Rampogan Macan Infographic
Infographics about the ‘Rampogan Macan’ ceremony that took place in Java in the 17th to early 19th centuries, held by the Mataram Kingdom. The purpose of the ceremony which is also a folk spectacle is to welcome royal guests to show the power of the kingdom (semiotics) as represented by buffaloes against Javan tigers or other wild animals as invaders.
The fight that has been held in Mataram since the 17th century has a deep meaning for Javanese. According to Ann Kumar In Javanese female warriors, they imaging themselves as Buffalo (Maesa) and see strangers as Tigers (Simo). But for Robert Wessing, anthropologist of the university of Illinois, identification of Javanese against tigers is much more complex, even very ambiguous.
"Javanese also see tiger as an ancestral embodiment so that they often call him grandma. But then a tiger can be a disaster or a alignment of harmony so that it must be removed," write Wessing in "A Tiger in the Heart: The Javanese Rob Tiger,"
- Journal Kitlv 148 (1992) no. 2.
(Source: Ann Kumar - Javanese Female Warriors, Robert Wessing - A Tiger in the heart: The Javanese 'Rampok' Macan, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles - The History of Java, Historia.id article 'Merampog Harimau')
From left to right:
Kampf Tiger gegen Bueffel in Solo - S. Friedmann: Die Ostasiatische Inselwelt. Erster Band: Das Tropen-Eiland Java.
Gunungan Wayang (Javanese Shadow Puppets)
Een tijgergevecht Kediri - Collectie Tropenmuseum
Rampokpartij te Kediri - Photograph by Herman Salzwedel
Exhibited on 'Posko Visual 2019' Graphic Design Exhibition by Department of Visual Communication Design - State University of Malang
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