Dolanan Anak: Traditional Javanese Children’s Songs and Games
Dolanan anak are the traditional songs and games of Javanese childhood, the sung rhymes that children learned from older children, from parents and grandparents and from the yards and open ground of village life. The phrase breaks down simply: dolanan means play, and anak means child. In practice a dolanan anak, often called a tembang dolanan, is a short song in Javanese that children sing while they play a game together. Put plainly, dolanan anak are sung games that carry Javanese language, rhythm, manners and moral lessons from one generation of children to the next, and they remain part of growing up in Central Java and the Yogyakarta region.
What a dolanan anak actually is
Most dolanan anak are built around a short verse with simple language and a simple melody, so that a small child can learn it by ear, and a game with clear physical rules. Some games need a circle of children holding hands. Others have one child guessing where a small object has been hidden. The song sets the pace and the game gives the song its purpose. Remove either part and the tradition loses much of its shape, because the words are timed to the moves of the game.
The words are usually short and often playful. Many verses use repeated words and syllables and rhymes that tumble along, which is part of why children enjoy them. Underneath the playfulness, many lyrics hold quiet instruction. Well-known songs carry messages about humility, responsibility and good conduct, and the games themselves train attention, patience and the habit of playing fairly with others. This double layer, fun on the surface and teaching underneath, is the feature that gives dolanan anak their long life.
Cublak-cublak suweng
Cublak-cublak suweng is one of the best known. A suweng is an earring, and in the game it is a small object that can be held in a closed hand: traditionally a piece of horn, but just as often a pebble, a seed or a marble. The game suits a small group of around five to seven children. It starts with a quick hand game such as hompimpa to decide who will be the guesser, a figure the song calls Pak Empong. That child sits curled forward, face down on the floor or the ground, and the others gather round and rest their open hands, palms up, on the guesser’s back.
As the group sings, one child carries the small object from palm to palm in time with the song, and at a set line it is left in one of the hands. Near the end of the verse every child closes both hands, so nobody can tell which fist holds it. Pak Empong then sits up, studies the closed hands and guesses who is hiding the object. A correct guess means the child holding it becomes the next Pak Empong; a wrong guess means the guesser stays in place and the round begins again. The game rewards sharp eyes and a straight face, and it is said to help shy children become bolder, more sociable and more used to playing as part of a group.
Jamuran
Jamuran is a circle game from Central Java and Yogyakarta, and it has long been a favourite among Javanese children, especially in the Special Region of Yogyakarta. The name comes from jamur, the Javanese and Indonesian word for mushroom. A mushroom cap is round, so the children link hands to form a ring, the round jamuran of the title. The game needs no equipment at all, only a patch of ground big enough for the group, which is why it can be played in a house yard or a school yard.
The jamuran song is sung by all the players, once in each round, so a game of ten rounds means ten times through the song. During the song the circling players ask which kind of mushroom is wanted, and the children then act out the mushroom that has been named, pretending to be it in pose and movement. The game asks children to listen, react quickly and play together, and teachers value it for building tolerance and empathy alongside the fun.
Menthok-menthok and Gundul-gundul pacul
Menthok-menthok takes its name from the menthok, the Javanese name for the Muscovy duck, a domestic duck kept in many places for its meat and eggs. The song pokes gentle fun at the bird and, through it, at idleness, so children laugh at the duck while picking up a simple point about not being lazy. Gundul-gundul pacul is another verse that is widely sung across Java. Gundul means bald, and the song is commonly read as a warning to people in power: a leader who becomes arrogant and forgets the people he is meant to serve ends up spoiling the trust placed in him. Village children could sing it and enjoy it long before they understood that second meaning.
Where the tradition came from
The songs grew up in the villages and yards of Java, and the best-known games are especially linked with Central Java and the Yogyakarta region. Dolanan anak lived first in the memory of children and adults rather than in books, and the same song can be found with different words in different areas. Collections of the songs record versions in the style of Central Java and versions in the style of East Java for the same tune, and the words of cublak-cublak suweng vary from one district to the next. This variation is itself a feature of the tradition, because it shows how a song changed to suit the place where it was sung.
One of the most important turning points came in the early twentieth century, when Ki Hadjar Dewantara, a leading figure in Indonesian education, founded the Taman Siswa movement in Yogyakarta in 1922. Javanese children’s songs became part of Taman Siswa teaching, and the Taman Siswa kindergarten in Yogyakarta still keeps lagu dolanan in its lessons today. This made dolanan anak more than a folk pastime: they became a recognised tool for teaching character, and that status helped keep them in use through the decades when schooling in Indonesia was changing rapidly.
