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perlis
ICH Elements 10
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Harumanis Mango With Glutinous Rice
This is a dish of glutinous rice served with coconut milk and a type of mango known as harumanis. To prepare the glutinous rice with coconut milk, either the glutinous rice is cooked in the coconut milk, or the glutinous rice is cooked first before mixed with the coconut milk, or the coconut milk is served separately with the glutinous rice and the mango. This dish may be akin to that of Pulut Mangga (Glutinous Rice with Mango) in Kelantan but with a different type of mango used.
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Towards the Rack
The Tuju Para game is popular among the local community around the 1950's. Basically the game uses rubber seeds or rubber bands, sticks or two-branched twig, bamboo cut into four pieces and rope. The two sticks or two-branched twig are spiked in parallel onto the ground and act as the rack pillar. The bamboo pieces are tied on the sticks or twigs and act as the rack. Player turns are determined by hurling the rubber seed or rubber band towards the starting line in front of the rack. The player whose rubber seed or rubber band is closest to the starting line will start the game.
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Nora, dance drama in southern Thailand
Nora is a lively and acrobatic form of dance drama and improvisational singing in local Southern Thai dialect. It is accompanied by strongly rhythmic music and elaborate costumes which embody a distinctive life force in Southern Thailand. Nora derives from community rituals in Southern Thailand that assemble families who perform Nora to honor their former Nora masters and expel harmful spirits. As central part vital community ritual performance, Nora helps the community to re-connect to its ancestors, to keep strong and to re-constitute itself by initiating new Nora dancers, healing illnesses, reconciling communal disorders and blessing all participants. Performances normally include a long oral invocation, followed by a performance centering on a lead character who dances with vigorous and elaborate movements of legs, arms and fingers. The lead Nora performer sings and dances scenes that are usually based on Buddhist Jataka tales – stories about the former lives of Lord Buddha – or those tied to legendary heroes, Phra Suthon and Manohra. The music ensemble plays highly rhythmic and fast-paced southern music, with the Thai southern oboe providing the melody and strong rhythms produced by drums, gongs, cymbals and wooden clappers. The main Nora performers – whether male or female – wear colorful and decorative costumes, with crowns or ‘Serd’ ornamented headdress, beads, bird-like wings tied around the waist, ornate scarves, and ‘Hang Hong’ or swan tails on the back providing the performers a bird-like appearance. Performers also wear long metallic fingernails that curl out from the fingers.
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The Music Of The Sound Of Pestle
The music of the sound of paddy pestle is the second oldest arts performance in the state of Perlis. According to history, this arts form originated from Indo-Chinese travelers. To reach the Malay Peninsula they used boats that sail near the beaches, and they lived in the villages. They planted paddy and played the paddy pestles as entertainment during free time. This attracted the interest of the Malay paddy planters to learn it. This arts form is popular and originated from among the paddy planters. They use agricultural equipments to produce unique entertaining sounds. One of the equipments is the mortar and pestle used to pound paddy. The beating of the pestle on the mortar produces a beat nearly the same as that of the gamelan musical instrument. The mortar and pestle are usually made from hard wood. An ensemble of Alu Bunyi has 12 members. They are trained and expert in playing musical instruments. They beat the centre and side parts of the mortar using the pestle accompanied by the sound of clarinet, and this produces a harmonic rythmn. Alu Bunyi is usually performed during harvesting and harvest festivals. Other activities are also held during the festivals like making culinary dishes out of rice. According to some people’s belief, apart from as entertainment this festival is a form of appeasing the spirit of the paddy to go to the farmers’ village and stay in the paddy fields. It is also believed that the paddy spirit will obstruct paddy pests such rats and birds from destroying the farmers’ crop.
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The ‘Terinai’ Dance
Terinai is an arts form that has long set in the state of Perlis usually performed at palace festivities. However, it is also performed at normal wedding ceremonies. The musical instruments are a clarinet, a pair of drums and two gongs. This gentle dance with candles on the palms is accompanied by the beating of the Terinai Drum playing the songs ‘Temang Welo’, ‘Selong’ and ‘Mak Inang’ The rythmns are such as ‘Menghadap Terinai’, ‘Ketam Bawa Anak’, ‘Dewa Raja’, and ‘Inang Cik Lang’.
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Awang Batil
Awang Batil is a story-teller only found in the state of Perlis. Originally he was known with the name ‘Awang Belanga’ because he used the ‘belanga’ or cooking pot as his music accompaniment. As cooking pot is covered with charcoal, it was then replaced with ‘batil’ that is copper water container. Thus the story-teller is called ‘Awang Batil’. The storyteller also plays other instruments such as the violin, serunai, rebana and gendang terinai. In yesteryears, Awang Batil travelled village to village and from house to house, especially houses that held wedding feasts, to tell his stories. Awang Batil inherits lots of folk stories. A story is in series and with continuities that drags to many evenings. Comedy elements are inserted in his story-telling while beating the copper water container with his fingers. The most commonly told stories of the Awang Batil are Raja Dewa Lok, Raja Bersiung, Raja Berdarah Putih, Anak Lang Pak Belang, Jabat Jabit, Abu Nawas, Cerita Angan-Angan and Awang Ada Duit Semua Jadi. At certain Acts Awang Batil wears a mask to relate the character of a ‘Hulubalang’ (Soldier) and the ‘Wak Nujum’ (Fortune Teller). Both are used when suitable characters appear in the stories to attract the audiences’ attention. The mask is made of wood and usually painted red and white. At a house that holds wedding feast Awang Batil performs in a small hut with a height of three to four meters. The audiences sit encircling the hut listening to his stories with laughter.
