The Cilempung

A young man playing the cilempung.

Cilempung is a traditional Sundanese bamboo musical instrument. If you want to know how it is played and what kind of sound it produces, you can go to Bandung Daily Photo's sister blog Bandung Daily Video and check it out.

Although both are Sundanse traditional musical instruments and the names are nearly the same, cilempung should be differentiated from celempung. The former is a percussion type of instrument, the latter is a string musical instrument. And while the former is made entirely from Bandung bamboo, the latter is made of wood and strings.

Karinding

This boy is playing the karinding, a traditional Sundanese musical intrument made of bamboo.

The karinding is a percussion instrument. It is played by puting it in between the lips and shaking it with the fingers to produce a rhythmical vibration.

There are two types of karinding: those made of the midrib of kawung (arenga pinnata) palm leaves and those made of bamboo. The former is said to have originated from the southeast of West Javanese area of Tasikmalaya, and the latter from Cililin (an area in the southwest of Bandung) and Limbangan, Garut (about 65 kilometers to the southeast of Bandung). In terms of shape, they are also slightly different. The former is shorter and is said to have initially been made by men, while the latter is longer and made by women. Such attribution is thought to have something to do with the fact that the shorter one (the 'kawung', male, karinding) can easily be stowed in a man's tobacco walet and the longer one (the bamboo, female, karinding) can be slipped into a woman's hair (and thus also functions as a hairpin).

The karinding is not just a musical intrument. In the agrarian culture of the Sundanese people where rice growing and cultivation occupies a central importance, the low decibel sounds that it produces have traditionally been believed and proven to be a very effective means of pest control.

To see how it is played and hear its sounds, here is a You Tube video that I borrowed from TejoFilm:



The karinding exhibition and demo was part the 4th Bambu Nusantara World Music Festival that was held this weekend in Bandung.

Bamboo Fashions

These bamboo fashions are designed and made by a group of students of STSI or Sekolah Tinggi Senirupa Indonesia (Indonesian Higher School of Art) Bandung. They were exhibited at Paris Van Java at the occasion of the Bambu Nusantara Festival that I reported earlier.

Twelve pieces designed by nine different student designers were in exhibit. I'm showing you two of them here. The one in the top photo is entitled "Warrior" and the one at the bottom is entitled "Porcupine". Both are designed by Afridanessa Chita Dewi.

Bambu Nusantara World Music Festival (Part 1): Balinese Jegog

This past weekend (Saturday and Sunday, October 17 & 18), Bandung again became the host of the Bambu Nusantara World Music Festival . 60 bamboo music groups from Indonesia and overseas were invited and performed at this annual festival held jointly by the Indonesian Department of Tourism and Culture, Bandung creative communities, and private sponsors. This year's festival is the third. The first was held in Jakarta in 2007, the second at SABUGA (Ganesha Cultural Convention Center) Bandung last year, and this year it's held in Bandung's Paris Van Java.

This year's Bambu Nusantara Festival is held as part of the Helarfest. As some of you may remember from last year, the Helarfest is a series of events showcasing the emerging creative culture in the city of Bandung. More information about it is available at the Helarfest 2009 website.

In addition to providing a forum for Indonesian bamboo artists to meet and showcase their works, this festival also aims at improving public awareness of the role of bamboo in arts, culture, and environment. Therefore, in addition to music and art performances, it also staged seminars and conducted bamboo planting in areas around the venue.

It was impossible for me to follow all the activities in this two-day packed event. But beginning today I'm going to share with you whatever photos, and videos of festival that I could manage to make.

And here's the first one: Jegog Bali (Balinese Jegog bamboo gamelan ensemble). To see what the performance is like and listen to the music, please check out this post at Bandung Daily Video.

Rebung

Rebung is the Indonesian name for bamboo shoot like the one in the above photo.

Being a member of the grass family, bamboo grows nearly everywhere. About 1,000 species of bamboo have now been identified. They grow from the Earth's coldest places like Shakalin (in the east of Russia) and the Himalayas up to the warm Sub-Sahara in Africa. However, only in east and southeast Asia does bamboo find its most significant cultural and economic values. For the people of east and southeast Asia, it is not only a versatile and strong building material, but also a beautiful decorative plant and a food source.

Rebung is a delicacy in Indonesia. As a kind of food, it is treated much like a vegetable. It is usually sliced thin and cooked with a variety of other ingredients to make delicious dishes. Gulai Rebung (bamboo shoot in curry-like coconut milk broth), lodeh (a kind of "soup" with coconut milk), and lun pia (lumpia) are some of the most well known recipes for bamboo shoot dishes here.

It needs to be noted, however, that bamboo shoots from certain types of bamboo like those of the giant bamboos are not edible because they are toxic.

You can look at photos of rebung dishes here.