Diari stories and Pakpak storytelling: A storytelling tradition from the North Sumatran rainforest

The art of storytelling, which has been popular for centuries in the forested Dairi district of North Sumatra, is usually considered an oral tradition. This book presents evidence that written versions of Dairi stories existed before there was contact with European culture. This study of traditional literature in Pakpak-Dairi, an endangered North Sumatran language, is based on written and oral versions of stories. Discussing the views of well-known scholars of Sumatran languages, the book includes the texts of seven stories which were collected in North Sumatra by the well-known linguist Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk (1824-1894) and are kept in Leiden University Library. The book also contains a story performed in the village of Sukarame by Sonang Sitakar, who may well have been one of the last Pakpak-Dairi storytellers. Presenting unique information on an endangered literary genre from North Sumatra, this book provides a solid basis for comparison with oral and written traditions in Sumatra and other parts of Indonesia. Clara Brakel-Papenhuyzen (1942) studied the languages and Cultures of South and Southeast Asia, Anthropology and Linguistics at Leiden University (PhD 1988). She is a performer and researcher of Asian dance, theatre and music, educated at Art Academies in India and Indonesia. A widely published scholar of Asian Performing Arts, Dr. Brakel-Papenhuyzen is the author of The bedhaya court dances of Central Java (1992) and edited The Performer as (inter)cultural Transmitter (1996).