Seeking the Great Values behind the Marginalized Javanese Games
Khristianto,S.S.
Faculty of Letters
Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto
Jl. Raya Dukuwaluh Po.Box202, Purwokerto
rezalx@yahoo.com, mobile: +62 85227737495
Abstract
The games for kids don’t only function to entertain, but also takes a role in shaping the personality for the young. The Javanese ancestors had created many kinds of traditional games to play, as the media to play fun, to socialize with others, and also to practice the psychomotor skills for the children. Unfortunately, the games start to fade out from the view, since fewer kids play the games, leaving most to choose the modern, western games, or just get entertained by watching the black box in the living room. This matter must be a concern for the natives of the Indonesian local cultures in general. Thus, it will imply to an extinction of a part of the cultural treasure.
This paper tries to explore the spirit, by revitalizing the values behind the games. It will seek the red line linking many types of traditional games, and goes deeper to formulate the local geniuses within them. By finding the great values, it is expected there will be shared awareness of the importance in the piece of culture for development of human resources.
The result of analysis shows that Javanese games have some common characteristics, those are: well-opened, stimulating psychomotor skills, massive or involving many players, natural setting and environment-based. And the values behind the games are the closeness to the nature, the spirit of togetherness, and the spirit of hard work.
Key words: games, Javanese, local genius.
Introduction
Oktavianus (2008:2) in his paper is concerned on the change of Minangkabau language and culture.
The strong invasion of Indonesian language reaches all regions. Some people even begin to socialize Indonesian as the first language of their new generation. This phenomenon has the impact to the existence of figure of speech. Meanwhile, figure of speech may contain local genius constructed through the ecology of culture and the nuance of Islam characterized Minangkabau people.
There are many things about traditional closing to their extinction. In Oktavianus’ context above, Bahasa Indonesia is a threat which has put many local language elements on the edge. This paper focuses on the similar concern above, which may have a common root problem. The traditional games are now going to an obvious ending, as their generation left them out. The young of today, who should be the practitioners, have more interests on other kinds of games. The modernity in some aspect has contributed to the extinction. A night with a full moon used to be a party for the kids. The fun atmosphere was strongly felt in the kid’s mind of the past. And they were waiting the moment so much. The day was always play time outside the house. The rainy day meant running like horse in the middle of the drops. Running in wet sounded so heroic. In another, it meant a harvest time for the fruits in the neighbor’s house yard. The sunny day was the time to hunt a good trunk to play kathik, or it was the best time to play oglong, gerobak serbu, or bacean.
All the fun of the games now concludes with the products of modernity. The electricity has put down the values of the full moon in the modern mind. Being to be lighted is usual. It is a normal to have lights in the dark night. This grabs the fascination of the full moon. The charm of invitation the moon has now extinct. This fact is worsened by the TV box. The kids prefer to enjoy the TV programs to the socialization with others by playing traditional games. They refuses other’s summoning to play, as they have a favorite program shown in TV.
As they come to play, it is not the games their parents know. Most games are new imported games with many degrading values. Some games really have gone from the view. Others are rare choice to play. In fact, many social functions are there behind the activities of the games. This paper is a further exploration on the traditional games to find the great values behind them.
The Games and their Function
Games, dolanan, are part of the creative expressions made by a community of culture. Behind the creations, there are some ideas of the culture. Within the creation are many ideas and wisdoms. The design of the games with tools, rules, instructions of what to do and what to say is not just made instantly like a magic. They were designed considering many aspects of education and care to build a good physics and mental.
The culture of Central Java, or that of Javanese in general, has a unique cultural treasures, the traditional games, which used to be the option to take in free time not just for the children but also for adult. The traditional games like petak umpet, bola bekel, engklek, dakon, bacean and many more have sort of historical fun. They do not only function to entertain but also to maintain the social relation among the individuals in society. Monks, et al (1987:117), quoting a Russian sociologist Ljublinskaja, said that games are the reflection of the reality. They are a first knowledge acquisition. The games surely are determined by the factors of cultures as the context. This argument goes well with the statement of Timmy Hartadi dalam Wahyuni (2007): "Traditional activities for play including games, songs and toys are the result of a structural transaction between human beings and the environment. They create a pattern of social interaction that involves the deepest depths of the human.”
Taking the ideas of Buytendijk, Monks et al (1987:118) further enlist the characteristics of the games. Those are: tool, interactive relation, dynamic, turn taking, simultaneous, massive (involving many individuals), rules, and court to play.
