Rapai Passee

Описание: #aceh #gugusgema #volcanicwinds

Rapai Passee

Rapai is one of traditional music that represents Aceh the most, because rapai exists in almost 23 cities in Aceh with various styles and characteristics. Each of them have different names such as rapai geleng, rapai saman, rapai geurimpheng, rapai daboih, rapai pasee, etc. Rapai Pasee exists only in one area which belonged to an old kingdom called Samudera Pasai, now under the administrative area of the City of Lhokseumawe, the whole district of North Aceh, and some areas in East Aceh. This type of rapai is different from most rapai in the rest of Aceh, especially in its size. This percussive instrument can only be played by hanging it on pillars with particular formation.
The team came to visit one collective of Rapai Pasee called Raja Buwah in Lhok Euncien, Mukim Buwah, Kecamatan Baktiya Barat, Aceh Utara. It took about five hour drive to reach this village from Banda Aceh.
Rapai Pasee is a percussive instrument normally performed in a collosal way by at least twelve or thirteen people to hundreds of people. A couple of dozens rapai in Lhok Euncien village are hundred years old, and there is one which is called Raja Buwah (almost all rapai has its own name) is believed to be more than three centuries. Not one rapai in this village is new. Some people have tried to build new ones, but all of them failed and cannot sound as the old rapai. The most crucial thing is the preservation including how to handle them in specific ways.
While on the way to the place where the rapai is located, the team heard rumbling sounds of drums. The villagers, especially men filled the front yard of a house. Chidren, mothers, and young girls were standing around the fence. Right in the middle of the yard there were metal poles stand connected to each other and on each of those poles we could see dozens of rapai hanging. Each has its own men who stand in 3x5 formation. The audience felt rhytmical sounds of rapai that is not only deafening to some but also hits hard to the bones and the sounds could be heard from few kilometers away without using any kind of amplifications.