Mangkunegaran Traditional Art

Solo’s Puro Mangkunegara palace celebrates over two centuries of existence with a royal bash that befits its regal stature.

The city of Surakarta, or Solo, in Central Java is one of Indonesia’s most

famous royal cities.

There are two major palaces– the venerable Susuhunan, home to 

the Pakubuwono royal family, and the less daunting Puro Mangkunegara.

Much of Solo’s indigenous population swears allegiance to one royal

family or the other.

November 2007 saw the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Puro

Mangkunegara. The occasion was celebrated with a colossal dance performance – Adeging

Puro Mangkunegara – in the palace’s main square; a gala charity dinner was attended by dignitaries and palaces groupies from across Asia.

Solo is famous for the beauty of its women, the ‘fairest’ in the land. The city is the beating heart of the Javanese traditional beauty industry– the Martha Tilaar Cosmetics chain is one example. Trends in traditional Javanese dress and hairstyles have generally started in Solo.

The ‘helmet-head’ coif of the wives of the ruling elite during the Soeharto era, for example, was derived from the strict Kabuki-like coif of the palace ladies of Solo (rumour had it that those who adopted this coif had to sleep standing up). The late Madame Soeharto, a great promoter of traditional Javanese culture, was a member of the Puro Mangkunegara family.

Over the past few decades the Puro Mangkunegara has attracted many patrons form Jakarta, not the least of whom being batik impresario Iwan Tirta, and Indonesia’s flamboyant former Tourism and Culture Minister Bapak Joop Ave. The rival palace, the Susuhunan, also know as the Keraton Solo, has its shakers and movers too, including the cultural czar and batik maestro KPT Harjonogoro (Go Tik Swan), curator of the Keraton museum (founded in 1890) during the years 1969-1999. Over the past f ew decades, as maintenance expenses have climbed, a spate of Jakartan generals and ministers have helped prop up the vast palaces with generous donations.

The Puro Mangkunegara has always attracted a younger more progressive crowd – the palace being less ‘constrained’ by ancient ritual – and the gala on 11th November 2007 was a celebration of the palace’s 250 years as a bastion of Javanese culture, beauty and the arts.

At the beginning of the evening I found Iwan Tirta in the rotunda-like

palace family’s reception pavilion, helping the palace ladies with their jewellery. GRA Roosati, the eldest daughter of Mangkunegaran VIII, who for years managed the Iwan Tirta boutique in Jakarta, was fielding last minute calls from the Jakarta social set. A bouquet of young princesses in pink party frocks had been parked in a possé at one end of the long white marble verandah. Javanese princesses and princes jostled for jewels.

Assorted royals from Johore and Kedah in Malaysia, and Karangasem in Bali milled about. Outside young dancers were putting the finishing touches to their costumes and make-up.

The palace’s main pavilion, the vast pendopo agung, had been converted for the evening into a Versailles-like banquet hall, with sensational flowers by Darmasto. Grandstands were set up to the North and South, along the pavilion’s edge, for the less well-heeled.

The royal family, looking immaculate, processed into the hall at seven and took their place at the central table. A Solonese dinner – part Javanese, part Dutch – was served by the palace staff at 8 p.m.

A symphony orchestra struck up across the field and the giant TV screens flickered into action. Tenors crooned as Jakarta beauties swept in late, stitched into figure-hugging sarong-k.

Amongst the guests I spotted Hans and Cynthia Hoefer, founders of Hoefer Media, from Singapore; Bali-based architect-to-the-stars Cheong Yu Kuan in a natty batik shirt; legendary Solonese beauty Yani Arifin in a cherry red chemise; Jakarta socialite Tango dancer Titiek Prabowo, third daughter of former President Soeharto, and, drooping gorgeous jewels, the glamorous Miranda Gultom, Deputy Chairman of Bank Indonesia (the central bank).

The ‘kolosal’ dance – featuring a garrison of horses, a brace of elephants, 500 dancers, a choir, a gamelan – was magnificently staged. The two hour spectacle told of the history of the palace’s founding, by Raden Mas Said, in 1757.

The dance performance climaxed with twelve bedoyo ballerinas, ushered by a pair of elephants, processing, solemnly, towards the centre of the pendopo agung. The bedoyo ‘dance of the princesses’ is the prerogative of only the royal palaces of Central Java and it always a treat to

witness the dream-like performance, on a big occasion, in a fully-dressed palace pavilion.

The dancing – choreographed by Putri’s brother, Gusti Heru and Daryono S. Kar – was mesmerizing. One sensed the influence of the great Solonese choreographer Sardono W. Kusumo, the dance guru famous in Bali for his Teges village Ketjak, which was first performed in Paris in the 1970s. The costumes, by GPH Herwasto Kusumo and M. Ng. Edi Sartono, were magnificent.

One scene in the ballet in particular–the three mystical dancers in the gold fountain (a present from Napoleon Bonaparte) with elephants rampant – will no doubt inspire a generation of butter statues and water features.