By playing the games, the persons involved will get fun and at the same time maintain the social relation to others, and the children, in particular, will have a strong social bond with each other until they have grown up.
Adisasmito (2008:83) stated that the games as the product of culture stimulate the activities of body and mind. She said that the games are similar to the art as the product of human creation. In the process of playing games, there are beauties and preoccupation, like an art which absorbs the concentration of the artist, and makes the on lookers fascinated.
The togetherness and the massiveness of the games lead to the involvement of many persons or players. This is just right media to support the stages of the social development among the children. As it is stated by the Development Team of MKDK IKIP Semarang (1991:166), the social development of a child includes four stages:
1. A stage of education him/her not to make trouble to others, and can appreciate others;
2. A stage of education to make him/her obey the rule and able to adapt to the social norms.
3. A stage of education to train him/her to think comprehensively in the social interaction based on the principle of”take and give”.
4. A stage of education to practice him/her in understanding others.
The characters of the traditional games obviously promote the stages of child development.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Here are the games collected and recorded by Wahyuningsih and Nur Alim (2008) in their research. The list is surely not the whole complete recording of the traditional games owned by the Javanese culture. There should be more than the list below, as it is found by other researchers in Central Java context. The Development Center of PNFI Jayagiri identified 43 traditional games. Another investigation by Zaini Alif of HONG, a Study of Bandung Folklore Game, collected as many as 186 games in Central Java. They believed that the traditional games have moral and cultural values and philosophical meaning. Unfortunately, many of the games are abandoned and forgot by their owners. (Iskandar & Wahyuningsih: 2008).
By seeing 11 games with their characteristics, we can draw some great values and lessons from the games. These values are also accorded from the function of the game as it explained the previous section. The characteristics in the games are well-opened, stimulating psychomotor skills, massive or involving many players, natural setting and environment-based. And the values behind the games are the closeness to the nature, the spirit of togetherness, and the spirit of hard work.
Table 1.
Traditional Games in Central Java
No Name of Game No of players tool Court Usual Time
1 Bacean > 3 little pieces of soil made roof
outdoor Day
2 Kathik > 2 Wooden stalk (short and long)
Outdoor Day
3 Banthan > 2 and even more Stone and Court on the ground
outdoor Day
4 jamuran > 5 No tool
outdoor Day/Night
5 sarunggeng > 6 No tool
outdoor /wide indoor Night
6 Gerobak serbu > 4 (even) No tool
outdoor Day/Night
7 Kethikar_kethikur > 3 Small pieces of stalk leaves of cassava tree
Outdoor/indoor Day
8 Tungkup Madu > 4 (even) No tool
outdoor Day/Night
9 Semut-semutan > 3 Blindfold of scarf or sarong indoor Day/Night
10 Bantha (Panggalan) > 2 Gasing, a piece of rope to rewind
outdoor Day
11 Oglong > 2 Piece of soil roof and the court on the ground outdoor day
THE COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRADITIONAL GAMES
Traditional games are always in open format, widening chances to anyone who wants to join, without any criteria but willing to comply with the agreed rule. There is no requirement to play, unless the individual must have tool for it. And the tools are usually the natural things which can be found easily in the environment. For example, if a kid wants to join the games like banthan or kethikar-kethikur, he/she just needs to find a stone or the leave stalk of cassava picked from the garden. In few minutes, he can start playing the games with other friends.
Indeed some games, such as bantha panggalan (gasing) or kathik, require the modified tools. The wooden gasing is usually made with the stem or root of the tree trunks of selong or lantoro. The making process is difficult enough for a child. The father or teenager, then helps to create it. However, the toy is a plaything with long durability, since the wooden material make it not easily broken. It is possible the same gasing can be played from one season to another. Therefore, the complexity of the tool making can be compensated with its durable nature. Traditional games are often run seasonal (ungsum) or trend. The context of the weather and climate seem to influence what game to be the trend.
The open nature is in a line with the next character i.e., involving many people. Traditional games always involve at least two people who must compete each other to achieve victory. The two can be expanded to as many people as possible. Concerning the number, another factor that influences the nature of the game is the type of individual or group. When the game is a game of individuals then the number of players will not be limited, unless there are limitations in the arena game that need some adequate space. The games like this require that the number of groups of players must always be complete, considering each group must have same number members. Games such as gerobak serbu can involve a lot of people without any limit, as long as it is even.. The game gerobak sodor requires the existence of a court in the ground, so this game is usually only involve between 5-7 people in one group or the overall number of players is 10-14 people.
