The Javanese of Sarawak
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
SOME 50,000 ethnic Javanese in the East Malaysian state of Sarawak, descendants of kuli kontrak, contract laborers brought in by Dutch companies, later transferred to British companies, to work in rubber plantations. The Javanese arrived in Sarawak from the late 1880s to the 1940s. Their children speak ngoko, crude Javanese. The old generation still writes in Javanese script, play wayang, ketoprak, and tayub. The young generation is infatuated by the gyrations of Indonesian pop singer Inul Daratista, and Javanese folk songs by Didi Kempot. For a week from the end of February to early March, Tempo’s Sunudyantoro traveled to Sarawak and visited the Javanese villages of Desa Sri Arjuna and Desa Sri Mupakat and filed this report.
arsip tempo : 173510779080.
“Piye kabarmu, Kang (How are you, Brother)?” “Kok dewekan koyo bambang ae (Coming alone, as if still unmarried)?”
SUCH warm conversation in Javanese is still heard every time the Javanese gather at wedding parties at Desa Sri Arjuna, a Javanese village about 18 kilometers from downtown Kuching, the state’s capital. People know the street as a Javanese village where descendants of kuli kontrak, contract laborers who arrived in Sarawak
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