Titih Hala: Exploring Human-Tiger Entanglements in Malay Theatre, Ritual, Song, and Film
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37134/impac.v1.5.2023Keywords:
dikir barat, main 'teri, mak yong, tiger, tiger stripesAbstract
The Malayan tiger is critically endangered. Its population has declined from more than 3,000 individuals in the 1950s to fewer than 150 left in the forests of Malaysia today. While the tiger continues to disappear from Malaysian forests at an alarming rate, the weretiger remains an important symbol of liminality, ancestral heritage, ritual, horror, and raw animal power in the arts of Malaysia and the Riau Archipelago of Indonesia. Human-tiger entanglements are referenced in oral-historical narratives, the traditional theatrical forms of mak yong and nora Melayu, and the ritual healing performances of main ‘teri. However, the Malaysian fascination with the conflation of nature and culture, the animal, and the human, is not just confined to traditional dramatic forms and esoteric healing rituals. This paper will investigate the role of the weretiger and its links to history and healing in mak yong theatrical and ritual traditions and explore how the concept of hala, the weretiger continues to be invoked, reimagined, and recreated in popular genre like dikir barat and contemporary Malaysian film.
Downloads
References
Arhem, K., & Sprenger, G. (Eds.). (2016). Animism in Southeast Asia. Routledge.
Bradley, F. R. (2013). Siam’s conquest of Patani and the end of mandala relations, 1786–1838. In P. Jory (Ed.), Ghosts of the Past in Southern Thailand: Essays on the History and Historiography of Patani (pp. 149–160). NUS Press.
Boomgaard, P. (2001). Frontiers of Fear: Tigers and People in the Malay World, 1600-1950. Yale University Press.
Chen, L. (2023, November 10). Stunning photo of rare Malayan tiger snapped by a camera trap. NewScientist. Retrieved from https://www.newscientist.com/article/2402215-stunning-photo-of-rare-malayan-tiger-snapped-by-camera-trap/?fbclid=IwAR3vfiIgJccMZqk8yeeR1Teu2Y5nY_pPwPOWhpHVgEZDhI7wq-nDYjeU7lo
Ghulam-Sarwar, Y. (2004). Panggung Inu Essays on Traditional Malay Theatre. Unipress The Centre for the Arts, National University of Singapore.
Hardwick, P. A. (2013a). A king, a palace, a country: Exploring the conceptualization of the body in Mak Yong healing performances in Kelantan Malaysia. In M. A. M. Nor, P. Matusky, T. S. Beng, J. P. Kitingan, & P. Prudente (Eds.), (Re)Producing Southeast Asian Performing Arts & Southeast Asian Bodies, Music, Dance and Other Movement Arts. Symposium 2012, International Council for Traditional Music Study Group on the Performing Arts of Southeast Asia (pp. 155-161). Philippines Women’s University.
Hardwick, P. A. (2009). Stories of the wind: The role of Mak Yong in shamanistic healing in Kelantan, Malaysia (Publication No. 3386680) [Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
Hardwick, P. A. (2013b). Embodying the divine and the body politic: Mak Yong performance in rural Kelantan, Malaysia. In T. Daniels (Ed.), Performance, popular culture and piety in Muslim Southeast Asia (pp. 77-104). Palgrave Macmillan.
Hefner, R. W., & Horvatich, P. (1997). Islam in an era of nation-states: Politics and religious renewal in Muslim Southeast Asia. University of Hawai’i Press.
Kessler, C. S. (1977). Conflict and sovereignty in Kelantanese Malay spirit séances. In V. Crapanzano & V. Garrison (Eds.), Case studies in spirit possession (pp. 295-332). John Wiley & Sons.
Kirksey, E. S., & Helmreich, S. (2010). The emergence of multispecies ethnography. Cultural Anthropology, 25(4), 545–576.
Laderman, C. (1991). Taming the wind of desire: Psychology, medicine, and aesthetics in Malay shamanistic performance. University of California Press.
Nadasdy, P. (2007). The gift in the animal: The ontology of hunting and human–animal sociality. American Ethnologist, 34(1), 25–43.
Nasran Titih Hala. (2018, September 9). Karya emas [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEtorsHcXH
Roseman, M. (1991). Healing sounds from the Malaysian rainforest: Temiar music and medicine. University of California Press.
Skeat, W. W. (1972). Malay magic: Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula (B. Blom, Ed.). Benjamin Blom. (Original work published 1900)
Wessing, R. (1986). The soul of ambiguity: The tiger in Southeast Asia. Special Report no 24. Center for Southeast Asian Studies Monograph Series on Southeast Asia: Northern Illinois University.
Willerslev, R. (2007). Soul hunters: Hunting, animism, and personhood among the Siberian Yukaghirs. University of California Press.
Woodward, W., & McHugh, S. (2017). Indigenous creatures, native knowledges and the arts: Animal studies in modern worlds. Palgrave Macmillan.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 International Music and Performing Arts Conference
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the Proceedings of the International Music and Performing Arts Conference (IMPAC Proceedings) the right of first publication.
This licence permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