The songs also sit close to the wider world of Javanese music and performance. Children who grow up with dolanan anak often meet the same verses again in school performances and cultural events, and the games belong to the same family of village pastimes as the traditional Javanese game of benthik. Javanese music has continued to change too, from the court and village gamelan traditions to popular styles such as campursari music, and dolanan anak sit at the simplest, most child-sized end of that musical world.
What the songs teach
The lessons in dolanan anak are rarely preachy. They come through example and through situations the child can picture: a duck that will not work, a leader who loses everything through pride, a guesser who must read the faces round the circle. Children absorb the point without the play stopping. Because the songs are short and the games are simple, a lesson can be learned in the space of a single round and then repeated many times over.
The songs also teach the sound of the language. Javanese tembang dolanan use simple words and a great deal of repetition, and children who learn the verses absorb the rhythm of the language long before they can explain grammar. For many children, dolanan anak were their first experience of verse, of keeping to a beat, and of waiting for a turn. Kindergarten teachers use the songs as a practical way to build listening, speaking and cooperation.
Satire and wit in the verses
Some dolanan anak use humour with a sharper edge. Gundul-gundul pacul aims its joke at the proud and powerful, and menthok-menthok teases idleness. Children may not grasp the full point of a verse at a young age, but they remember the rhythm and the image, and they come back to the meaning later. This is one reason the songs have proved durable: they work on several levels, so each age group finds something in them, from the toddler clapping along to the adult who suddenly sees the point of a line sung decades earlier.
Dolanan anak and the threat of decline
The tradition now faces real pressure. Children today have far more access to electronic games, phones and television than their grandparents did, and many now prefer gadgets to playing traditional games with friends. Open ground for circle games is also harder to find in crowded towns, and an afternoon that once filled with songs in the yard is now often spent indoors.
Even so, the songs have not disappeared. Interest in them has grown again, and schools have begun to restore the teaching of tembang dolanan anak as a deliberate answer to screen time, because the games give children social contact and physical, hands-on play that a device cannot. Kindergartens and primary schools in Central Java and Yogyakarta still use them, and well-known songs such as cublak-cublak suweng, jamuran and gundul-gundul pacul are still widely known.
Where a visitor may see or hear dolanan anak
A visitor who wants to hear dolanan anak should look first at schools and community events in Central Java and the Yogyakarta region. Early childhood classes often use the songs, and children may sing and play together in a school yard. Cultural days and local celebrations of Javanese arts sometimes include children performing the songs and games. Practices vary from place to place, so check locally before you go.
The most rewarding way to encounter dolanan anak is to ask a local family or a teacher to show you a game. Many people are glad to explain the songs, and a group of children can often lead a visitor through cublak-cublak suweng or jamuran in a few minutes. Such a moment says more about the tradition than any display, because it shows that the songs still belong to the children who sing them. Ask permission before photographing children, and let the game run at its own pace.
Learning the songs yourself
Anyone who wants to learn a dolanan anak should begin with a simple verse and a single game. Listen to the rhythm first, then clap it, then add the words. Most verses are short enough to learn in one sitting, though their wording can differ from one area to another. The aim is not perfect pronunciation at once. It is to feel the pulse of the song and to understand how the game follows the words. The best way to learn is to join a group that already plays the game, because the physical actions teach the timing more quickly than any written instruction.
When you learn a dolanan anak, pay attention to the meaning of the words as well as the sound. Ask a Javanese speaker what the verse means, and why the children sing it. The answer will often open up a lesson about manners, humility or everyday life that the song has carried for generations. A dolanan anak learned with its meaning is far more than a children’s game, and it is this combination of play and teaching that has kept the tradition alive in Javanese homes and schools.
Why the tradition matters today
Dolanan anak are a reminder that childhood play can carry culture as strongly as formal teaching. In a world where children spend long hours alone with devices, a circle of children singing and clapping together offers something that no screen provides: shared rhythm, turn-taking, eye contact and the simple joy of moving in time with others. For Javanese families who want their children to know their own language and their own traditions, the songs remain one of the most direct routes available.
The songs also give Central Java and the Yogyakarta region a living link to their past. A child singing a verse that a grandmother once sang is part of a long chain of memory. Keeping that chain intact means keeping the games in use, teaching them in schools and families, and letting children discover that the songs are fun. Dolanan anak have survived because children have enjoyed them, and that remains the best reason to keep them going.
Childhood in Java is marked by other customs too. The tedak siten ceremony marks an early milestone in a small child’s life, and the Dieng highlands have their own childhood tradition of rambut gimbal. For the wider picture of music, dance and play in the province, read Javanese Performing Arts and Games: Dance, Puppetry and Theatre, and for travel across the province see the Central Java Travel Guide: Temples, Towns and Volcanoes.