Elderly Sinden Mbah Kitri Wins Award at 25th Five Mountains Festival

RRI.CO.ID, Magelang - The quiet devotion of 81-year-old sinden Sukitri in preserving tradition embodied the spirit of this year’s Five Mountains XXV Festival theme, Makin Goblok Bareng (Getting More Foolish Together). A sinden, also spelled pesinden, is a traditional Javanese female soloist who sings with a gamelan orchestra.

For her steadfast path as a pengrawit, dancer, and pesinden on the slopes of Mount Merbabu, Sukitri, affectionately known as Mbah Kitri, received the prestigious Five Mountains Award 2026 at the festival’s climax on Sunday, 12 July 2026.

“This year we decided to award a local sinden from Pakis Subdistrict who has remained faithful to being a sinden, a dancer, and a gamelan player. She is elderly now but has kept the family tradition of pedalangan alive,” said Magelang cultural figure and Five Mountains Community (KLG) founder, Sutanto Mendut, during the event on Sunday, 12 July 2026.

Mbah Kitri was unable to attend the Five Mountains XXV Festival in Warangan Hamlet due to her advanced age. Her son, who is a dalang, or traditional master puppeteer, named Triyono, accepted the Five Mountains Award 2026 on her behalf.

The award presentation coincided with the independent, sponsor-free festival organized this year by farmer-artists of the five mountains (Merapi, Merbabu, Andong, Sumbing, and Menoreh). The honor took the form of a certificate signed by key KLG figures, including Sutanto Mendut, Sitras Anjilin, Sujono, Supadi Haryanto, M. Hari Atmoko, Sih Agung Prasetyo, and Endah Pertiwi.

Since FLG XXII (2023), the community has regularly granted the Lima Gunung Award to figures at both national and local levels, as recognition for loyalty and dedication to tradition, culture, science, environment, peace, spirituality, humanitarianism, and public virtue.

“This year’s award is given specifically to a legendary figure, Mbah Kitri. She sings, plays gender (name of a traditional music set), and dances,” said Sutanto, as quoted by Antara.

Sutanto briefly noted that Mbah Kitri’s husband, also a dalang, their children, grandchildren, and in-laws are all involved in dalang arts.

At the award ceremony, a young sinden from Ketep, Sawangan Subdistrict, named Irma, performed several Javanese songs. Triyono and one of his grandchildren also sang traditional pieces.

Triyono expressed gratitude for the award being bestowed on Sukitri during the festival’s quarter-century milestone. He said Mbah Kitri’s descendants continue to practice traditional arts, particularly puppet theatre and gamelan.

“This is an expression of thanks to God. My mother received the Five Mountains 2026 Award. Her children and grandchildren keep preserving the arts or pedalangan, sinden, and karawitan,” he said.

The festival theme, Makin Goblok Bareng, serves as an invitation to embrace humility in facing life’s challenges and dynamics.

A total of 85 art groups with 1,274 performers took part in the festival, drawn from internal community ensembles, neighboring villages of Warangan Hamlet, and several cities that form the Five Mountains network.

Festival programming included traditional, modern, and contemporary arts, such as dance, music, visual art exhibitions, collaborative performances, art shows, poetry readings, seminars, cultural parades, and cultural addresses.

Local residents and community members built a giant stage decorated with natural materials in the area’s vegetable farms for the festival.

The festival climaxed with a cultural procession led by KLG’s principal figures and performers, starting from the village crossroads to the main stage, about 700 meters. Community elder Mbah Jumo (66) led prayers of gratitude before the procession began.

The parade proceeded spiritedly, carrying vegetable offerings (gunungan sayuran), accompanied by truntung percussion and Javanese songs by key community figures. Participants carried incense sticks reverently throughout the procession to the main stage. The event continued with communal bedug drum strikes by KLG leaders and performances of various traditional arts. ***