Article

Dancing

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Dancing

Dancing in the Malay Peninsula and Borneo encompasses a diverse range of performance traditions that span courtly, ritual, and popular registers, each embedded in specific cultural, religious, and social contexts. From the classical court nautch observed in Pahang in the 1870s to the folk dance-theatre of Nora Chatri in Kedah and the semi-religious Rodat of Trengganu, these forms reveal a region where dance functions simultaneously as entertainment, spiritual practice, and marker of social identity. The traditions documented in the Society’s literature reflect varying degrees of cross-cultural influence—Javanese, Thai, Arabic, and Indian—while remaining firmly rooted in local Malay, Thai, and broader Southeast Asian performance cultures. The records attest to forms that were, at the time of their documentation, either rare, on the verge of disappearance, or sustained by small communities of practitioners, underscoring the urgency with which early observers sought to record them.

Scope and Historical Definition

The earliest European ethnographic account of a Malay dance performance in the Society’s literature is F. A. Swettenham’s description of a nautch witnessed at the residence of the Bandahara of Pahang in early 1875. Swettenham, then on a diplomatic mission, was invited at two in the morning to attend a performance already in progress at the Bandahara’s balei (hall) [1, pp. 163–164]. The performance featured four female dancers—two approximately eighteen and two approximately eleven years old—who were members of the Bandahara’s own household rather than professional performers [1, p. 164]. They were dressed in elaborate silk and cloth-of-gold costumes with gold head ornaments, diamond rings, and gold bangles [1, p. 164]. Swettenham considered the form rare, seldom witnessed by Europeans, and hitherto undescribed in the Malay Peninsula [1, p. 163].

The nautch was accompanied by an orchestra that Swettenham identified as Javanese in origin and seldom encountered in the Malay Peninsula at the time. The ensemble comprised a wooden-keyed percussion instrument, inverted metal bowls struck with wooden sticks, a large gong, a drum, and triangle-like instruments [1, p. 165]. The performance ran from ten in the evening to after five in the morning and consisted of five or six distinct dances, each lasting approximately half an hour, with materially different figures and musical tempos [1, p. 166]. The dance technique was characterised by slow, graceful movements of the arms, hands, and body, with the feet “scarcely noticed and for half the time not visible” [1, p. 166]. Approximately two hundred spectators, nearly all male, were seated on the floor in order of rank [1, pp. 164].

By contrast, the Nora Chatri tradition documented by Ghulam Sarwar Yousof in 1982 represents a living folk dance-theatre sustained by approximately twenty groups of Thai-descended communities in the Naka, Jitra, Kodiac, Baling, and Pedu districts of Kedah [2, p. 51]. Some of these groups are attached to Thai Buddhist temples (wat) [2, p. 51]. The genre is locally known as Manora or simply Nora, and its name derives from the heroine of the Sudhana-Manohra tale found in the Jatakas [2, p. 51]. Yousof situates the tradition within the broader Malay-Thai cultural corridor along the Malaysia-Thailand border, noting that it is a probable spillover into Kedah during periods of strong Thai political and cultural influence, carried by immigrant Thai communities [2, p. 51].

The Rodat of Trengganu, documented by M. C. ff Sheppard in 1938, occupies a distinct position as a traditional male performance combining Arabic religious chanting with popular song and graceful dance [3, pp. 109–110]. At the time of Sheppard’s observation, the form was practised exclusively in Trengganu and was on the verge of disappearing from the wider Malay Peninsula [3, p. 109]. The name Rodat derives from the Arabic Raddad (repeater or answerer), a title given to skilled chanters in the original Rateb tradition [3, p. 110].

Ritual Architecture and Performance Structure

The Nora Chatri performance exhibits a highly structured ritual architecture that distinguishes it from purely entertainment-oriented forms. The overall structure is characteristic of both ritual and non-ritual performances, though in the latter category trance sessions are completely omitted while other ritual elements such as the Wai Kru (Salutation to the Teachers) are considerably reduced [2, p. 59]. Non-ritual performances are rather infrequent, as the genre retains a considerable aura of the sacred [2, p. 59].

