Creating a Narrative before Our Stories of Tea Perish

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Members of the Sari Oneng gamelan orchestra play the gamelan on Sunday (23/6/2019) at the Prabu Geusan Ulun Museum in Sumedang, West Java. The Sari Oneng gamelan orchestra comprised plantation workers from Parakan Salak, and played around the world as a cultural ambassador of the Dutch East Indies, including the 1883 Amsterdam International Colonial and Export Exposition, the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris and the World\'s Fair and Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago.

The Sari Oneng Parakan Salak gamelan orchestra accompanied the sale of tea to Europe at the end of the 19th century. The Dutch brought along gamelan as a means of building a narrative about the sublimity of tea.

We need to learn from this method of selling tea by the vehicle of narration.

Eleven men dressed in black with headbands of the same color were sitting behind Sari Oneng Parakan Salak gamelan musical instruments. Gambang (traditional xylophone), bonang (small gongs), slenthem (thin bronze-bar instrument), saron (heavy bronze-bar instrument), kendang (drum) and gongs were played to produce a harmonious sound in a room at Geusan Ulun Museum by the end of June 2019. Four sinden (gamelan songstresses) were singing to the accompaniment of a gamelan melody. The song rendered was seropongan.

The gamelan’s gentle sound produced a soothing effect for the players as well as listeners. “If I don’t hear the sound of gamelan for a long time, I often feel anxious,” said Sain, 80, a slenthem player.

Sain and his peers routinely train in gamelan music at Geusan Ulun Museum on Sundays. Once in a while they are invited to appear at several events held by the museum or the Sumedang regency administration. They aren’t too concerned about payments because they primarily want to have the opportunity to play and enjoy the melodious sound of the Sari Oneng gamelan.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

A full set of gamelan instruments is arranged and ready to play at the Prabu Geusan Ulun Museum on Thursday (20/6/2019) in Sumedang, West Java. The historical gamelan set was played at the inauguration of the Eiffel Tower on 3 March 1889.

It’s such a calming and relaxing effect that may have been felt by Parakan Salak tea estate administrator Adriaan Walfaare Holle and his successor, Gustaf Mundt. This gamelan was crafted in Sumedang in 1825 and 31 years later it was moved to Parakan Salak as instructed by Holle. Sari Oneng was frequently played to entertain workers. Occasionally Holle joined the ensemble by playing rebab (traditional violin).

When Mundt succeeded Holle, he was also fond of listening to gamelan tunes. Then he was thinking of sending the gamelan and its players as well as some dancers to Europe to accompany tea promotion.

In 1883, Sari Oneng was played in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Six years later it was sounding in Paris, France. It is said that in 1893 Sari Oneng was also staged in the World Columbia Exposition in Chicago. The performances of Sari Oneng in several international forums were within the framework of tea promotion.

Henry Spiller in his book Gamelan Music of Indonesia (2008) indicates that the gamelan concerts effectively drew the attention of visitors. The exhibition forums were very important because they involved people from Africa, Asia and American colonies. Owners of Dutch estates saw the events as most vital for the promotion of various products from East Indies plantations. The tea promotion along with gamelan boosted the fame of this commodity in the world.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

A stylized carving of an animal adorns a gamelan instrument display at the Prabu Geusan Ulun Museum on Thursday (20/6/2019) in Sumedang, West Java.

Lesson from history

The historical account gives us the message of how the Dutch at the time already realized that it wasn’t enough to sell tea in a plain fashion. It required some narrative or story to be conveyed to the public of Europe and America about the people, culture and music living around tea plantations.

The tea from Nusantara, the Indonesian archipelago, has long been sold overseas with little narrative attached or even none. Tea varieties have been sold in kilograms abroad without brands, let alone stories. In this way, the products are easily forgotten for being never known. Nothing is left in the minds of tea drinkers other than dregs.

Big brands such as TWG use a narrative to give suggestions to consumers. TWG is bold enough to use the slogan “The Finest Teas of the World” as a form of their grand narrative. The same is true of several other trademarks. In fact, when examined, many of them also use Indonesian tea as a basic material. However, Indonesian tea is not known. It’s because of the absence of a narrative.

In the case of tea value enhancement, we can create a narrative on the sincerity of tea pickers or the values of brotherhood and tolerance growing out of tea plantations, also the Sari Oneng gamelan or tea pickers’ face powder and lipsticks.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Sunlight falls across a trio of gongs in their stand as part of a gamelan set on display at the Prabu Geusan Ulun Museum on Thursday (20/6/2019) in Sumedang, West Java.

In some cases sources of where a narrative could come from have been ruined.

On Thursday (27/6/2019) evening, Dadang, 42, slowed down in his pickup when reaching a field in the Parakan Salak Tea Estate complex owned by PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) VIII state estate company, in Parakan Salak village, Parakan Salak district, Sukabumi regency. He took down two push carts in the field where a building had previously been demolished. “This field used to be Ruang Patemon,” said General Affairs Chief of the Parakan Salak Tea Estate of PTPN VIII, Heri Suherman.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

A stand of trees surround the building where the Sari Oneng gamelan set was stored, as seen on Thursday (27/6/2019) at the state-owned plantation complex of PTPN VIII in Parakan Salak, Sukabumi regency, West Java. The historical gamelan set was played at the inauguration of the Eiffel Tower on 3 March 1889.

Ruang Patemon was the place where the Sari Oneng gamelan of the Holle and Mundt era was kept. In 2005, the building was torn down and Sari Oneng was moved to Geusan Ulun Museum. PTPN VIII plans to renovate it but so far it remains just a plan.

Our tea now almost perishing will certainly recover its glory if its promoters succeed in building a narrative. It’s because narration constitutes the key to branding.