ALL parties in Ponorogo continue to support Reog in his steps to become the sole nominee to be registered as an Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) to UNESCO this year.
The elder Reog Ponorogo Thobroni, Monday (7/3/2022) said he was very proud of the success of Reog, which is currently the sole nominee to be registered as ICH at UNESCO. According to him, this proves that the beauty of Ponorogo’s reog art has received recognition. He is sure that the noble native culture of Ponorogo can compete with arts and culture from other regions and countries.
“I am very proud. Our culture deserves to be a world heritage because of its beauty and majesty. For the younger generation, I advise them to enjoy and continue to develop this culture,” said the man who is also the last warok in Ponorogo.
The same thing was expressed by Widi Wardoyo, an MSME businessman for reog knick-knacks and reog souvenirs. He said that he and all reog business actors strongly support the submission of reog as an ICH to UNESCO. Because it will not only make Reog more famous but will also increase the tourist attraction in Ponorogo.
“If tourism becomes more crowded, of course, the various goods we provide can be sold. And it’s an honor for us where our souvenirs, our cultural products are increasingly spreading to all corners of the world,” said Widi.
A researcher from the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, Damarjati Kunmaryanto, while assisting in the preparation of academic manuscripts and videos proposing Reog to UNESCO, said that his party was currently trying to fill out a form from UNESCO for the registration.
“To fill out the form (from UNESCO) we have to do research. Because the form must be based on authentic and current data. That’s why we went around Ponorogo to complete the form,” he explained.
Previously, the team had traveled to several places such as Lampung, Solo, and Jabodetabek. Ponorogo was the last area the team visited to fill out this form. Some of the places visited include elders of reog, schools that teach and develop the art of reog, reog craftsmen, craftsmen of reog equipment, peacock breeding locations, dance studios to come to the reog obyok performance which is ‘received’ by one of the residents as entertainment at the reception wedding.
“This is not pure research, but how do we find data related to the form that has been provided by UNESCO and we have to fill it out based on the latest data information. Hopefully, with what we are doing, it can run under the guidelines from UNESCO, reog can pass,” he said. (kominfo/dist)