Speaking of the Spiritual: An Exploration of Knowledge and Pedagogy in Performing Arts in Malang, East Java

Abstract: This article examines spiritual knowledge or ilmu that performers imparted or encouraged me to obtain while I conducted fieldwork on gamelan music and dance in the regency of Malang in the cultural region of east Java spanning 2005–2007 and subsequent visits. Thinking through ideological implications of pedagogy—that is, “[w]hat’s at stake politically in any given pedagogical model” (Wong 2001: 6), I focus on performers’ beliefs and discourses about ilmu as a form of pedagogy and system of knowledge. I extend Kathy Foley’s (1985) and Sarah Weiss’s (2003) discussions of an “empty vessel” approach to performance that is valued in different parts of Java to explore the preparation of a performer’s body to serve as a suitable container for ilmu . I contend that through their beliefs, practices, and verbal discourse about ilmu , musicians and dancers in Malang were maintaining and producing local systems of knowledge, transmission, and competence in a context of globalization, urbanization, and increasing expressions of Islamic orthodoxy and piety in Indonesia. Continuing such knowledge systems was part of performers’ ideological and cultural work to uphold local culture and identity as Javanese people, more broadly speaking, and as east Javanese in particular.