Tag: Roc

Burung Roc 4

~ The Koboi Project

In this late career engraving by Dutch painter Johannes Stradanus (1523-1605) commerating Ferdinand Maggellen’s discovery of the passage around the globe, there is a representation of the ‘Roc.’ In his essay analysing this complex collection of realistic, emblematical, and mythological representations, Rudolph Wittkover makes two references that locate the abode of the creature in what must be the South China Sea. He notes that Maggellen’s companion and chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, locates its home in the “Chinese Seas”. Indeed, as the ship in the illustration, is coming out of the Magellen Straits and facing the open Pacific Ocean, the South China Sea might be located in the North Westerly direction from whence the Roc could be interpreted as approaching the scene. Wittkover also cites the Maghrebi explorer and scholar, Ibn Batuta, who tells how, again, in the Chinese Seas, a massive form that he and his fellows thought was a flying mountain, turned out to be the Roc. These accounts tie in with the notion that the Roc nests in the Pokok Pauh Janggi at the center of the Pusat Tasek, located somewhere in the South China Sea.

https://www-jstor-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/stable/pdf/750014.pdf

Burung Roc 3

~ The Koboi Project

This centrepiece from a 19th Century Malay wedding showing fabulous birds and dragons. As the dragons face-off in the lake, the birds occupy the tree-tops. Walter Skeat, who collected this piece at the end of the 19th Century, notes three types of bird – the Roc (of Middle Eastern origin) which he equates with Garuda (Lord Vishnu’s vehicle), Jintayu (or Jadayu from the Ramayana) and the Walimana which he equates with the Harpy (of Greek mythology). This display evidences how the, now less familliar, Burung Roc was once an integral part of Malay folklore and material culture.

https://archive.org/details/malaymagicbeingi00skeauoft/page/388/mode/2up?q=centrepiece&view=theater

Burung Roc

~ The Koboi Project

In Islamic cosmography, heaven is often represented directly above the earth, the centre of which is marked by the Ka’ba. Represented below the earth, but in fact surrounding it, is Mount Qaf, a boundary world of jins and spirits, and further down lie the seven levels of hell. As represented in the Ottoman image on the left (above), the  Sacred trees of Islam – the Shajarat al-Tûba, and the Zaqqum tree, form a direct vertical line from the uppermost realm of Heaven, down to the gate of the Seven Hells, just as the  Pokok Pauh Janggi does in the Malay cosmology, connecting Kayangan to Dasar Laut. This lining-up of various sacred trees of Islamic cosmography might represent the intended indexing of an underlying cosmology, or it may simly be due to the limitations of 2-dimensional graphical ontology, but in any event, it an artifact of Islamic cosmographic representation. Other trees not represented in this Ottoman diagram, but that could also, hypothetically, be placed in line include the Sidrat al-Muntahā  or Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary (which marks the boundary between the astronomical and the theological Heavens), the šajaratu l-ḫuld or Tree of Immortality (which is the Tree at the centre of the Garden of Eden which Allah forbade to Adam and Eve) and the Olive Tree, whose centre is located everywhere (tawhid). In Middle Eastern mythology,  the Mountains of Qaf are also the abode of the giant bird, the Roc. In Nusantara folklore the Burong Roc nests on the top of the pokok Pauh Janggi, co-locating the ring of the Mountains of Qaf to the base of the Pokok Pauh Janggi one will find the enterance to the cavern that leads down to the Dasar Laut.


In my Pokok Pauh Janggi performance at Kappalorek Artspace the embroidered Eagle motif on a Western Bib shirt becomes a signifier for the Giant Burong Roc.

Image: https://magictransistor.tumblr.com/post/121976939786/ottoman-diagram-of-heaven-and-hell-caucasus

https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-great-birds-of-middle-eastern-legend-myths-or-reality–25445