• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.39
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• pp.637-667
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• 2019

I have researched in the field the religious and performance culture of Indonesia through the musical iconography of Borobudur. There are many kinds of musical instruments which belong to India or Indonesia, performers being either court or folk musicians. Contemporary south-east Asian Indonesia has a broad religious heritage. Most of the population is Muslim, but the culture and customs are rooted in Indian Ramayana. I discovered, for example, the same percussion instruments played on a person's knees. I also came across similar string instruments with long and elliptical resonance casks on the iconography of the Incense Burner and Byam temple stone pagoda of Beakje dynasty in Korea and in Borobudur in Indonesia. The two musical instruments can not be found in other countries, such as Silla, Koguryŏ, China or the silk road area, but only Indonesia or India. This suggests that Beakje Buddhism is from the southern regions rather than China. I also discovered the same dancing motion with the court performers on the iconography of Borobudur, and the same musical instrument and performance in the Gamelan in today's Indonesian performance. Despite a disjuncture between the people and their past, the Shailendra Buddhism is alive in people's life and culture in the present day. So we can discover some familiarities between Indonesia's Gamelan and the percussional performance in Korean Buddhist rituals.