Ritual Nora Chatri is performed for the release of vows (pelepas niat or membayar nazar), for celebrating the attainment of maturity at the age of twenty-one by a dancer, and for expressing thanks to spirits upon the attainment of specific wishes [2, p. 52]. A ritual performance marking a dancer’s maturity includes the crowning of the dancer with a chada (tiered crown) after a forelock has been ceremoniously cut, partaking of the character of an initiation rite [2, p. 52]. Non-ritual performances typically take place at Thai weddings, at Buddhist temple fairs, or at larger public fairs (pesta) held in conjunction with local state or national celebrations [2, p. 52].

The performance proper begins with the Kat Kru or Wai Kru, a ceremony intended to consecrate the performance area. Offerings include flowers, sweets, rice, betel leaves, betel nuts, and cooked fowl, arranged on the stage floor or on a shelf-altar alongside the peaked crown [2, p. 55]. The Wai Kru incorporates invocations to Mesi Mala, the mythical founder of Nora Chatri, and to figures such as Phran Bun, Phran Tep, Phran Nuan, and Sin Hong, as well as to Hindu divinities including Hanuman, Ganesa, and Maharisi, who is identified with Shiva [2, p. 55].

Following the Wai Kru, trance sessions commence in which performers and non-performers alike may participate. Potential trancers place themselves cross-legged facing lighted candles, hands joined in an anjali or sembah gesture, while the guru (group leader) leads the chorus in music-accompanied intonations that grow progressively louder and more deliberately rhythmic as possession nears [2, p. 55]. The moment of possession is marked by progressive shivering, after which the trancer is covered with a white sheet and questioned by the guru, who reveals the name of the possessing being [2, p. 55]. A strict sex-coincidence rule governs possession: Mesi Mala can only emplace in a female body, while Phran Bun and other male spirits enter only males [2, p. 55].

The Manora dance itself is a series of virtually identical dances performed either solo or in groups by dancers depicting the mythical bird-maidens or kinnaris, culminating with the entry of the leading dancer in the role of Phra Suton and his courting dance [2, p. 56]. Most floor patterns are circular or shaped in a figure of eight, and the outstretched arms with fingers extended upwards and slightly backwards are a constant feature [2, pp. 56–57]. The dance may last several hours before a lakon (dramatic narrative) is unfolded [2, p. 57].

The Rodat performance, by contrast, is structured around an alternation of semi-religious Arabic chanting and popular entertainment. A line of boys, arranged meticulously by height, perform graceful hand-and-body movements in time with a chorus of Arabic verse, while four costumed “princes” and “princesses” (all boys) provide comic relief through a Bangsawan song and pantomime antics [3, pp. 108–109]. The orchestra consists solely of four or five men playing the Tar, a hand-struck drum with brass attachments that produces a surprising variety of tone and rhythm [3, p. 109]. A single movement or chapter lasts ten to fifteen minutes, and the performance continues far into the night [3, pp. 108–109].

Swettenham’s nautch also concluded with a ritual dimension: the performance culminated in a state of hantu menari (possession by the Spirit of Dancing), during which the two eldest dancers became so agitated that they had to be forcibly removed from the hall by four or five women [1, p. 167]. The Bandahara, who appeared around four in the morning, told Swettenham that one of the girls, when “properly” possessed, ate nothing but flowers for months—a detail Swettenham records as “a pretty and poetic conceit” [1, p. 167].

Musical Accompaniment and Costume

The musical accompaniment to Nora Chatri is provided by a fairly simple set of instruments also used to accompany the Wayang Kulit Gedek, a form of shadow theatre coregional with Nora Chatri and with obvious Thai links. The ensemble consists of a double-reed oboe (serunai), a pair of single-headed stick drums (gedug), a pair of single-headed hour-glass shaped drums (gedumbak), a pair of small hand cymbals (kesi or ching), and several pairs of bamboo or wooden slabs serving as clappers [2, p. 53]. The serunai is the melodic instrument, and the orchestra generally remains silent during lakons, except to punctuate an occasional dramatic moment [2, p. 53].

The dancer’s costume in Nora Chatri is distinct and elaborate, comprising the tiered crown (chada), a beaded loose-fitting over-shirt or tassled shawl, tight-fitting pants with pendant cloth, a tailpiece structured like the back or tail of a bird (hang hoong), and long gold-coloured backward-bending finger nails (changgai) [2, p. 55]. Dressed in this manner, the dancers are said to imitate the movements of a mythical bird (nok insi) [2, p. 55]. The chada is worn only by initiated performers and is believed to possess magical protective powers [2, pp. 54–56].

