Seven local artworkers win Rancage 2008

Nation News - Friday, February 01, 2008

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung


The Rancage Cultural Foundation presented seven Sundanese, Javanese, Balinese and Lampung literary persons the 2008 Rancage Literary Award for creative excellence as well as dedication to preserving local literary traditions.



Rancage, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, gives special awards to Indonesian men and women of letters who write in tongues increasingly being sidelined by modernization.

The awards are the brainchild of Sundanese man of letters and chairman of the board Ajip Rosidi.

This year's award decisions were announced on Thursday by jury member and foundation secretary Hawe Setiawan at an event also held in honor of Ajip's 70th birthday.

Taking place at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, the party was attended by writers from across the country.

The award for Sundanese literature went for "Sandekala", a novel written by Godi Suwarna who took the award for the third time. The award in the category of Sundanese language preservation efforts went to the Sunda Kiwari theater group (TSK) led by Dadi Danusubrata.

The theater group was founded in 1975 in Bandung and is behind the Sundanese Language Drama Festival, also in its 20th year. TSK is responsible for bringing to light numerous professional Sundanese theater groups.

The Javanese literature award was presented to Turiyo Ragilputra for his work titled "Bledheg Segara Kidul", while the Javanese preservation award went to Jaya Baya magazine editor Srijono whose fiction has taken awards in the past.

Roman Secuil is a column Srijono initiated in Jaya Baya for young authors who write in Javanese.

Members of the Rancage panel of judges voiced their concern over the limited number of Balinese literary works -- only five in 2007, a far cry from dozens previously.

"Despite the drop in numbers, quality-wise they showed improvement, especially in new expressions and pronunciation," said Hawe.

I Nyoman Manda with his work Depang Tiang Bajang Kayang-kayang won the award for Balinese literature, while I Made Suatjana, the mind behind an MS Word-compatible program for Balinese script called Bali Simbar, won in the services category.

The winners got cash worth Rp 5 million (approximately US$555) as a motivation reward.

Dikopipaste dari The Jakarta Post