Cultural storytelling through ritual art: Exploring <em>Bantengan</em> as a vessel of Indonesian identity

This study explores Bantengan, a traditional performance from East Java, as a dynamic cultural medium that preserves local wisdom, conveys historical narratives, and reinforces national identity. Adopting a qualitative, interpretive approach rooted in Grounded Theory, the research investigates how symbolic meanings within Bantengan are constructed, transmitted, and adapted across generations. Twenty-two purposively selected participants, including senior performers, community leaders, local historians, and younger apprentices, offered diverse perspectives shaped by their unique cultural roles and experiences. Data from interviews and field observations revealed three core thematic categories: Embodied Local Wisdom, Living Historical Consciousness, and Cultural Identity and Belonging. These categories formed a substantive theory conceptualizing Bantengan as a living cultural organism—a performative and pedagogical space where values, memories, and identities are enacted and negotiated. The findings highlight Bantengan’s role in fostering moral education, sustaining historical awareness, and affirming collective identity in contemporary Indonesian society. This study contributes to grounded theory research by demonstrating how traditional arts can serve as resilient systems of meaning-making. Practically, it underscores the need for community-led cultural preservation strategies that support organic adaptation while maintaining spiritual and symbolic integrity. It is recommended that policymakers and educators integrate traditional practices like Bantengan into cultural and educational frameworks to promote intergenerational learning, cultural resilience, and local pride.