It’s no easy to find horses in Singapore (Turf Club? Riding School?) and probably even harder to find these horse riders – a mysterious Malay dance called the Kuda Kepang. This traditional dance featuring cardboard horses and human riders can still be seen at Malay weddings, and used to be a common feature in kampong weddings.

Accompanied by the haunting sounds of the gamelan, these fancily-dressed men and their cardboard horses are more than just horsing around. This art form is steeped in history and goes back to the time when Hinduism and Buddhism were the dominant religions of the region. The horse dance of the Kuda Kepang were used in telling the story of the Ramayana and some variations of the dance are linked with spirit possession and rituals.

Watching a performance of the dance, it isn’t difficult to imagine it having a spirit possession dimension. The dance involves movements that have symbolic values that would have originated from the animistic practices of the people of pre-Hindu Java. Throughout the dance, the performers seem to move in a trance like state, their movements guided seemingly by a force other than their own. It is said that in some of the forms that Kuda Kepang takes, dancers are fed with pieces of broken glass, grass and other objects which do them no harm. In some cases, the dance is said to even be able to heal the sick. Whether or not this is true, the dance is certainly mysterious as it is captivating and watching a little portion of it yesterday, I felt like that three year old boy again, staring down at the fascinating scene before my eyes.

The trance and ritual aspect of Kuda Kepang has been downplayed in more recent times, but the display is still visually stunning. Singapore is one of the few places in the Malay world where Kuda Kepang is still performed, and you can usually see it in Malay weddings. Check out Jerome’s account of a recent performance in Woodlands, in the rain!