The Unique Art Of Bakul, The Rice Basket

Do you know the meaning of “bakul” in Indonesian? Well, it is a traditional rice basket used by Indonesian in the past. It is made from woven slices of bamboo and is used as a container of cooked rice on the dining table.

Here is the look. The picture was taken from “Tripadvisor”.

The Unique Art of Bakul The Rice Basket

Although, I call myself a photographer but I don’t have a picture of “bakul” in my photo inventory. Ever since, I was born, my mother no longer used this thing. She used a stainless steel rice basket to serve rice for her family, including me.

I believe many other Indonesians do too. Bakul has been no longer a tool used by families on their tables. The position now has been taken by electronic magic jar which is more practice.

Only small number of people who still preserve old way of rice serving in Indonesia and of course traditional restaurants who wants their visitors to enjoy unique way of eating, still utilize this apparatus.

Very few.

However, some Sundanese artists who have been worried about the deterioration of awareness of traditional culture have been trying to remind people about our way of living that tends to be too Western. They revive this traditional rice basket in a unique way.

They made some arts/dance utilizing “bakul”, the traditional rice basket as the core (besides of course, pretty young girl).

Here are the appearance of bakul in modern life, two versions of Sundanese artists.

Boboko Logor - Bakul Terbali Yang Membuat Orang Gembira
Boboko Logor Karya Kang Ade Suarsa

Boboko Logor

Bakul can be a quite nice clothes if it is used upside down and if the size is made bigger than a normal one.

Ask young girls to use it and many people will be attracted.

This art is called Boboko Logor. Boboko in Sundanese means “Bakul” and Logor is “loose”. The creator of this unique dance is an art group named EDAS (Etnik Daya Sora) who specialized in using traditional home equipment as the core of their art.

The costume itself has a philosophy that the “Have” must remember also about the “Poor” and should also try to help them. At the same time, they want to remind all Bogorians about their identity as Sundanese and should not forget about that.

BONGE SALEOR

Kesenian daerah lain yang hadir di Cap Go Meh Bogor 2018 Bonge Saleor Sanggar Edas

If you come to Bogor Lantern Festival (Cap Go Meh Bogor) every year, then you should see a group of youth bring fish or eel like statues or puppet on top their head using long stick. It is called as Bonge Saleor, another product of imaginative mind of EDAS.

From afar, it would seems just like a fish or eel puppet made from wood or cardboard. but from close distance, and if you look carefully, then you can see from the material used to form the fish puppet. Yes. Bonge Saleor is made or formed from many bakuls, big ones.

After seeing the unique performance of the traditional rice basket, I believe the creators will be happy because nobody will ever forget about bakul anymore.

It is attractive. Imaginative. Unique.

Un-forgettable. (At least for some boys because the wearers were mostly pretty young girls).

Bakul may not be used to serve rice anymore but it is still useable to make people smile and laugh.

Mari Berbagi

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