Art Association Tradition (Arastra) Bengkulu, Sumatera, was a music performing group formerly known as Sanggar Mayangsari and was establish at 1982.  In 2010, they changed their name to Arastra. Arastra is a community of music and dance artists that perform and hold workshops to teach the society their traditional art.  They mainly perform traditional music from the Bengkulu communities, but also include traditional music from the Pulau Enggano community, from the West Coast of Sumatera.

One of their main musical influences is the ‘percusi dol’. ‘Percusi dol’ is part of Tabot, an ancient ritualistic ceremony from the Muslim society at Bengkulu. Percusi Dol music comes from the musical percussion instrument named ‘Gendang dol’ or ‘dol drum’.  These percussions have different sizes, ranging from 70 -100 cm and are about 80 cm in height.  Arastra have performed in several event such Solo International Ethnic Music, (2007), Singapore Art Festival (2008) and Sawahlunto International Music Festival (2015).

Photo gallery: