Gending Sriwijaya Dance

Gending Sriwijaya

Gending Sriwijaya is a traditional songs and dances from Palembang, South Sumatra. Both the song and dance are illustrate the cultural value, glory, and majesty of the glorious Sriwijaya empire to unite the Western region of the archipelago. This dance was held to welcome the special guests who visited to Palembang, such as the head of the Republic of Indonesia, cabinet ministers, heads of states / governments of friendly countries, ambassadors, or that are considered equivalent.  This dance reflects the attitude of the host was friendly, happy, happy, sincered and open to special guests. Gending Sriwijaya dance is perform by 9 young  beautiful dancers and the dress start from Aesan Gede, Scarves Mantri, paksangkong, dodot and Tanggai. They are the main dancers that is escorted by two other dancers who bring umbrella and long spear and ,there is a singer of Gending Sriwijaya. However, nowadays the role of singer and music background has been replaced by tape recorder. In the real form, the music background consists of Gamelan and Gong sound, while the role of escort sometimes removed, especially when the dance is performed in the building or indoor stage. Dancers in the front carrying a slap Foreword to be offered to special guests who came, accompanied by two dancers who bring pridon made ​​of brass. Foreword is by offering originally only performed by the daughter of the king, sultan, or nobility. Pridon carrier is usually a close friend or caregiver host the princess. So also the other dancers. Clothing and property used in the dance Gending Sriwijaya adapted to local custom clothing with equipment commonly used in a traditional ceremony reception.

 

The History of Gending Sriwijaya

The editors headed (late) IZI Asmawi from Office of the South Sumatra Provincial Department of Education published a description of the Dance Gending Srivijaya. Based on that description, it is said that the dance Gending Srivijaya was one of the welcome dance or dance offerings in South Sumatra. Gending dance creation process has been started since 1943, which is to meet the demand from the government (the Japanese occupation era), the Bureau of Information (Hodohan) to create a dance and song to welcome guests who come to visit the residency of Palembang (South Sumatra Province now).  Poems created by Nungtjik AR, songwriter Mahiba by Dahlan, and the first dancers are Sukainah Rozak.