Sounding agriculture: Interlocking rhythms, ritual practice, and embodied knowledge in Kurung-Kurung Hantak

This study explores Kurung-Kurung Hantak, a traditional bamboo percussion ensemble of the Dayak Meratus community in Ranggang Village, South Kalimantan, with a particular focus on its rhythmic system and performance practice. Using an ethnomusicological and ethnographic approach, the research situates Kurung-Kurung Hantak within its ritual, agricultural, and cosmological contexts, where music functions as both a sonic expression and a cultural technology. Central to this tradition is the complementary rhythmic technique known locally as basaluk, in which several single-pitch bamboo idiophones interlock to form a composite rhythm. The ensemble is characterized by a distinctive “Dun–Dung–Dun–Dun” rhythmic motif, which functions simultaneously as a musical pattern, a ritual signal, and a symbolic sound believed to repel the Dundun Ghost during agricultural activities, particularly the manugal (rice planting) season. Rhythm in Kurung-Kurung Hantak is structured around a repetitive 3/4 meter, producing a staggered and asymmetrical pulse through interlocking entries among instruments such as indung landung, indungan, capak, and tinti. Data were collected through participant observation, in-depth interviews with senior performers (tetuha), and audio-visual documentation. The findings reveal that rhythmic coordination in Kurung-Kurung Hantak is achieved without written notation or verbal counting; instead, it relies on embodied memory, gesture-based cues, and collective listening. To support analysis and preservation, the study transcribes the rhythmic patterns into adapted Western notation while maintaining sensitivity to local musical logic. The study demonstrates that the rhythm of Kurung-Kurung Hantak is not merely a musical structure but a living cultural archive that encodes social cooperation, ritual protection, and ecological knowledge. As a tradition facing declining intergenerational transmission, Kurung-Kurung Hantak highlights the resilience of indigenous rhythmic systems and underscores the importance of culturally grounded documentation in ethnomusicology and Southeast Asian ritual music studies.