TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Panji Museum preserving fabled prince’s tales
Panji in the shadow: A visitor walks past a row of wayang (shadow puppets), which are said to have been made in 1030
Change Size
Panji in the shadow: A visitor walks past a row of wayang (shadow puppets), which are said to have been made in 1030.
A museum in Malang, East Java, is dedicated to preserving the cultural significance of the legendary Prince Panji.
He is known as Inao in Thailand, Inaung in Myanmar and Panji Asmara Bangun in his said hometown of East Java. The stories of the legendary prince are estimated to have emerged in the Majapahit Kingdom’s heyday in the 13thcentury and have spread across Southeast Asia.
So significant were their cultural impact that Panji tales manuscripts were inscribed in 2017 in the prestigious UNESCO Memory of the World (MoW) Register.
There are so many differing episodes and versions of the Panji legend, but one of the most well-known versions centers on his search for his long lost bride, Princess Candra Kirana (also known as Dewi Sekartaji) of the Kediri Kingdom.
While the stories of Panji can be easily found in wayang (shadow puppet) performances and traditional mask dances across Java, the fabled prince is largely unknown to the younger generation.
Dwi Cahyono from the Inggil Foundation aimed to change that by setting up a museum in Malang, East Java, solely dedicated to promoting Panji tales.
“This museum was built in 2016 on a plot of about 3 hectares,” Dwi said at the museum, located in Slamet village in Tumpang, Malang.
The museum reveals many sides of the Panji tales and how they have been manifested not only in the arts but also in the fields of governance, defense, even agriculture and nature conservation.
By paying an admission fee of Rp 25,000 (US$1.77), visitors can explore Panji’s history, art performances, dioramas of well-known Panji tales and the influences of Panji in daily life.
“The museum tries to answer one of the crucial questions regarding the periodization of Panji legends,” Dwi pointed out.
Panji tales, as shown in the museum, inspired Javanese folklores like Ande-ande Lumut, Timun Mas (Golden Cucumber) and Keong Mas (Golden Snail), and also a famous Thai song titled “Bussaba Sieng Thien”.
”When a group of Thai tourists visited this museum, they were surprised to hear the song and enthusiastically sang along,” Dwi recalled.
The museum is arranged as a journey through time. The ground floor presents a collection of culture research on Panji conducted from the 1800s and Panji-inspired arts and performances, such as wayang and literary works as well as a pair of mannequins donning Malang-styled masks and dance costumes.
The next room offers a historical background of Panji tales, which touches on the emergence of the Singosari and Majapahit kingdoms in Java.
On the underground floor, visitors are presented with the diorama of the Ganter War between the Tumapel and Kediri kingdoms in 1222, which inspired a popular Panji account.
In the last room, visitors can find the manifestations of Panji tales in daily life, such as in traditional games, kitchen arrangements and architecture.
Outside the museum, visitors can explore a mini forest, small farm and two swimming pools — one of the pools is set as part of an art performance stage.
“We plan to develop a Panji camping tourist package here,” Dwi revealed.
Henri Nurcahyo, a self-proclaimed Panji activist, underlined that the tales of the legendary prince should not only belong to the arts and museums but should also be taught in schools.
Henri teaches the subject of Panji culture at PGRI Adibuana University in Surabaya, East Java. He noted that the subject was also taught at Ciputra University Surabaya.
Henri wished schools in Indonesia would soon follow the path of their Thai peers that had included the subject of Panji in their curriculum.
“Along with other Panji activists, I hope Panji culture will be taught at schools and other campuses as local content so that it will be sustainably handed down,” said Henri.
To pique millennials’ interest in the century-old tales, Henri suggested that Panji stories be adapted into more popular art forms such as movies and computer games.
Moreover, he and fellow Panji activists expected the East Java provincial government to propose “Panji culture” as a national cultural icon to the central government. Such status, as Henri suggested, would prompt the government to pay more serious attention to Panji tales.
— Photos by Nedi Putra AW
