COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF JAVANESE ETHNIC IDENTITY ...

COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF
JAVANESE ETHNIC IDENTITY IN THE INDONESIAN
TELEVISION SERIAL “MISTERI GUNUNG MERAPI”



Introduction
Among Indonesian television programs, sinetron is considered as the favourite
entertainment program and its popularity is greater than any other program. Sinetron,
an acronym of electronic cinematography, is actually a television film series which
may be broadcasted every day or every week. It can also mean telefilms on videotape
because the medium for recording this film is on electronic tape rather than on
celluloid tape (Wardhana 1997, p. 76).
One of the most popular sinetron, and it has been produced and broadcasted
since 1998 up to now, is Misteri Gunung Merapi (Mystery of Mount Merapi). In the
first two years of its broadcasting, Misteri Gunung Merapi achieved the top rating,
according to AC Nielsen surveys, and until today it is in still in the range of the top
position. Categorised as a colossal action sinetron (sinetron kolosal laga) - it is
‘action’ because fighting is dominant and it is ‘colossal’ because it has a very large
cast of characters - this sinetron has appealed to audiences because of its visual and
action effects and the combination of love, power, and physical fighting ('Sinetron
kolosal laga dari bumi sendiri' 2003). Misteri Gunung Merapi basically tells the story
of an evil and powerful witch, Mak Lampir, who tries to spread evil among human
beings, in this her efforts are opposed by Sembara, a sacred hero. Although it presents
a historical setting in the Mataram kingdom in Central Java under the rule of Sultan

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Agung, this sinetron is not an accurate representation of that history, instead it is
fiction and almost all characters in that story are fictive.
Glancing back at the huge popularity of Misteri Gunung Merapi, a question
immediately arises: why was a sinetron with a setting of Java in the seventeenth
century able to attract such large and diverse audiences? The two-digit Nielsen rating
suggests that the audiences everywhere in Indonesia, in spite of their ethnic
background and whether they are from rural or urban areas, prefer to watch this
program rather than any other program, either local or imported. As the largest
audience, according to AC Nielsen, is from urban areas, the popularity becomes
interesting phenomenon because the setting of this sinetron is Java in the seventeenth
century with the nuances of rural traditional Javanese culture.
This paper focuses on the construction of Javanese identity in Misteri Gunung
Merapi. The serious question which surfaces is how Javanese is communicated as
part of national culture to multi-ethnic Indonesian audiences. As an artefact which is
formulated in “various social and historical contexts”, national culture – and indeed
‘Javanese culture’ in this sinetron - is “continually imagined, invented, contested, and
transformed by the agencies of individual persons, the state, and the global flows of
commodities” (Foster 1991, p. 252). While under the New Order in Indonesia, a
popular cultural product like this would have been shaped by the state and its policies,
now commercialisation and globalisation - the global popular culture which
concentrates on spectacle and sensation to attract its audiences - plays the dominant
role in popular culture production. I want to argue that in such a context, this sinetron
succeeds by reconfiguring a hybrid construction of Javanese culture with Islamic and
some modern values.

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Collective Memory and Construction of Javanese Ethnic Identity
Taking setting of Central Java in the seventeenth century, the story focuses on
the plan of Sultan Agung, king of Mataram to attack Batavia and resist Dutch
colonialization. This story is popular as it is part of history lessons of the Indonesian
resistance toward Dutch colonialization that elementary students must learn during the
New Order era. The story is enriched with legendary elements such as the marriage
between Sultan Agung and the spirit queen of South Sea, Nyi Rara Kidul and
Javanese popular narrative of Nyi Blorong and golek pesugihan1. With this
combination, both the younger people who get the story from history lessons at school
and the older people, especially the Javanese who are familiar with the story legend
and the popular narrative can easily identify with the story. Since martial art is
dominant, it is also nostalgic for audiences who are familiar with the conventions and
style of martial art stories. It can also be interpreted that this sinetron functions as a
collective memory because of the interaction among “the intellectual and cultural
traditions that frame all our representations of the past”, the production teams “who
selectively adopt and manipulate these traditions” and the audiences “who use, ignore,
or transform such artefacts according to their own” (Kansteiner 2002, p. 25).
This sinetron has been criticized for its lack of cultural authenticity. Yet,
Misteri Gunung Merapi does not carry a burden of Javanese cultural representation.
Legend and history is only for background, exploited in order to add appeal, rather
than with the aim of presenting the authentic history and legend. In some way it
functions as a kind of cultural memory of the past, for those who are generally
familiar with traditional narratives and legend, when agrarian values were still strong
and relationships between humans and nature were still in balance.