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Beduan
Beduan is the oldest performing arts in the state of Perlis, that appeared about 250 years ago during the Siamese reign. This music was introduced by two families that hid at the top of Tuk Wang Gunung Hill to avoid the evil and brutal Siamese soldiers. At the hill top the families felt lonely thus they hit wooden sticks as drums while singing by hailing. After the war ended the two families returned to their village and introduced the arts to the villagers. They named the music Beduan that originated from the word “berdua-duaan” which means “in twos”. Beduan is very popular during wedding feasts and normally performed on stage built adjoined to the newly-wed’s main residence. The shrieks hailing of the song acts as a direction to guests to the newly-wed’s house. Guests and audiences stand up in front of the house to watch the performance. Beduan members are 10 to 12 persons. They beat drums while singing and hailing. The drum is big with about 140 cm circumference, made of cow hide and jackfruit tree. There are three types of drums used and they are the ‘Gendang Pengibu’ (‘Mother Drum’), ‘Gendang Peningkah’ (‘Rebutting Drum’) and the ‘Gendang Penganak’ (‘Child Drum’). In the Beduan song the drum beater exchanges quatrains with other members. However, only the Beduan members understand the quatrains as they use a dialect understood among themselves only. Among the quatrains is: A chick is inside a betel leaf container, Uncover it and the chick feeds on paddy, Day and night I do remember, Affection is engulfed in my heart.
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The ‘Layang Mas’ Dance
According to history, the Layang Mas dance was created when the Raja of Perlis sent tribute payment to the Siamese government by riding on an elephant, when the state of Perlis was under Siamese rule. At that time the elephant caretaker called Tok Jambul, with his friend Ecan, composed the song ‘Layang Mas’. Upon returning from Siam they created the ‘Layang Mas’ dance, one of the dances in the Terinai dance repertoire. This court dance that can only be performed by ladies only uses lots of gliding hand movements and with a number of turns, clear shoulder moves and hip movements. The dance also uses a long shawl tied on the waist with a belt, held by the thumbs and fore fingers, and often portrayed as a bird’s wings.
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The ‘Canggung’ Dance
The Canggung dance is an identity of the state of Perlis, originated from the Makyung Laut dance, first introduced during the Japanese occupation around 1941. This dance was first performed by two siblings of dancers in an entertainment festival for the Japanese soldiers and public in the city of Kangar. Since then Canggung expanded to all over Perlis and becomes a famous folk dance, performed during the harvest seasons and at wedding ceremonies and festivities. The dance movements have similarities with the Ronggeng dance, but with its own values. Its traditionality lies on the songs sung in exchanges of quatrains and in this way the audiences get the entertainment. The quatrains are synicals, attracting, teasing, as well as jestering and the like, in nature. The dancers dance in couples. A female dancer holds a handkerchief, dances and sings in rotation while spontaneously exchanging quatrains with a male dancer. The female wears batik sarong, long kebaya dress and plucked flowers on the hairbun. The male wears Malay attire and songkok as headgear.
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The Culture and Custom of the Malay Community: The Lulluby Custom
‘Berendoi’ (to lulluby) originates from the word ‘endoi’ of the Perlis Malay dialect meaning a hammock to put a baby or child to sleep. This custom is as the family’s thanksgiving after receiving a newborn baby. This custom too develops in Kedah especially in districts sharing the same boundaries as Perlis such as Bukit Besar, Kota Sarang Semut, Kubang Rotan and Bukit Kerengga. Berendoi has elements of the Islamic teachings with at least three or four participants chanting rythmatically during the ‘bercukur’ or shaving of a week-old baby’s hair. Among the activities in the berendoi ceremony still around today are mouth splitting, lulluby and Lulluby Above The Coconut Tree Shoot Or Make A Vow. Every performance is usually held together with a thanksgiving feast and ‘akikah’ (slaughtering of an animal usually a goat for the baby) with the goat’s meat as the main dish. Berendoi starts after the meal is served. The Berendoi group consists of a number of men adorning the Malay attire with pelikat sarung and songkok (head gear), or women in either a uniform of baju kurung or baju kebaya attire with head scarf. The Berendoi group starts their performance by chanting verses praising Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and then the group leader cradles the baby and places him in the hammock. The song usually sung first is Ya Rabbi in the Arabic and Malay languages with the lyrics full of praises of the Prophet.
Malaysia