Many believe the decline is the result of a ban by the Johor fatwa committee in 2009, forbidding all Muslims from engaging in the art for contradicting Islamic principles.

However, cultural activist and art professor Mohamed Ghouse Nasuruddin says the dance has lost relevance to ordinary life and cannot compete with new forms of modern entertainment which have attracted the young.

He said many other traditional performing arts are also being challenged and undermined by changes in lifestyles and artistic tastes.

“These traditional performances thrived in rural agrarian settings but they don’t fit in the urban setting and new entertainment attractions that are consonant with the hip and hop culture of the younger set,” he told FMT.

“The authorities could undertake efforts to make the dance popular, as a co-curricular activity in schools and through competitions. But, really, it is a matter of priority.”

Asked about the influence of the fatwa, Eddin Khoo, executive director of the Pusaka cultural organisation, said: “Ask the question of why something so rooted in the spread of Islam such as the ‘kuda kepang’ is today viewed as illegitimate. The point is to understand religion as a dynamic force that is always evolving and to identify what the power struggle in religion is today.”

What is ‘kuda kepang’?

Also referred to as “kuda lumping”, the dance, which originated in Java, is closely related to the Islamic mystical tradition which expanded throughout Southeast Asia. It is largely performed in Johor by communities of Javanese lineage, particularly in Batu Pahat and Muar.

A troupe of nine to 13 dancers perform on hobby horses made of pleated rattan while in a trance, accompanied by a rich rendition of traditional music played with gamelan instruments.

The troupe consists of a danyang (leader), bujang ganong (a masked dancer), barongan (dancers portraying tiger and snake-like creatures), and a bomoh, who is in charge of the spiritual part of the performance.

Khoo said many practitioners trace the origins of the “kuda kepang” to the Wali Songo, the nine saints of Java, who played a significant role in the dissemination of Islam in the interior of Java, while some sources place the dance in the context of the anti-colonial struggles of the Javanese people against the Dutch in the 17th century.

“The warrior-like gestures and galloping rhythms partly re-enact the troops of the sultanate of Mataram as well as the cavalry of Diponegoro, a Javanese prince who valiantly fought Dutch colonial forces in the Java War,” Khoo said.

The future of ‘kuda kepang’

The dance is performed today at many cultural and art events without its mystic elements, but Khoo feels many are not bothered to view such “sanctioned” performances.

“If the dance, which is so deeply embedded in aspects of the mystical, is deprived of that aspect, what remains is a gathering of men appearing to stride and play upon a straw hobby horse.

“It is the mysticism that lends the tradition depth and beauty so the question I would like to proffer is why do we now have a problem with mysticism, which has shaped and created the philosophical basis for our communities?” he said.

Khoo worked closely with the Kumpulan Kuda Kepang Parit Raja, one of the most sophisticated “kuda kepang” troupes in the region, for over a decade.

He said the problem was that culture had become the subject of edict and legislation.

“Practitioners are not consulted about what it is they practise, and how they perceive what they practise. There is a puritanical streak that is permeating all religions, and this is what needs to be understood and grappled with. Faith is a matter of lived experience, not just edicts,” he said.

Khoo said Pusaka carries out research and documents the ritual arts, and assists in creating financial foundations for these traditions to be passed from one generation to another.

“We cannot understand these arts in the way we understand modern arts. Traditions like the ‘kuda kepang’ are not merely a matter of song and dance, they encapsulate belief systems and provide much insight into our history as a people, in all our diversity,” he said.

Photographs by courtesy of Pusaka