This small project aims at making a „Guritan“ story from the highlands of Sumatra recorded in 1988 accessible to those interested in oral traditions of Indonesia and the world. „Guritan“ is an oral epic, often a heroic tale that is sung during an evening or late night gathering. Until the late 20th century, it was still practiced as performative art form, though the singers, or bards, were mostly elderly men with no apprentices.
During the research project on „Bengkulu markets“, my fellow researcher Michele Galizia arranged for these recordings to be made. The project will (i) digitalize the content of these recordings (made on then customary MC-tapes), (ii) produce transcriptions and (iii) propose some possible lines of research.
To my knowledge, no prior research exists on „Singers of Tales“ in the traditionally Rejang-speaking area of Curup, a medium-sized town in the highlands of Bengkulu province. However, for the Pasemah-speaking area south of Curup, there is the work of William Collins (1998), „The Guritan of Radin Suane: A study of the Besemeh oral epic from South Sumatra“, which will be an important reference.
