Crowds descend on the Sumatran longboat festival that spawned a global obsession with ‘aura farming’
TikTok stardust and an unlikely champion in American rapper Melly Mike made this year’s Pacu Jalur boat race a spectacle like no other
In June, video footage of a young Indonesian boy dancing on the front of a wooden longboat, dressed in traditional clothes with large reflective sunglasses, went viral on TikTok. The performance is set to the song “Young Black & Rich”, by American rapper Melly Mike, as the boy sways and rocks on the bow, blowing kisses to the crowds gathered along the riverbanks.
By early July, the boy’s moves had been copied, TikTok-dance style, by stars of European football, cyclists taking part in the Tour de France, MotoGP motorcycle riders, DJ Steve Aoki and American rapper Wiz Khalifa – on a skateboard – as well as sailors of the United States, Singaporean and Polish navies.
In the 17th century, “villagers in Riau province used boats as a form of transport and to carry the yield of the harvest like sweet potato, rubber plants and rice between villages”, says retired cultural history professor Suwardi Mohammad Samin, who has written a book on the topic, titled Pacu Jalur and its Accompanying Ceremonies (1985). “On major Muslim holidays, they would use the boats to hold races as a form of entertainment. Over time, it became more and more well known, and soon there were competitions held between different regencies, with prizes awarded to the winner.”
This year, Pacu Jalur took place between August 20 and 24, when 40-metre-long boats powered by between 65 and 80 paddlers – plus a tukang concang, or “komando”, who issues directives from the middle, and two “jockeys”, one each at the bow and stern – raced in pairs.
Teluk Kuantan (population: 54,000) is an agricultural town in Riau’s Kuantan Singingi regency, a winding five-hour-drive south past rice paddies and their working buffalo from the provincial capital, Pekanbaru. Most who live here are Melayu, an ethnic subgroup indigenous to Riau.