1 Golek pesugihan means getting wealth from making a pact with devil spirit. Nyi Blorong,
mermaid or the snake queen is popular with her extraordinary power to make people rich.

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As the setting is Java in the past, a cursory look at the sinetron gives an
impression of Javanese traditional performance in Indonesian language. Certainly,
around the periods of 2000s there have been a proliferation of sinetron with fantasy
and historical themes and some of them have recalled to the genre and theme of
traditional performance (see Nilan 2000, p. 142-47). As Hatley noted, beginning in
the 1990s there has been born a modern version of kethoprak (Central Javanese
theatre) popular as kethoprak plesedan, as “a subversively humorous style of show”.
Although it is still performed on stage, “all aspects of performance”, including
language “could be subverted and overturned”(Hatley 2004, p. 78-9). While, this
sinetron still takes the element of kethoprak and it is not performed on stage rather it
takes the open air as the setting. Yet, there are some elements of Javanese traditional
theatre in building the story. Malih, for example, is popular in either wayang wong
(classical dance drama) and wayang kulit (puppet shadow show). As Parnickel noted
that malih or alihan (the noun of malih) “refers to the capacity of one character to take
on the appearance, manner, and voice of another, often entirely different sort of
figure” and “malih should not be confused with the phenomenon of incarnation”
(cited in Keeler 1987, p. 207) . These elements are repeatedly used in this sinetron.
With her supernatural power, Mak Lampir takes the appearance of Nyi Blorong in
order to seduce Kala Gondhang. In another episode, Nyi Blorong can change her form
into a village girl to lure Sembara. Malih is not only popular in Javanese traditional
entertainment but also in Javanese popular narrative as there are many oral folk
stories with the theme of malih.
Although sinetron Misteri Gunung Merapi takes the historical episode of
Sultan Agung’s plan to attack Batavia, the main theme of the earlier episodes of this
sinetron is the love story between Sembara and Farida. This makes Misteri Gunung

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Merapi different from other sinetrons which take legend and history as the main
theme. Most sinetron, such the sinetron Kaca Benggala dan Mahapatih Gajah Mada,
which take historical episodes as their main theme develop the conflict on the
succession feud with a lot of intrigues and passion of power (Herfanda 2005), central
elements which are unavailable in Misteri Gunung Merapi. The mixing themes taken
from different genre in this sinetron shows the authenticity is not the main interest.
History is interpreted, commodified, and aestheticized in contemporary frames for
commercial purpose.
The title of this sinetron is Misteri Gunung Merapi, nevertheless, this sinetron
does not develop its genre from most Indonesian mystery, popular in around 1980s.
Most Indonesian mystery films take a story of the rise of the dead body to take
revenge. This theme is taken from Javanese popular belief of roh gentayangan2 (the
unpeaceful rest of the soul). The motivation of zombie is as a tomb agency and a
God’s messenger, to take revenge and to uphold justice. The ghostly zombie can
transform into beautiful human to trap her victims: the rapist, the killer, the corruptor,
or the robber. She looks terrifying only in front of the victims. In the end of the story,
the soul trapped into the dead body is released with the help of kyai (Muslim scholar)
and his praying. In contrast, Misteri Gunung Merapi does not employ the plot of the
mystery genre. Although one episode of this sinetron takes a story of the rise of dead
body, it is not for the same purpose (to take revenge). Rather it is about the story of a
man who cannot accept his wife’s death and tries to resurrect her with the help of Mak
Lampir and the evil spirit. Mak Lampir in this episode is a mediator between human
and spirit world. This episode shows how the Islamic concept of zombie or dead body
is different from the Javanese belief of the soul trapped in the death body. In other

2 There is popular belief circulated among the Javanese of unnatural death, such as being
killed, that their soul will not rest peacefully. The unrest soul will try to get the fair justice until a kyai
helps to release their soul.