The Rodat orchestra, as noted, consists exclusively of Tar drums, a feature Sheppard traces to the Rateb Pulet variety of the Arabic-Achinese tradition [3, p. 110]. The nautch orchestra, with its Javanese instruments, represents a different lineage entirely, one that Swettenham noted was rarely encountered in the Malay Peninsula at the time of his observation [1, p. 165].

Genealogical and Cultural Connections

Sheppard’s central contribution lies in his genealogical linking of the Rodat to the broader Arabic-Achinese Rateb tradition, a connection not previously made explicit in the literature [3, p. 110]. He identifies specific borrowings: the “pantomime fairies” derive from the Rateb Sadati, in which a single boy dressed as a princess was called Sadati (an Arabic word used in a lover’s lament), and the tambourine orchestra comes from the Rateb Pulet [3, p. 110]. The Rodat reached Trengganu via Sambas (Borneo) traders who visited annually in the fine weather and performed the dance during their stay; local people then learned it from them [3, p. 110]. Sheppard is careful to note that the Rodat has no real religious significance in Trengganu, the Arabic recitations are meaningless to the performers, and unlike the Sumatran Rateb there is no competitive rivalry between rival troupes [3, p. 110].

Yousof identifies in the Nora Chatri tradition an animistic or shamanistic base upon which the Sudhana-Manohara story has been planted, and notes the tradition’s strong Buddhist colouring and its links to India [2, p. 51]. The Mesi Mala myth, which explains the origins of Manora, places them in undefined Thai territory and involves a visiting angel (dewa) who restores and enlarges the group’s lost instruments, and two Indian bead-sellers who bring back a crown given by the Buddha, which remains in use in performances to this day [2, pp. 59–60].

Research and Documentation

The Society’s literature on dancing reveals a progression from early colonial-period observation to more systematic ethnographic documentation. Swettenham’s 1878 account, read before the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, represents one of the earliest European descriptions of a Malay court dance performance and was motivated by the rarity of the form and its absence from prior European literature [1, p. 163]. The account is that of a diplomatic observer with limited access, recording a single performance in considerable detail but without the analytical framework that later scholarship would bring.

Sheppard’s 1938 article on the Rodat reflects the ethnographic interests of the colonial service, documenting a local custom from the perspective of an educated administrator with access to both the performers and the scholarly literature, particularly Snouck Hurgronje’s work on the Rateb [3, p. 110]. Its historiographical contribution lies in establishing a genealogical connection between a peripheral Malay Peninsula performance form and the broader Arabic-Achinese tradition [3, p. 110].

Yousof’s 1982 preliminary report on Nora Chatri represents a significant shift toward structural ethnography of a living performance form, tracing its ritual architecture from opening invocations through trance possession, dance, and dramatic narrative to closing rites [2, pp. 53–61]. The article explicitly flags unresolved questions—the precise Kedah-southern Thai stylistic distinctions, the full lakon repertoire, and the choreographic analysis of the Manora dance—as areas for future research [2, p. 61]. It builds on prior published work by Ginsberg (1972), Nichols (1924), Archaimbault (1957), and Sheppard (1973), the latter of whom had documented the Kelantan variety of Manora and noted that no woman takes part in a Manora performance in Kelantan, a significant distinction from the Kedah form [2, p. 51].

The records collectively document performance traditions that were, at the time of their observation, either rare, endangered, or sustained by small communities. Swettenham’s nautch was “hitherto undescribed” [1, p. 163]; the Rodat was “on the verge of disappearing” [3, p. 109]; and the Nora Chatri tradition, while still active in the 1980s, was maintained by only about twenty groups in a limited geographic area [2, p. 51]. The literature thus serves not only as a record of performance forms but as a documentation of cultural change and the pressures facing traditional arts in the region.

MBRAS Sources

References

  1. F.A. Swettenham (1878). A Malay nautch JSBRAS 2: 163–167.
  2. Ghulam Sarwar Yousof (1982). Nora Chatri in Kedah: a preliminary report (with appendix JMBRAS 55(1): 53–61.
  3. Mubin Sheppard (1938). The Trengganu ‘rodat’ JMBRAS 16(1): 109–114.