"Magoak-goakan" before Going to War

To mark the pinnacle of the 407th anniversary of Singaraja City falling on Wednesday (Mar 30) was held the magoak-goakan colossal dance presented by the youth of Singaraja. Magoak-goakan attraction can not be separated from the history of Singaraja City founded by Anglurah Pandji Sakti. Magoak-goakan is originated from the folk games of Buleleng that supposedly highly favored by Pandji Sakti.

Before attacking the Blambangan Kingdom in East Java, Pandji Sakti had time to play games or magoak-goakan with his soldiers. The games were made to kindle the spirits of soldiers who was called Laskar Goak (Crow Forces). The game was played by 20 men from his army. During the game, every soldier was given the chance to become the gowak or leading crow. If he can catch the tail of the crow then the soldier would get anything that they want such as food, houses, and even woman. It was given to the King Pandji Sakti to his soldier. In the end of the game, it came the King’s turn.

During the game, Pandji Sakti managed to get the tail of the line of crow so that he could express his wishes to the crow. “Ratu Anglurah, what do you want I will give you,” said the crow. Panji Sakti requested that the soldiers could attack Blambangan vigorously. At that time, the Crow Forces replied enthusiastically by imitating the voice of a crow:”Goak ...., goak goak ...” meaning they were already well prepared to conduct the attacks.

The King Pandji Sakti needed to carry out the game because Blambangan was a great kingdom which had powerful army. It was said that some soldiers of Blambangan could not be killed using regular sword or any other sharp object. The condition made the King must prepare the correct strategy and also increased the spirit of his soldier and one of them was by conducting the magoak-goakan game. The traditional dance is actually only being performed during special occasion such as before the celebration of Nyepi Day and only exist in Panji Village, around 6 km southern of Singaraja.

The name megoak-goakan is taken from the name of the crow which is the main theme of the play. Before, the dance was done to increase the spirit of the soldier before going to war. It played an important role during the war at Bali olden time. However, nowadays, magoak-goakan becomes one of the performances to attract tourists in Singaraja. The unique game attracts the attention of the domestic and foreign tourists. Even, the dance is also performed during big event such as Bali Art Festival and other. It is noe become the trademark of tourism in Singaraja. Bali is famous with its culture and Magoak-goakan could become one of the unique one and one of the alternative for tourists coming to Bali.(BP Inter)