EAST BELITUNG - PT Timah Tbk plays an active role in supporting the preservation of community customs, culture, and arts in the Company's operational areas. One of them is by supporting the 2023 Nepak Belulang Festival in East Belitung.
The 2023 Nepak Belulang Festival will be held at Nyiur Melambai Beach, Lalang Village, Manggar Beltim District on 22-24 September 2023. Through this festival, PT Timah Tbk participates in preserving community arts.
Previously, members of the MIND ID mining industry also often supported regional arts such as qasidah, hadrah, and silat schools in the operational area of ??PT Timah Tbk.
Lalang Village Cultural Assistant, Wira Sudarma, said that the Nepak Belulang Festival is the development and utilization of Hadrah Belitong's cultural potential using the dissemination method, namely to expand information to the general public.
The Nepak Belulang Festival was initiated by the Lalang cultural village in 2022, starting from the activities to identify the village's cultural potential which began to be carried out in 2021. This is also part of the assistance program for the advancement of village culture from the Ministry of Education and Culture, from this activity more than 10 cultural potentials were discovered.
"Of the many cultural potentials, we chose the cultural potential of Belitong hadra, especially hadra ma'indi, to be developed and utilized using a dissemination method in the form of a festival called the Nepak Belulang Festival," said Wira Sudarma.
According to Wira, they raised this because the hadra in Lalang Village has been developing for decades, marked by a set of hadra drums that are estimated to be 1.5 centuries old and the An-nur hadra studio in Lalang Village is already in its last generation.
He explained that in the 2023 Nepak Belulang Festival the main event was preserving the tradition of ngaso display in the form of playing the hadra in a colossal manner.
Apart from that, there were also performances from the Pinang Gading studio, Adela studio, healthy gymnastics, lumbe ngayun and a people's party.
"The aim is to establish a cultural ecosystem in order to achieve community welfare through the advancement of culture," he explained.
Wira also appreciated that the state-owned company PT Timah Tbk also supported the festival activities, because PT Timah Tbk's assistance was very beneficial for them.
"Very helpful, we use this assistance to appreciate the services of the hadra studio as a performer and disseminate information about hadra belitong in Lalang Village," he said.
Therefore, he hopes that in the future PT Timah Tbk will continue to support this event, in order to provide expanded information about the Belitong hadra.
"It is hoped that this event will be held every year and PT Timah Tbk will continue to support it in organizing it in the following years to contribute to the advancement of culture," he said. (*)
