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THE
BUGIS AND MAKASSANS
The Bugis and Makassans
of the southwestern arm of Sulawesi have essentially the same language
and culture. Celebrated for their coarseness, these peoples are the most
kasar in the whole archipelago. Even the children. If you have a child
they will pinch it to make it cry, or lob stones into your becak as you're
riding past. To each other they do not behave this way; only to caucasoid
strangers who can't do anything but take it. In Ujung Pandang in mid-1976,
after having manhandled a pickpocket they had caught, 3 French travelers
were critically stabbed. To understand this hostility towards the white
man it helps to remember that in the early part of this century thousands
of Bugis and Makassans were killed in retaliation for the death of a few
Dutch, soldiers during the Dutch pacification of the island. In this notorious
'Westerling Massacre', people were bundled together in groups of 50 and
shot; 30,000 people died. history: Known as the Sea Gypsys, the Bugis
and Makassans have always been extraordinary shipbuilders, sailors, merchants,
slaverunners, adventurers, warriors, and pirates. Just look at how the
women dress to see their history. The Bugis were the first seafarers to
visit Australia, sailing for hundreds of years in their traditional triangular
masted Lambere as far as the Kimberleys and Arnhem Land to fish for Chinese
delicacies. They left many loan words with the Australian aboriginal tribes
of the Gulf of Carpentaria. South Celebes was a Majapahit province in
the 14th Century, and a formidable naval power in the 16th Century, fighting
great territorial sea battles. The most feared pirates of the Java Sea,
the Bugis hunted their prey in packs, their ships armed with cast-bronze
bow rammers shaped like dragons' gullets. When Torres visited New Guinea
in 1603, he met Makassan traders there. South Celebes came under Portugese
influence in 1625, who in turn were driven out by the Dutch in about 1667.
Islam first entered South Celebes at Gowa, the most powerful early Makassan
state, relatively late-only at the end of the 17th Century. Makassar was
from the 17th Century to the 19th Century the main harbor settlement for
the King of Gowa whose actual capital was 10 km inland. Makassar directly
dominated and exploited Sumbawa during the 17th Century and during the
18th Century this coastal kingdom became a political power in the Riau
archipelago, large areas of Sumatra, maintaining colonies in Singapore
and on Borneo, and trading with India, China, Philippines, Burma and Cambodia.
This wealth and influence persisted until Dutch control was consolidated
in 1905 when Holland's forces conquered the rest of Celebes, whereupon
the Dutch treated the kings of Gowa like vassals. literature: The Bugis
and Makassans are famous for their chanted heroic epic poems told by a
storyteller who accompanies himself on a 2-stringed lute played with a
bow. The / Caligo Cycle is a mythical account of the past which has become
literature. Gods, ancestors, heaven and earth, the whole cosmological
order are related. Diaries and journals were made fashionable under Portugese
influence. dance: Pattuddu is performed by 6-8 teenagers. See the Bugis
Pajogo and the Pajaga, and the stately court dance, Pakarena. All are
being updated for tourists.
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we must point out a very important distinction which the Balinese make between
two clearly separate groups of ancestors. The first of these groups consists
of the dead who are riot yet completely purified. This group is in turn subdivided
in pirata, those riot yet cremated, and pitara, those already cremated. The
former are still completely impure; the latter have been purified, but are still
considered as distinct, individual souls. The second group consists of the completely
purified ancestors who are considered as divine. Everything Bali Indonesia |