Most of the traditional games is actually more flexible in terms of groups or individuals. This means the game can be played in both groups and individuals. Games like this can be played by two people only, for example tungkup madu (petak umpet, hide and seek), bacean, and banthan. However, if the players are more than 2, then the game is better for groups. This is usually caused by the nature of the game: the simultaneous or turn taking or wait and see. The simultaneous games make all players can play together. While the turn taking ones make a group must wait their turn to play, according to the mistake made by the competitors. Instead of the natures, the traditional game holds a lot of people, so that a group of children can play games together, and when there is a child passing and wanting to join, the game still welcome him/her. And the more players only mean more fun.
Environment-based and the natural setting is other natures of the traditional games. Environment-based means the games can be run easily by applying the existing arena and natural instruments around us. This seems to apply to the village environment, with the lands of wide area. The lack of enough space for a traditional game practice factor seems to be a factor of its marginalized, especially in the city. As disclosed by Wahyuningsih and Iskandar (2008), the traditional games, Kaulinan Baheula as they mentioned: "The basic infrastructure such as yards or gardens with wide are reduced. For example in the city of Bandung, Standard need for the ideal garden is 3.5 square meters per person. However, with a garden now reached 1,226,335.54 m2 to 2.8 million residents, the ratio of parks in the city of Bandung is only about 0.43 square meters per person. Indeed it is not very adequate, and the games all require open space." So, it can be more understood that the children of the city had never be seen to play many of the traditional games. Unfortunately, this social phenomenon is not only the case for the towns and cities in Indonesia. The children of the villages appear to imitate the city culture. This is also related to the marketing through the medium of television, which strengthened the flooding of imported toys which are often associated with kid movies. The Children imitate the form and character in the story of the film, and buy toys that are marketed into the village areas by the toy peddlers.
The instruments of the traditional games can easily be found in our environment. The Children who need to play just have to get to know about nature and find the tools there. When they went to the river for a bath, they go home with a rock-hard stone used to play bantha. Or when they walk through the housing, they can collect a small piece worn roof, talawengkar, oglong , and bacean. When they go through the garden with plants of cassava, they can pluck leaves for the stem taken a tool to play kethikar-kethikur. Or when they want to play kathik or panggalan, they just only need to find a garden wood, and collecting devices play. Or they do not need to do anything, other than to gather and share the group when they play gerobak serbu or gerobak sodor. It is really perfect, indeed.
Natural setting means the games do not require any setting, in addition to the arena that may need to be prepared with simple lines on the ground, such as oglong, banthan, or gerobak sodor. Others are simply played and remain in the surrounding environment. The players are in a quite natural setting for the play can get a preoccupation. This game is very different from the modern game-which usually requires the existence of infrastructure and setting that is not natural, which culminate on consumerism. For example, chess, football, play station, pistol toy, car toy, car-racing toy, and others.
Another characteristic which can be identified by the writer is a training of mental and physical. Traditional games require the players to have a dynamic creativity and psychomotor skill. Besides, the players need to be able to identify the weakness of the opponent, location map, and strategies to be the winner of them. In addition, it always has the physical ability as the most prominent feature, with the players should rely on their own body as the main instrument. The Physical nature of this trick is the lack of the modern game-playing. For example oglong game, which requires players to jump around with one foot, with a variety of body positions? In addition, coordination between the senses and coordination of the parts of the body are also a requirement for a successful play.
THE NOBLE VALUES BEHIND THE TRADITIONAL GAMES
The values behind the games which can be recognized by the writer are the closeness to the nature, the spirit of togetherness, and the spirit of hard work. Surely, many other values are there, in need of deeper exploration related to other cultural values and philosophical foundation in the Javanese. However, those three should lead to awareness that the games are beneficial as part of education on our children, and we should do something to protect and revitalize them.
The Closeness to Nature
As they are carefully viewed, the traditional games are a form of solicitation on the human to be always close to the nature. This is evident from the materials used as equipments in the games. All are only about the things in nature. The kids just need to seek in nature directly, and then apply instantly in them, such as stone for bantha game, and also talawengkar, or tile in a bacean. Or they need to do a few modifications to the materials obtained from nature, such as the stem and stick in a game kathik, or panggalan which need be shaped from the root or trunk. The equipments are obtained with the involvement of children with nature as a form of naturalistic education, as the opponent of the materialistic, which is always looking for the answers for the problems of living in money. Games of children on this day always be on the nature of consumerism, pragmatism, which are culminated in the reluctance to try on the self and become an independent person.
