Kangeanese people

The ‘Kangean’ (also spelt as ‘Kangayan’ in Central Kangean) is an endonym term designated by the locals as ethnonym to identified themselves as a unified ethnic society bound by a common history; the term itself literally means "scion" (the descendant of notable family) in Kangean. It is likely that the ‘Kangean’ term might etymologically derived from the Makasar word ‘Karaengang’, which means "empire" or "kingdom". Meanwhile, on the other hand, the term of ’Kangayan‘ commonly linked to the Old Javanese word ’Kayangan‘ (also spelt as Kahyaṅan diacritically) which literally means "visited or overpowered by Hyang (divinity of Bali–Java peoples)" or "hermitage" colloquially.

In Kangeanese literature, the word ‘Kangayan’ itself was used throughout the Middle Ages to describe the Kangean island in general, it is still continued to be used to describe the ancentral homeland region of Kangean people in the central to eastern hemisphere of Kangean island, which known as the Kangayan district.

During the era of Dutch colonization over Indonesia, the Kangean Island identified either as ‘Kangayang’, ‘Tangayang’, or ‘Kangeang’; meanwhile its inhabitants and their spoken language are called Kangeanisch (absorbed in English as ‘Kangeanese’, but ‘Kangean’ also used interchangeably; with ‘Kangeanese’ being the plural form, and ‘Kangean’ as the singular form). Due to the Tangayang terminology appearance in Dutch historical records, some also believed that the ethnonym of Kangeanese might have relation with the history of the Chinese-descendants people in western Kangean.

According to the Kangeanese oral tradition, their ancestor are referred as Totoa’an or Toatoa’an, which in modern Kangean language can be roughly translated as "elders". Dates back to the 4,000[4] to 9,000 BC,[5] archaeological researches shows that the Kangean people are one of the earliest inhabitants of the Indonesian Archipelago, it can be observed through the ancient archaeological discoveries found within the Arca Cave complex which located in the northwestern region of Kangean Island.[4] Excavation discoveries also indicates that it is likely the Kangean people were once cavemens who practiced the hunter-gatherer culture.[4]

Kokocoran is a form of mixed performing arts that usually consist of traditional Kangeanese dances, folk songs and music, as well as attractions. This performing art is usually performed in traditional Kangeanese wedding celebrations and ceremonies. These form of performing art are uniquely native to the Kangean Islands and generally unknown outside of these region.

The Mamajir is related to another islanders culture of indigenous peoples of Lesser Sunda Islands, namely the Maen Jaran of Sumbawan, the Pacoa Jara of Bimanese, the Karapan Sapi of Madurese, to the Makepung of Balinese. It is a form of traditional sport undeniably native to Lesser Sunda Islands, but instead of using horses (as in Sumbawan and Bimanese culture) and bulls (like in Madurese culture), the Kangeanese Mamajir tend to use buffalos as their racing animal similar like the Balinese Makepung.

The Pangkak (also spelt as Pangkaq in Eastern Kangean) is probably one of the most common traditions held annually by the Kangeanese people to celebrate the harvest time.[6] These kind of tradition usually held in a form of festival which enlivened with another artistic performances as well; such as the Mancaq Silat martial art performance and Gamelan (a Javanese-influenced musical percussion performance), which typically characterized by the prominent usage of Gendeng Dumiq (small-size Gendang, an eastern Javanese-influenced percussion instrument). Not only Pangkak serve as intricate harvest festival form that has been mixed with the cultural influence of Javanese, these performing art also refers to the traditional native acappella-like way of chanting the rhythmic folk Kangeanese ritualistic song which usually chanted by the Kangeanese males who wear the traditional clothing as well as carrying a piece of cultural cloth.[6]

The native language spoken by the Kangeanese people is Kangean language (known natively as Besa Kangean (standard) or Ocaq Kangean (colloquial)). Although originally Kangeanese people are Austromelanesian; nowadays, the Kangean language are closely related and categorized as part of the Austronesian linguistic group. Kangean language varies distinctively across the Kangean Archipelago; the dialect spoken in the western regions are tend to have linguistic resemblance with the Madurese language spoken by Madurese people (the native of Madura Island), meanwhile the dialects in central to eastern regions shows significant differences, with the Sapeken and Saseel Kangean of East Kangean being the most spoken dialect in the easternmost coastal region.