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words, although this sinetron still takes the belief of the existence of the spirit world,
it does not communicate in Javanese concept rather this sinetron gives to its audiences
the Islamic concept of the unseen world.
Language, as Teo has argued, is considered one of the manifestations of
identity (Teo 2000a, p. 4). With Indonesian language as the medium for
communication, this sinetron shows the construction of Indonesian identity or
national identity, despite using Javanese past culture as collective memory. Even,
Javanese language is rarely used in this sinetron. With the Indonesian language as the
dominant medium, this sinetron could communicate easily the Javanese culture to its
national audiences.
Clothing signifies cultural identity. Every ethnic group in Indonesia has its
own distinctive clothing. Although Misteri Gunung Merapi takes a historical Javanese
setting, it does not employ Javanese costume in its depiction of the central characters.
The costume of kyai wears and also some santri (kyai students) are Arabic. Although
the figurants wear Javanese traditional clothes of jarik and kemben3, their role is not
central in the story except only as background. The costume of Farida, looking at her
hairstyle, is more Balinese rather than Javanese, while the costume of Sembara and
most male characters, looking at the colour and pattern of the blangkon, headscarf and
their jarik is Jawa pasisiran, Northern coastal Javanese. Central Javanese colour of
jarik and headscarf is only dark brown and light brown for Surakarta and dark brown
and white for Jogjakarta with special pattern, while Jawa Pasisiran is more colourful
and rich in pattern. The hero’s shirt is like kimono’s style but showing off his bare
upper arms. This shirt style is used to be worn by the clowns in traditional

3 Jarik and kemben are traditional costume Javanese people. Jarik is a piece of loose cloth with
special motif for covering the lower part of the body and kemben is to cover the upper part of the body.
Jarik and kemben is female costume of lower class society while for the aristocrats, they wear jarik and
kebaya, a special model of cloth with long sleeves.

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entertainment. For other female characters, there are elements of Chinese kung fu,
especially in hairstyle, combined with modern Javanese. This makes the identity in
this sinetron fluid, open much identification. This also shows the aspect of borrowing
from kungfu cinema, as kungfu TV series, especially Return of the Condor Heroes and
Journey to the West were popular in Indonesia.
Names in Indonesia also characterise ethnic identity. Considering the setting
of Java in the seventeenth century, the name of the characters should be Javanese.
However, the names in this sinetron include Javanese, Melayu, Sundanese, and
modern Indonesian names. As the writer of the story is Asmadi Syafar, a
Sumatranese, the central characters appearing in this story have Minang names such
as Sembara, Farida, Basir, Mardian, Rosminah, Datuk Larang Tapa and Mak Lampir.
The Javanese names are present in the legendary and historical figures such as Sultan
Agung, Sunan Kalijaga, Nyi Rara Kidul, and Nyi Blorong. As there are some Dutch
figures in this sinetron, Dutch names also are also visible such as Karen and de Voss.
Other names such as Pitaloka and Mayang Sari are popular for modern Indonesian
girl name. It can be said there is an impression of diversity in the choice of the names
of the characters.
As action-adventure genre has been popular in Indonesia for a long time and
has been broadcasted in television as prime time program, this sinetron has made
some adaptation of this genre for the local audiences. The characteristic of Western
action hero, according to Tasker, is in the representation of “spectacular bodies” in
which she devises the term “musculinity”4. She argued that the images of the
muscular body in action are central to fight-films. “The feats of near-naked action
heroes” showing his muscular body is in the camera in both the motion and pose

4 “Musculinity indicates the extent to which physical definition of masculinity in terms of a
developed musculature is not limited to the male body representation” Tasker, Y 1993, Spectacular
bodies : gender, genre, and the action cinema, Routledge, London ; New York.

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position in which it offers the body to-be-looked-at. (Tasker 1993, p. 77) As there is
different tradition of fighting in the East and West, there is no articulation of
masculine strength and power through “hard body” conflict like most depiction of
Western action cinema. Javanese hero is characterised by his ability to “master
supernatural power” (see Brakel-Papenhuyzen 2006, p.79). Although Misteri Gunung
Merapi does not offer “the feats of near-naked action heroes”, the costume of the
heroes shows the health, fitness, and bodybuilding of the actors. However, this
sinetron does not present impressive fighting movement like in kungfu. Kungfu
exhibits both muscular body and spectacular movement, however, the focus is in “the
apparent willpower and virtuosity movement” (Anderson 1998). Combat in this
sinetron is more about supernatural powers which make the Javanese tradition of
martial art not elaborately displayed. The beautiful movement of attack and counter-
attack as the characteristic of martial art are rarely displayed in this sinetron, rather a
lot of screenings of explosion, which is not generated by a gun, but by an empty hand,
shows the exercise of supernatural power. The similarity between this sinetron and
kungfu cinema is in the ability of the fighters in controlling gravity so that it looks like
they can fly and fight in the air.
As Indonesia has its own tradition of martial art, this sinetron employs a more
Javanese tradition of martial art in values and philosophy for developing the story.
Sembara and Basir could be categorised as the heroes or the warriors in Western
tradition rather than the knight-errant in kungfu or wuxia stories. In wuxia fiction, the
Chinese knight errant holds Confucian values5 in fighting for justice while Sembara

