Sisingaan, a disjunctive folk culture of Subang

by - May 16, 2016


Sisingaan is art performance from Subang Jawa Barat, also known as Gotong Singa or Singa Depok. It was a famous art performance in the Subang area, especially in Pantura (Pantai Utara Jawa / north Jawa Barat) such as Pamanukan, Indramayu, and Karawang.

Sisingaan means a fake lion. An artificial lion. In Bahasa Indonesia lion means singa, the Si word that is repeated twice, and a comment behind indicates a fake character or pretend situation in the Sundanese language. So, Sisingaan is an acculturation word from Bahasa Indonesia and Sundanese language.

It's performed by 4 (or more) men carrying the sitting lion doll, they walk around the village followed by their family and neighborhood, and they also dance following the music rhyme. At some point, the men will stop walking and perform their dance to entertain the viewers.

For Sisingaan, they used Sundanese traditional music, but for Sisingaan followers, they used dangdut music. So with the costumes, the boy who rode Sisingaan would wear Sundanese traditional costumes and the men would wear uniforms, such a modification design from Sundanese traditional costumes.

Commonly Sisingaan is performed to celebrate khitan, a Muslim tradition of remarked boy's maturity by circumcision. But, nowadays not only boys can ride Sisingaan, but adults can be, even sometimes they (adults) are the boy's parents. In some regional anniversary events, the leader would ride Sisingaan to be seen by people.

Sisingaan didn't come out by itself or suddenly created, there is a reason behind his genesis. In the 1800s, while the Dutch (Holland) and England still being an alliance, Subang was under their authority. They built a planter community named P & T Lands, in daily The Dutch managed the politics and England managed the economy of that company.


Because of the double ownership of P & T Lands, a lot of Subang people live miserably. That condition made them suffer and released an unsatisfied atmosphere in Subang. Then, they created Sisingaan to tease the colonizer.

The lion itself was chosen as a symbol of colonizers, Dutch and England, that's why in every Sisingaan performance at least they performed 2 lions. The boy who rides Sisingaan is a joke of the colonizer, representing the rude ambitions of squeezing a resource that isn't theirs.

In the beginning, Sisingaan was created as a disjunctive symbol for teasing the colonizer, but it grew into a folk culture of Subang. Even now Sisingaan is the main performer at Subang annual events.

Like other folk cultures, the tradition has been changed and modified depending on the situation. So with it. Nowadays Sisingaan form isn't only about a lion, it has transformed into the other form that people see on Television.

In North Subang, especially in the Pantura area. Sisingaan can be found in abstract, weird, and odds versions. It still has a lion head but with a tiger stripe body, horsetail, and bird wings, or a dragon head with a cow body and dragon tail in missy patterns.


That transformation can't be separated from the ancient folk culture (another folk culture) that appeared even before Sisingaan itself. That ancient folk culture has acculturated with Sisingaan in different tastes.

No matter how far Sisingaan has changed, it still is the disjunctive folk culture of Subang that was raised by the era.
(picture source: www.google.com)

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