Kangeanese literature covers all verbal and non-verbal literature in Kangean language; as well as literary works of Kangean origin but recorded in another languages (but usually not considered as canon). Kangean literature usually tells about topics related to folklores, tales, myths, as well as real historical records; such as the genealogy of kings, historical wars, and so on.

The folklore of Kangean has been influenced by another predominant ethnic groups who lived around the Bali Sea region; such as the Balinese originally from the Bali Island in southern Kangean, Madurese originally from the Madura Island in western Kangean, Javanese originally from the eastern region of Java Island in southwestern Kangean, Bugis and Makassar originally from the southern regions of Sulawesi Island in northeastern Kangean, as well as Tobelo originally from northern Maluku Islands. However, due to long progressive historical social contact with one another, the Kangeanese folklore also introduced back and brought some significant influences on another folklores; such as to the Javanese folklore found in eastern Java region, as far as to the folklore of the Betawi ethnic group in the northern coastal region of western Java (formerly known as Sunda Kalapa in pre-colonial era).

The Deraq refers to the Kangeanese people who natively originated from the central region of Kangean Island, sometimes these group of people are also known as the Gunong colloquially which referred to their mountainous origin place region.

The Jebe nowadays in modern Kangean might refers to any foreigners who settled in Kangean generally. But historically the Jebe terminology initially referred to the Kangeanese people of Javanese-descent; the term Jebe itself is derived from their island's name origin, known natively as Jawa (ꦗꦮ) in Java Island. Interestingly, those term introduced back to Java via Madurese word of Jâbhâ, which resulted the existence of the word ‘jaba’ (ꦗꦧ, lit. "outside") in Javanese.

The Jebe group is probably the most influential group amongst all, it can be examined through the cultural perspective of Kangeanese that exhibit clear Javanese-derived elements. Some of the Javanese-origin cultural elements that incorporated into Kangeanese culture might include the Seronen that derived from Gamelan (specifically the Saron), the musical instrument of Gendeng Dumiq derived from the Gendang (in Java also used for the Gamelan performance), the martial art of Mancaq derived from Pencak–Silat, the theatrical performance of Lodruq derived from Ludruk, etc. In terms of linguistics, the Kangean language and literatures practiced by the majority of Kangeanese are indeed heavily influenced by Javanese (through liturgical Old Javanese form).

The Pacenan mainly and originally refers to the Kangeanese people of Chinese-descent. The terminology of Pacenan itself historically means "[the descendants] of Cen", but nowadays might understood as "the settlement of Chinese" in modern Kangean, initially used in western Kangean region; it bears similar meaning with "Chinatown" in English.

Nowadays, the majority of Kangeanese people of Chinese-descent experiencing difficulties to trace their history (e.g. the ancestral origin place in mainland China, etc.) due to lack of survived historical records; however, analyzing from the common archaic surnames used by the Kangeanese, these Pacenan group could possibly linked to the Qin dynasty, which is a dynasty of Imperial China dates back to 221–206 BC era. The Tang dynasty could possibly play significant role as well in shaping the western Kangean society (started in 7th century AD era), some of the Dutch historical records also shows that some Kangeanese people identified themselved as Tangayang which could possibly means "Tang sprout [descendants]" (probably related to the Chinese 唐秧, tángyāng).

Their Chinese cultural elements however might have almost disappeared but tend to merge into local Kangeanese culture, the physical appearance of the Pacenan group also did not really shows ‘the Chinese characteristics’ (e.g. monolid, etc.) like any other Chinese Indonesians' appearance in general probably due to the high rate of intermarriage within the Kangean society itself.

According to the local Kangeanese people, some of their traditional Kangean houses' styles are basically Chinese-derived, thus sometimes the ‘Pacenan’ also used by the locals to refers the decorative style of their house. In terms of foods, some of traditional Kangeanese snacks or desserts are also exhibits Chinese-derived elements, such as the red-coloured mung beans-stuffed Kue ku, the bite-sized white Kaswa, etc.

The Kangeanese diaspora is the demographic group of descendants of ethnic Kangenese who emigrated from the Kangean Archipelago to other regions in Indonesia or other parts of the world in general.