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Sobat Budaya collects digital data on cultural heritage
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Traditional houses in Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi, with decorated facades and boat-shaped roofs. (Shutterstock/File)
C
ulture enthusiast group Sobat Budaya (cultural buddies) announced on Tuesday that it had collected digital data and information on 34,000 pieces of Indonesian cultural heritage, a move it sees as essential to prevent such heritage being stolen by other countries.
The data, which has been collected since 2005 by the group and Bandung Fe research institute, is accessible in the Indonesian Culture Digital Library (PDBI) on budaya-indonesia.org. The team also stores dozens of pieces of cultural research and has six culture-related mobile applications on the website.
(Read also: Kenyan couple's wedding showcases Indonesian culture)
Sobat Budaya chair Siti Wulandari said the move aimed to prevent Indonesian culture being claimed by other nations. “As the number of such cases increases, we were driven to comprehensively collect Indonesian cultural data,” she said at a seminar in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Examples of such cases, she said, were Malaysia's claim over the song "Rasa Sayange" and the traditional dances Reog Ponorogo and Pendet.
“Our research proves that "Rasa Sayange" is an Indonesian song that originated in Maluku, not a Malaysian song,” she said. (adt/kes)
