Rebranding heritage: What is up with pantun?
Read in Indonesian
“Early morning, the phone was ringing. A warm greeting from the one so dearly. Let’s fly again with Citilink. The comfortable plane makes your travelling merry (Pagi-pagi telepon berdering. Ucapan hangat dari kekasih tercinta. Yuk terbang lagi bareng Citilink. Pesawatnya nyaman bikin traveling kamu bahagia).” This is one of the examples of pantun which is often said by Citilink airline cabin crew in each of their flight. The habit of using pantun to deliver flight information has been the characteristic of the airline and it offers a unique flying experience for the passengers. The procedure, which is called ‘Salam Pantun’ (pantun greeting), has been implemented since 2013 and the content is adjusted with the flight destination.
Citilink's move to use pantun in its services is of course adjusted to the airline’s target market, namely young people. Pantun with its unique rhyme and sometimes amusing choice of words is indeed fascinating, and in this case, the right marketing strategy. We might enjoy pantun in our daily activities, but is enjoying equivalent to understanding?
According to Ibnu Wahyudi, a lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities at University of Indonesia and the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), pantun itself is a means of oral communication with a certain pattern. "The pattern in the form of a quatrain and has an a-b-a-b rhyme, and the first and second lines in the form of sampiran (intro) and the third and fourth lines in the form of content, make it easier for pantun tellers to quickly create or reply to the pantun that may be addressed to them," he said.
In the past, pantun was used to show word processing and at the same time to showcase the intellectuality of its tellers. Pantun is also different from poetry or sajak (verse) - pantun has a fixed pattern, while poetry or sajak is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm.
In written culture, pantun is used as: (a) decoration in classic Malay stories, manuscripts and, later, prints; (b) books of pantun collection, both written by the author and a documentary of popular pantun; (c) decoration in personal letters; (d) decoration in speech, and so on.
In the modern era, the use of pantun is starting to shift or, more precisely, expand. Now, pantun are often used to advance political interests, market a product or service (like Citilink), enliven traditional ceremonies, and even for social media meme. These are part of the reasons why pantun is still known and loved today. Nowadays, its use has been so closely related to our daily life.
Take, for example, Tinder. This digital dating application recently announced a collaboration with comedian Dodit Mulyanto to create pantun inspirations that Tinder users can use to start a conversation with their match. One of them is as follows: “Blend spices using a blender, the blender slowly mangle. How fun, meeting on Tinder, after this straight to the aisle (Halusin bumbu pake blender, blender-nya rusak perlahan. Asik, kita ketemunya di Tinder, abis ini lanjut ke pelaminan).” It sounded humorous, fresh and very much in-line with the vocabulary of youth interactions. It should come as no surprise that pantun is still popular.
However, there are those who argue that the use of pantun in the modern era has not had a positive impact on the preservation of pantun. Modern pantun is deemed to only pursue the final rhyme, while the final rhyme is only one of the elements that make up a pantun. The "soul" of a pantun as a whole should be seen in its entirety, starting from the sampiran-content to the number of words and syllables, as well as rhymes.
Even so, Ibnu Wahyudi actually supports the use of pantun amongst young people, “A mineral water product some time ago featured a number of pantun on its bottles. This is a method that we must appreciate, because the company is indirectly helping preserve pantun.” He added, "Amongst young people, pantun is still popular because they are concise in shape, and rhyme plays open the path for the rise of richer humorous associations."
He gave an example, "When a line ends with // ... kedondong // it can be assumed that there must be a line with "’dong.’" Given the flexibility of pantun, it can appear at any time and always be actual, in contrast to gurindam, seloka, or poetry which do not give room for "humour."
Apart from being used humorously in everyday conversation, pantun is still used in various traditional ceremonies. Pantun Palang Pintu is part of Betawi traditional wedding ceremony. In the Betawi tradition, when the groom is about to enter the residence of the bride, the bride’s side will intercept. This is where the pantun battle happens. Of course, both religiously and legally, this tradition does not have an impact on whether a marriage is legal or not. It is a unique tradition that is still preserved by the Betawi community.
Pantun deserves to be preserved, because it is the original form of oral poetry from the Nusantara culture. In fact, various regional areas in Indonesia have their own pantun with their local languages. "The function or use is similar, namely as part of oral communication and usually part of an event, such as a proposal (Betawi) or during harvest (Sundanese and Javanese)," Ibnu Wahyudi explained. The local terms for pantun are quite diverse, from "paparik" (Sundanese) and "umpasa" (Mandailing) to "bolingoni" (Toraja).
In addition, UNESCO has designated pantun as an Intangible World Heritage on 17 December 2020. Recently, PT Balai Pustaka (Persero), supported by the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry, held the 2021 Pantun Banter Competition. The winner will win the BUMN Ministerial Cup and prizes totaling Rp200 million.
In essence, pantun is still very relevant to the lives of Indonesians in the modern era, and there are many ways we can preserve them, starting from using it to flirt on a dating application to implementing the pantun tradition in traditional ceremonies.
The stomach is full, having eaten before taking a shower. Excuse us, this article ends here (Perut terisi, sudah makan sebelum mandi. Kami permisi, tulisan ini berakhir di sini).