5 There are eight common qualities of the xia, the Chinese knight-errant: “altruism, justice,
individualism, loyalty, courage, truthfulness, disregard for wealth and desire for glory”. These values
are characteristics of Confucian gentlemen except for individualism.. the xia’s “sense of justice was
subjective, and more often than not was in fact vengeance”…”noble xia personified chivalsy, and even
villainous xia would extend chivalry to those they deemed capable of appreciating the notion of

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and Basir, although their values are almost the same, take Javanese and Islam as their
ideology and code of conduct. Fighting against evil is the essence of the heroes’
ideology and code of conduct in this sinetron. This makes the heroes in this sinetron
more like the hero in Western tradition because it is easy to differentiate between
good and evil. Although both hero in the Asian cinema and in the sinetron “qualifies
supernatural ability”, unlike in Chinese definition, the “essence of heroism” in
Javanese and Islam is not “the drama of mortal men who fight and die for a
worthwhile cause, attaining epiphany in death”(Teo 2000b). Although Sembara is
mortal, he holds a weapon which makes him undefeated by the evil and he is
protected by many kyai, who always know when he is in trouble. He is a
representation as a good Muslim that spreads goodness among the people and
sacrifice himself to help the others. With his goodness, God always protects him from
any danger, it is strong belief circulated among Muslims.
Unlike Western action tradition of hero who is able to control his suffering,
hero in this sinetron is more a mythic figure that lives in Javanese dream and
imagination. It can be said there is an interaction between Javanese and Islamic
elements in the representation of hero. Sembara does not experience any human
problem such as sickness and pain. Meditation and recitation of prayer keep him from
any danger as if that he has the sixth sense. If he experiences a difficulty it is because
there is strong supernatural power, which makes him lose his sense.
Sembara, in his adventure to find Farida and to free them from Mak Lampir’s
hand, has found a chaotic situation in many villages he has passed through, in which
he needs to stay and help the community to solve the mysterious problem. Unlike in
the Wild West, the problem in this sinetron is not caused by the outlaw, rather it is

honor”. Yin, E 2001, 'Introduction to wuxia genre', Heroic Cinema: a guide to Asian movies in
Australia viewed 3 March 2006, <http://www.heroic-cinema.com/eric/xia.html>

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considered as mysterious problem caused by cooperation between evil human and
spirit. The fighting in this sinetron is not between hero and outlaw rather it is between
good human and bad spirits. Sembara does not kill the man who creates a disaster; he
even does not punish him, rather the man runs away because he is more afraid being
punished by the society. Nevertheless, Sembara punishes the evil spirits and sends
them away. With the interaction between Javanese and Islam, it is not surprising that
the sinetron is popular among any other ethnic background in Indonesia.

Conclusion
The success of this sinetron is due to the way the sinetron improvises and
make use of cultural resources outside the authentic tradition. Although the setting is
Javanese in the seventeenth century, the sinetron has constructed Javanese identity in
response to modern and global values and forms of entertainment and in this way this
sinetron succeeds in communicating to its national audiences. Javanese culture is
limited to the commodification of the legendary elements and the supernatural
powers. We can trace the evidence of modern values in the way the sinetron gives the
theme of romantic love, and of global entertainment in the way it has adapted some
elements of Western cinema of action-adventure and kungfu or wuxia. This sinetron
also shows the effort to respond to the diversity of cultural or ethnic identity in
Indonesia through the use of Indonesian as the national language as media of
communication and through applying Islamic ideology which is the dominant faith in
Indonesia. Through the choice of names, dance, costume, and place names which are
not specifically Javanese, the Javanese past is reconstructed “within its contemporary
frame of reference” (Assmann and Czaplicka 1995, p.130). As Browitt has argued in
relation to Latin America, “we should not regard indigenous cultural identity as

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