Minahasa Journal 3 - Breaking Records in Tondano

Here I am back with the Minahasa Journal. After stopping to buy some fruits, we were on our way and arrived at the Maesa Stadium in Tondano...where the event was held...at about 3 pm. Wow ... so many people ! We had to go round to find parking space.

Oh, by the time we climbed up to our 'seats' I was huffing and puffing like the wolf outside the three little pig's house ^^...a sure sign of exercise deficiency :( Anyway....I wasn't familiar with this area, I didn't realize we were up in the mountains and towards evening the air got chillier and chillier...there were lots of wind...making it colder. I didn't bring my jacket , so nearing the end of the event my teeth were chattering, my skin covered in goosebumps.

Ok, back to the event. The event is called North Sulawesi Art and Culture Festival 2009. Right in front of me sat some participants ...and I took a pix of the back of a t-shirt one lady was wearing...you could see the logo ...and the picture of two kinds of traditional Minahasa musical instruments, one is a specifically shaped Trumpet and the other is a Kolintang.

The trumpet is made of brass, and it is played in an ensemble with bamboo musical instruments, we call it " Musik Bambu". Minahasa's Kolintang is a wooden xylophone ...it is different from the Kulintang in Philippines and Malaysia...which consists of brass gongs. If you'd like to read more on Indonesia's Kolintang you could click here , if you want to see pics of ladies playing Kolintang click here . At above picture, you could see two rows of participants : in the front row are the Kolintang performers behind their Kolintangs...and the ones in the back row are the Musik Bambu performers. In the above pix the Kolintang ensemble was playing traditional songs beautifully...we were applauding loudly... and my eyes got a bit misty when I heard "Musik Bia" coming in to the pieces they play...Musik Bia is another kind of traditional music....with instruments nobody could make ! Yep..... the musical instruments they use are 'BIA' or ..in English...SEA SHELLS...from large ones to small..

I sat near these beautiful dancers, who performed traditional dances in the event. They were tidying up their make up, hair and costumes. These dancers come from another region of Sulawesi Utara called Bolaang Mongondow.The majority of the Bolaang Mongondow people are Muslims and the majority of the Minahasa people are Christians...we've always been as one :)

If in pics above are dancers from the Bolaang Mongondow region , below you could see dancers from the Minahasa region, the girls in white 'Kebaya' tops and red 'Saroongs'...holding white 'Lenso' or handkerchief. the men in black...On far left are the "Cakalele" dancers in traditional warrior attire complete with bird feathers...carrying wooden spears and wooden shields. Actually the Cakalele dancers are wonderful to behold closely...too bad I was too far away from them to take a good shot.

Since both kinds of musical instruments are often used to accompany traditional dances...in the middle of the program, traditional dancers came into the stadium ...filling up the space between the Musik Bambu and the Kolintang groups. You could see them at the left side of the field [above] and the right side [below].

A GWR [Guinnes Book World of Records] Adjudicator came that day to judge 4 categories of world records in the event. The first is for The Largest Trumpet with a length of 32 meters, a diameter of 5,20 meters, circumference of 6,80 meters and...weight of 3 tons . The second is for The Largest Kolintang with a length of 8 meters, width of 2,5 meters and height of 2 meters. The third is for The Largest Musik Bambu Ensemble with 1223 musicians . The fourth is for The Largest [Kolintang] Musical Ensemble with 3001 musicians. Oh, I hope I've gotten all the English terminologies right here...a bit headachy to write about this^^.... he he....click here if you want to see slide show about the event.

The Largest Trumpet according to The Guinnes Book World of Records...

Above are the Kolintangs...abandoned by the players after they performed several pieces...they make way for the Musik Bambu players to perform.

Above is The largest Kolintang in the world according to The Guinnes Book World of Records . You could see the Musik Bambu players resting in front of the giant Kolintang.

The last program of the event was supposed to be the presentation of the GWR certificates to the head of the committee....but...I was shivering so much that hubby decided we should go....before I caught something. So we went out of the stadium...and I saw this balloon vendor....wow....great timing !! Me was planning to got to my two cousins' house right after this. So I bought two Hello Kitties and one Spiderman balloon for my cousins' children ^^

If you're interested in seeing and hearing Kolintang being played..here are some videos :

Video from YT by Grahabudayaindonesia


Video from YT by popmanado

Video from YT by bungarosi

You could click here and here if you are interested in Cakalele war dance ..the first dance was performed in a Japanese summer festival^^ and the second one is performed by children in Minahasa. Click here if you're interested in Musik Bambu and here for Musik Bia....although the videos are not so clear..they are all I could find. Hmmm...glad journal 3 is done...be back for the fourth...