Folklore of Indonesia

Folklore of Indonesia is known in Indonesian as dongeng (lit. "tale") or cerita rakyat (literally "people's story" or "folklore"), refer to any folklore found in Indonesia. Its origins are probably an oral culture, with a range of stories of heroes associated with wayang and other forms of theatre, transmitted outside of a written culture. Folklore in Indonesia are closely connected with mythology.

Indonesian folklore reflect the diverse culture of Indonesia as well as the diversity of ethnic groups in Indonesia. Many ethnic groups have their collection of tales and folklores being told for generations. The stories usually told to children as some kind of bed-time story, and have pedagogical value on kindness, benevolence, modesty, honesty, bravery, patience, persistence, virtue and morality. For example, the popular theme is "the truth is always prevail, the evil will always defeated".

While most of Indonesian children folklore stories have happy ending plots and a 'happily ever after' theme, some employ tragedy and have rather sad endings.

Most of Indonesian folklore started as oral tradition; being told by story teller or parents for generations within Indonesian villages. The story were often sung or chanted in several oral traditions such as pantun, tembang, or children chants. Some are being performed in performing arts such as wayang and sendratari (dance drama). In Malay tradition some of them are written in scripture as hikayat, while in Javanese tradition several folklore are connected with historical figures and historical records such as babad or older kakawin scriptures such as Pararaton. Indian Hindu-Buddhist epic also influenced Indonesian folklore, especially through wayang and dance drama in Java and Bali. Hindu epic of Ramayana and Mahabharata have their own separate episodes that often formed a separate story with Indonesian twists and interpretations that often differ from Indian version.The Buddhist Jataka tales also has made its way into Indonesian fable animal folklores. Jatakas stories are found carved as narrative bas-reliefs on ancient Javanese candis, such as Mendut, Borobudur and Sajiwan temples; telling the fable animal stories about the virtue of Buddha with his exceptional act of kindness in his animal incarnation before being reborn as Boddhisattva and future Buddha.

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