some in writing (Valsasa, 1999: p. 9).
For Sasak people as an example, they express
their own folklore through literature. The Sasak
literary work, especially the script (written language) is very close to the
script of Java and Bali, the same as using the script ha na ca ra ka but the pronunciation is quite close to Bali.
In relation to the history, the
culture of Lombok was much influenced from Bali, Java (Majapahit). The name
Sasak is derived from two words, Sah, which means to and Saka, which means ancestor. Sasak then means the people
who went to the place of the ancestor. Goris believes that the Sasak people are
originally Javanese, because their script is named Jejawen (Goris in Bahrie, 2009: p.8)
Nothing is known of the early
history of Lombok. However, by the fourteenth century, there is evidence of
links with Java. In the Nagarakartagama of AD 1365, both Lombok
and Saksak are mentioned as dependencies of Majapahit; this link is comfirmed
by traditions which have survived in Lombok itself. Various versions of the Babad Lombok speak of the ruler of
Majapahit’s sending his sons to East Lombok, Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa with a
new teaching. The people of the old village of Sembalun, in mountains of
Northeast Lombok, claim to be descendant of the Javanese, and in their burial
hill nearby, which is it called Majapahit, it is said that a relative of the
Javanese style of village life, house building and agriculture, in music and in the arts, especially the wayang lendong, the Sasak Shadow Play,
which derives from East Javanese Wayang gedog, only repertoire has been
changed to accomodate islamic needs and preferences. In place names, official
titles, and some survivals of Panji Literature, Majapahit influeces are to be discerned (Marrison, 1999: p. 3).
At sixteenth century, the Balinese
come to Lombok as adventurers and stayed in the sorrounding of West Lombok,
especially in the Ampenan-Mataram-Cakranegara and after the invasions of the
eighteenth century, they became rulers of the island from 1740-1894 and gave
much influences on Sasak culture
including to literature. The earliest
formal literature of the Sasak was written in Javanese. In the course of their
history, three stages in their use of this language can be decerned. Firstly,
they imported works of Javanese tradition, such as the Panji Stories, and later
poems old islamic content from north coast of Java of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, as well as
romantic poems, such as the earlier text of the Amir Hamzah cyle, which were of
islamic background, but without theological content. Secondly, there was an
adaptation of this Javanese literary tradition, by which local recensions and
versions of texts in Javanese in Lombok, such as some of the other later Amir
Hamzah Stories. Besides this, Javanese was used for secular and technical
perposes both before and during the
period of Balinese rule, in manual relating to medicine, magical calender, and
in prose for legal document. It was only toward the middle of nineteenth
century that there is any evidence of the use of Sasak for written literature (Marrison,
1999: p. 14). However, even these
stories still relied heavily on established Javanese vocabulary and structural
conventions. Thus it is often difficult to determine whether a text is borrowed
or indigenous. A common practicians or scholars have been taking a closer look
at the metric forms employed in the respective works. All stories, whether in
the Javanese or Sasak language, are composed in Javanese macapat metres, of which only six are commonly used in Lombok such
as asmarandana, dangdanggula, durma,
maskumambang, pangkur, and sinom (Nurgiyantoro,
2005. p. 20).
In 1982, the
Museum Negeri Nusa Tenggara Barat was opened in Mataram, to house and display
existing collection from Lombok and Sumbawa, and to promote further collection,
including Sasak and other manuscript. Some of manuscripts were written on daun lontar (palm leaves) that produced
by engraving characters with a sharpened small knife (pemaje:Sasak). The manuscripts on palm leaves in Sasak are called takepan. There are many takepan that very famous in Lombok, such
as Jatiswara, Monyeh, Cilinaye, Cupak
Gurantang, Dewi Rengganis, and so on. They can be found in the West Nusa
Tenggara Museum in Mataram.
The takepan contains much valuable information on the people’s past
that is why the present researcher considers that it is important to socialize
and transfer these values to young generations of Sasak, especially in relation
to our endeavor to increase the quality of human resource. “Cupak Gurantang “ is one of the famous
folklore in Lombok. It is very popular among the Sasak as a wayang story (shadow puppet) and sung in
the local ceremonies. It is believed that the story of “Cupak Gurantang “ becomes so popular because of its historical,
artistic, moral and educational values. Therefore, the present reseacher
considered that it was important to socialize and transfer the values in the ““Cupak Gurantang “ folklore to the young
generation of Sasak.
B. Focus of the Study
Each kind of
analysis has its limit. Therefore, this analysis focused on the analysis of moral and educational values in the “Cupak Gurantang” folklore.
C. Statement of the Problem
Depart from the
essential of the background above, the present reseacher wanted to answer one
question, that was: What kinds of moral and educational values are found in the
“Cupak Gurantang “ folklore?
D. Purpose of the Study
The main purpose
of this analysis was to discover the values concerning to the moral and education that contain in the “Cupak Gurantang “ folklore.
E. The Significance of Study
Theoretically, through this analysis, it
conveyed the useful information and clear understanding about literary theory
itself specially everything that related to the moral and education values.
Practically, it gave contribution to the
readers’ ability to comprehend of how important of moral and education values
is ? It was supposed to be sort reference of concerning literary work to
enhance their ability and being sort simply knowledge to the reader about the
literary works and also it was a plain vision of the content in the literature
itself.
F.
Definition
of the Key Terms
In order to
avoid misunderstanding in interpreting the meaning of the term used in this
analysis the writer needed to define some of them. The terms were as follows:
1. Moral
is principles and beliefs concerning right and wrong behavior (Collins, 2005: p.
7).
2.
Values can be defined as learned, relatively enduring, emotionally charged, epistemologically
grounded and represented moral conceptualizations that assist us in making
judgements and in preparing us to act (Rodney, 1994: p. 19-24).
3. Folklore is folk songs and legends (Brunvand,
Jan Harold 1996 : p.45).
4. “Cupak Gurantang “is a famous folklore among Sasak people. (Lalu Gde Suparman,
1999: p.34).
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