The case includes the urge for kids to explore the nature and to stay close with it, if they want to play. The court on the ground with a modification of motor skills or the understanding of the places in the surrounding environment as the most strategic position to hide are all manifestation of the game to make players closely attached to the nature. Children are also required to utilize materials from nature to get around finding the equipment of the play. This is a good teaching that nature is the entity that provides many benefits for them. Thus, they can be more internalized with the mutual relation between human and nature, as well as an encouragement to love and protect the environment.
The Spirit of Togetherness
Other values that we can find in a traditional game is the beauty of togetherness. Traditional games always involve a lot of people, players will become increasingly more and more exciting as more people are involved. In nature, the message to interact socially with others is nurtured from the childhood. In addition, a togetherness, and not individualistic, is also an element which is very important and effective. Children through fun learn how to play live together and manage their personality for the running well of the game. Just compare to individual games of the modern coming from other cultures, such as play station, robots, or pistol. The games require new player to buy things to join. And it takes much time and cost to have the instrument. The traditional games is just a gate of togetherness, accepting anyone who want to join as long as complied with the agreed rules.
The traditional games are the medium of small society for children in which they socially interact to each other. In the bond of togetherness with many individuals, they are trained to recognize the characters of others, and how they should behave to adapt with them. In addition, the adaptation and the submission to the game rules and penalties for violations are the early nurture for kids to prepare the life of being adult. In a real society, there are also rules to obey and its violation has some unpleasant consequent, with an implication for the loss on others.
The Value of Hard Work and Self-Reliance Spirits
There are values of the nurturing of self-reliance spirit and the hard work culture, by practicing the children mentally and physically. The children are put into a habit of working to gain thing. They have to do something before they start playing. Why is it so? The traditional games are the contextual games accorded to the nature. This will make them easy to find the tools around the environment. They can rely on themselves to fulfill the demands required for playing them.
The children just observe the nature to search for materials to be modified as a play instrument. Sometimes they also need to cultivate the skills to make the tools such as kathik or panggalan games. Initially, they may only learn their brothers create equipment. In time, they will start learning to create their own tools for use using their own skills. Such skills are also needed to win a game.
The values above are also disclosed by Adisasmito (2008:84) saying many positive attitudes are actually attributed planted through the games. She states “the activities such as games, especially in the form of art, will imply on the psychological condition of sincerity, independence, creative power, mental balance, and spiritual attitude.” Of course, the values can still be more explored by referring to more cultural theories about the local culture, or directly finding the views from the cultural experts, who have not had time to give their attention on the part of the cultural phenomenon.
Closing Remarks
In line with the developments of the era and the technology, the games are now rarely played the more traditional and more marginalized. Children prefer to play the games using the modern technologies such as play station, video game and even on-line video game that can be accessed via the internet. It is rarely seen the children spending time by going to the traditional games. Therefore, the efforts to revitalize the traditional game have so wide meaning. This step is the effort to get our children back on the games which are the original products of the Javanese ancestors.
An alternative way is by including the games in the school context, especially in elementary, kindergarten and playgroup. The values in the games can be the media to nurture the noble attitude on the kids. In another, the games can be modified into media to learn English, just like what Wahyuningsih and Nur Alim (2008) did. This goes in line the statement of Baker (2003) : In a child’s world there is no distinction between playing and learning. Play is the means by which the child makes discoveries and learns about the world. Learning in general and a language in particular, through enjoyable, interesting and stimulating activities, enables the child to learn in a way that is natural and full of fun for her/him
References
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Internet Sources:
Baker, Carol. 2003. Learning at Play English. http://www.playenglish.it/En/en_ourSchoolPD.htm
Iskandar, Harris & Wahyuningsih, Sri. 2008. Kaulinan Baheula Sebagai Media Pembelajaran pada Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini. “Festival Kaulinan Barudak Baheula” Bandung, 14-20 Desember 2008. Bandung: Pusat Pengembangan Pendidikan Non Formal dan Informal Regional Uayagiri, Ditjen PNFI Depdiknas
Wahyuni, Sri. 2007. Full Moon Festival Helps Revive In Traditional Toys. Jakarta: JakartaPost. www.jakartapost.com
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