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How Food Plays an Integral Role in Indonesian Folktales and

Maintains the Moral of the Stories

By

Dr. Murti Bunanta – Indonesia

Email: mbunanta@gmail.com

Paper presented for the 2nd Asia Oceania IBBY Regional Congress,

May 12th – 17th 2015

Abstract

Indonesian folktales offer various themes. Interestingly in many stories with different themes from

different regions and cultures, food plays an integral role. The first part of the paper examines food in

its various representations, such as in the form of activities (cooking, offering, eating, and drinking);

plants; fruits; staple food; animals; and others. The second part will discuss the role and function of

food eq; means of tests; means of tricks; mean of explaining; and means of sacrificing. The third part

focuses on the relations of food and the moral of the stories. The fourth part talks about many ways to

keep food in folktales known by the today-children and connect to culinary culture as ethnic and

nation identity. And a conclusion will be followed.

Keywords: Indonesian folktales, food, culinary culture

Food in Life

Indonesia is very rich with folk food. The culinary culture is the pride of the people.

Through folk food we maintain our culture. Each culture, each region, each town,

and each village has a specialty and at the same time also similarity. One unique

aspect is the naming of the dishes. Also the variety is incredible. This paper is

therefore wants to show that folktales motifs connected with food are abundant in our

traditional stories, Indonesian folktales.

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Various Representations of Food in Folktales

Indonesia folktales offers various themes. Interestingly in many stories with different

themes from different regions and cultures, food plays an integral role. There are

various representation of food, such as in the form of activities: eating, cooking, and

offering. Also it could be in the form of fruits, plants, staple food, animals, and others.

Eight stories will be discussed here where food plays an integral role and maintains

the moral of the stories as example, taken from books that I have retold.

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a. Why Shrimps are Crooked – folktale from West Kalimantan

There was once a school of fish who wanted to do large scale work. Each of

them planned to open a farm. Therefore, they decided that each in turn would

help the others. They made arragement whose farm would be prepared for

planting first and the fish who owned the farm should prepared the food. Each

fish has to cook delicious food. Here, cooking is the representation of food

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b. Tattadu – folktale from South Sulawesi

There lived seven sisters. The youngest had not been married yet. Everyday

her sisters would mock her. The girl was so unhappy because of the teasing

of her sisters. She spoke out loud and said that she would marry even a

tattadu or caterpillar. From that time a tattadu lived at the youngest sister’s

house and one day he travelled to a far away land to change his look. Finally

he became a handsome strong man. The God in the far away land whom he

met, gave him a bottle of rice wine for a drinking competition. The Tattadu

won and became a king.

c. Princess Mandalika – folktale from Lombok

A kingdom has a beautiful young princess. Two kings in the two neighboring

kingdoms wanted to propose her. She decided to refuse their proposal and

sacrificed herself and transformed into nyale, sea creature, that were a

useful food for all the people in the village.

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d. Suwidak Loro – folktale from Java

This story tells about a girl who had an ugly appearances. Her mother loved

her very much and always bragged that her daughter was very beautiful. The

neighbours were annoyed and angry. One of them went to the palace and told

the Majesty. The King sent his chief minister to propose Suwidak Loro. Her

mother prepared her and made her favorite food for the journey to bring. A

beautiful goddess smelled the fragrance of her food and wanted to exchange

apparance with the food, botok semayi. Suwidak Loro now became very

beautiful.

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e. Princess Snail – folktale from DKI Jakarta

A poor widow lived with her son on a piece of land rented from a stingy

landlord. When she died of her sickness and the son couldn’t pay the debt, he

worked in his rice field. The youth found a snail and took home. He was

surprised when he later found delicious meal already prepared by an angel.

To avoid she left him the youth hid the angel’s outfit and married her. Later

the angel found her outfit and decided to leave her husband and child to her

original place.

f. Senggutru – folktale from Java

In the small village, there was chaos. A hungry evil giant came raiding the

village to look for food. Parents panicked and hurriedly took their children to

other villages, except the mother of Senggutru, a girl the size of a thumb.

Later the giant came to Senggutru’s house for food. Finally Senggutru could

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defeat the giant and became to a normal size of a girl and the heroine and

pride of the village.

g. Ampak and the Cunning Civet Cat – folktale from South Kalimantan

In the village there lived a youth name si Ampak. All the villages grow rice

except Ampak who planted citrus trees. Due to his diligence, Ampak’s citrus

trees finally bore fruit. One day a cunning civet cut succeeded in picking a

citrus fruit and Ampak caught him. The civet cat promised to make Ampak a

king if he didn’t kill him.

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h. Masarasenani and the Sun – folktale from Papua

There lived a man named Masarasenani with his family. Everyday they went

to pound out the sago tree to get its flour. When people hadn’t yet finished

pounding the sago, the night came. Many of the villagers were starving. So,

Masarasenani had the idea to trap the sun. Although Masarasenani was

delighted because the villagers could gather more food, he knew that the sun

must be released so that he could do his job and revolve around the earth.

