The Mak Yong Tradition in Indonesia Dr. Pudentia MPSS Chairman, Oral Traditions Association, Indonesia Mak Yong consists of a ritual and an entertainment component and combines dialogue, dance, singing, music, and stories in its performances. A performance is invariably preceded by an opening and closing ritual. Mak Yong is a traditional oral performing art form, which means that performers and the public together gather in the same place and at the same time during a performance. The performers consist of musicians (some of whom also perform in dramatic roles), players who enact the story and engage in dialogue, singing, and dancing, and a choir-like group of performers who sit on the ground and join in the singing. The 29 musical instruments consist of two string violins (rebab), a flute (serunai), a lead drum (gendang pengibu), accompanying drums (gendang penganak), a lead tambourine (gedombak pengibu), actually a kind of small drum closed by a bide on one side only), an accompanying tambourine (gedombak penganak), a gong, various small gongs (kenong, small gong made of bronze and played by hitting it with a stick). Sometimes a kecrek or a bamboo instrument made of a split bamboo of about 45 cm in length and 6 cm in width is added. Illustration 1 shows the following instruments: gedombak, gendang, gong, and kenong. During the play some characters wear masks, but not everyone. Especially men who perform the roles of females wear masks but also ogres and other supernatural beings are portrayed by men who wear masks. Up to the present, experts have been in disagreement over the exact meaning of the expression „Mak Yong‟. However, they do agree that Europeans first heard of its existence in Thailand (then Siam) in Nara Yala, Patani (Narathiwat) in the seventeenth century and that it had spread to Kelantan (Malaysia) around two hundred years ago. However, in Malaysia no masks were used as in the place of origin (Sheppard 1972: 58, 134; Suki 1978: 2; Ghulam- Sarwar 1982: 108; Sastrosuwondho 1985: 16). Mak Yong was brought to Kelantan for the first time as a present from Patani for a marriage between the two Sultanates of Patani and Kelantan (see Ghulam-Sarwar 1982). Mak Yong in Indonesia can be found in the islands of Riau (Bintan and Batam), North Sumatera (in areas of Serdang, Medan) and Western Kalimantan (Sambas). The Sambas Mak Yong is similar in name but what is meant by Mak Yong there is actually a social dance named “joget” and has the characteristics of “ronggeng”, a dance where the dancers (usually female) can invite male guests to dance with them. Usually besides dancing the men give gratuities or payment which is known as “saweran” to the dancers. That is why the Mak Yong in Sambas is considered in a negative light. The Medan Mak Yong is assumed to have existed since the early 19th century when the Sultan of Kedah gave as a gift to the Sultan Serdang musical instruments a sets, properties, and costumes for a Mak Yong performance complete with the troupe of actors. In the next development fewer players could continue with the tradition and now Mak Yong in Medan tends more to drama bangsawan or theater form. It is because of this reason. Mak Yong in these areas will not be addressed in this paper. Although Mak Yong is still found in Batam and Bintan, its existence may be said to be „kerakap tumbuh di batu‟ in other words, „it still lives but is almost no longer there‟, or „it is said no longer to exist but is still around‟. In the words of Mak Yong players themselves „hidup segan, mati tak mau’, or „reluctant to live, unwilling to die‟.