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The Role and Function of Food

From the stories and illustrations above we understand that the story always start

with activities connected to food. In the story of “Why Shrimps are Crooked”, how to

cook delicious food is the condition to pass the test. In the story of “Why Shrimps are

Crooked”, the role and function of food is a means of tests. Each fish had to

prepare food as delicious as the others could do. All fishes could cook a delicious

meal except the shrimps. He did not want to ask and the result was he cooked

himself dead in the pot. Also in “Tattadu”, rice wine given by the God as a way for

Tattadu to get his servants and became a king. The drinking competition in the story

of “Tattadu” is a means of tricks. Tattadu got a special rice wine from the God.

Because of this he won the competition to get entourage of servants that made him

became a king. Tattadu knows that the rice wine could not be finished. The story of

“Princess Mandalika” shows clearly the means of sacrificing. She did not want to

marry to any of the kings to avoid war. By sacrificing herself she became a useful

food for the whole people. She proved herself that she is much useful for the people

than marry a king. In the story of “Mandalika”, the food, “Nyale” is the solution of the

problem, while the food in “Suwidak Loro” is the blessing of the mother of Suwidak

Loro for her to change her appearance. The food in “Princess Snail” is a vehicle for

the youth to meet the Angel and for the Angel to become human instead of a snail.

The giant raiding to look for food in the story of “Senggutru” has given the chance for

Senggutru to defeat him and became the pride of the people. A cunning civet cat

stole the citrus from Ampak that made Ampak became a king, while the pounding of

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the sago tree is the beginning of all the trouble to trap the sun by Masarasenani in

the story of “Masarasenani and the Sun”

In short foods in all the stories are the beginning of the plot and thus play an

integral role in the stories. All the happenings, the solution of the problem, and the

reward of the characters’ endurance are connected to food in the stories.

According to Maria Nikolajeva; when the folktale hero departs from home,

food can serve as a link back home. (2008:368) Later Suwidak Loro’s mother was

also summoned to the palace and lived together with Suwidak Loro again. Food in

“Suwidak Loro” is a magical agent allowing the hero to enter the magical world to

exchange her face with the angel. (see Nikolajeva, 2008:369)

Therefore the role and function of food is the main part of the stories, the bone

of the plot and maintain the moral values of the stories. So, food takes a prominent

place in the stories discussed above.

The Relation of Food and the Moral of the Stories

The story of “Why Shrimps are Crooked”, shows that making the correct food as

required is a test that you fullfil the job you have to do. The relation with the moral of

the story is that you have to be modest and wanting to ask if you don’t understand.

The story of “Tattadu” shows that your destiny can be changed with courage if you

dare to challenge a competition. So it is with the story of “Senggutru”. She

challenges to be swallowed by the giant and could kill him. And in the story of

“Princess Mandalika”, the princess shows that she was the right person to rule the

kingdom and prefers to be useful for her people than marry a king.

The story of “Suwidak Loro” shows that a mother’s prayers and blessings is

powerful and that children need the support and love of a mother to reach their goal.

“Masarasenani and the Sun” shows that we must avoid greediness and keep the

environment in balance by not too much utilizing our staple food. The two other

stories, “Princess Snail” and “Ampak”, shows that life can change your destiny.

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Ways to keep Folk Food Alive

We, Society for the Advancement of Children’s Literature that has been established

in 1887 have the concern to keep folktales known in the life of today-children. Every

year we conduct Storytelling Festival and invite teachers, parents, professionals,

communities, artists, academics, and schools to perform various folktales from many

regions with different themes. On the following pictures we show how we introduce

folk food to the children. We read the books and show the food mentioned in the

books. Let the children touch and taste it. We also show them many ingredients,

plants, and traditional cakes and foods that perhaps are no longer in their day-to-day

experiences.

Conclusion

We have to keep our culinary culture as our ethnic and nation identity. Book

readings, storytelling festivals, simple cooking lessons in the connection with books

that show food in folktales and folktale stories can keep the children aware of the

richness of our culinary culture and make them proud of their own culture and

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identity. Food is our culture. So, no wonder why food in our folktales are also

abundant. The question is how to preserve this valuable heritage.

Jakarta, May 2015

Bibliography

1. Bunanta, Murti. Senggutru, folktale from Java, Indonesia. Jakarta: Kelompok Pencinta Bacaan Anak, 2001

2. _______ Suwidak Loro, folktale from Java, Indonesia. Jakarta: Kelompok Pencinta Bacaan Anak, 2001

3. _______ Masarasenani and the Sun, folktale from Papua, Indonesia. Jakarta: Kelompok Pencinta Bacaan Anak, 2005

4. _______ Why Shrimps are Crooked, folktale from Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Jakarta: Kelompok Pencinta Bacaan Anak, 2005

5. _______ Princess Mandalika, folktale from Lombok, Indonesia. Jakarta: Kelompok Pencinta Bacaan Anak, 2006

6. _______ Ampak and The Cunning Civet Cat, folktale from South Kalimantan, Indonesia. Jakarta: Kelompok Pencinta Bacaan Anak, 2008

7. _______ Princess Snail, folktale from Jakarta, Indonesia. Jakarta: Kelompok Pencinta Bacaan Anak, 2008

8. _______ Tattadu, folktale from South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Jakarta: Kelompok Pencinta Bacaan Anak, 2009

9. Nikolajeva, Maria. “Food” in the Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales, Volumes 1-3, p. 367-370. Edited by Donald Haase. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2008.