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Wayang kulit, the ancient shadows

Wayang Kulit, an Indonesian form of shadow puppetry, is a masterfully executed dramatic theater play, which holds the audience’s attention with riveting storylines.

This unique form of art is employing light and shadow. When held up in the front of a piece of white cloth, with an electric bulb or an oil lamp as the light source, shadows from the puppets are cast on the screen.

Traditionally, a Wayang kulit theater is played out in a highly ritualized midnight-to-dawn performance to get an outstanding play of light.

The puppets are crafted from buffalo skin and mounted on bamboo sticks. They are meticulously designed, painted, down to the most detail of costume and color, to help the audience distinguish between the different characters.

In any single show, there may be dozens of them representing a whole world of gods, deities, kings, princesses, warriors, hermits, ogres, weapons, animals, and more. A complete shadow theater can count between 160 and 200 puppets. Each puppets are recognizable by their stylized physical features and the ways they move.

When the characters are introduced, the figures representing the forces of good are on the right, the evil ones on the left.

All of them are manipulated by one artist called dalang, the puppeteer, who sits in front of the screen and supplies distinctive voices for all the different characters, moving them with wooden sticks. Singers and musicians play complex melodies on bronze instruments and gamelan drums.

It is giving more strength to the narration, and enhance the whole performance.

The Wayang Kulit shadow puppets have a long recorded history in Indonesia. Wayang performances date back from the 9’s century, but were likely a part of active community life in the years prior.

Sources say that wayang originates from shamanism, using ancient archipelago ceremonial forms, which aim to make contact with the spirit world, presenting religious poetry and praising the greatness of the soul.

Regardless of whether the impulse behind Wayang is indigenous, widespread development of the art took place during the Hindu-Buddhist period, especially between 800 and 1500, while people of Indonesia and Indian subcontinent exchanged culture, architecture and traded goods.

Other references show the art was invented by the wali, the nine saints who converted Java to Islam. For ten centuries, Wayang flourished at the royal courts of Java and Bali as well as in rural areas.

Wayang has also spread to other Indonesian islands (Lombok, Madura, Sumatra and Borneo) where various local performance styles and musical accompaniments have developed, with their own specificities.

In Wayang kulit, most of the stories are taken from mythological times, and dramatized episodes from the Hindu epics, typically based on romantic tales and religious legends.

However, they have been adapted over centuries to the Indonesian context. Some of the plays are also based on local stories or local cultural legends.

While the stories are essentially old and well-known by the audience, a significant part of what the dalang does, is adapting the performance creatively to what is happening in the present.

It was traditionally believed that the dalang was able to communicate with the unseen world and spirits. The dalang speaks not only the languages of Indonesian and Javanese, but also at times, in old Javanese and even Sanskrit, languages which are not intelligible to the human audience but are meant to be understood by the invisible audience.

The ability of the dalang to perform many different voices, male and female, refined and coarse, serious and funny, is a big part of the pleasure for the audience. The dalang, is often also referred to as 'Mastermind', owing to the tremendously wide range of knowledge he has to command.

In villages and towns in Java, people attend all-night performances of wayang, which test the skill and endurance of both dalang and musicians. He and the drummer of the gamelan ensemble communicate to move the story along.

Audience members can move between the front of the screen, where they see the shadows, and the back side of the screen, where they can watch the dalang move the puppets.

The attention of the audience is not continuous. People also chat, visit, eat, and even sleep. To keep them involved, the dalang switches among the various languages and styles, makes puns and jokes, philosophizes, and may comment on current events.

The dalang is not only an entertainer but also an important source of information in the community and can be a powerful political force. He also may be considered as a spiritual leader, spreading the worship of the ancestors.

In the past, puppeteers were regarded as cultivated literary experts who transmitted moral and aesthetic values through their art. The words and actions of comic characters representing the “ordinary person” have provided a vehicle for criticizing sensitive social and political issues, and it is believed that this special role may have contributed to wayang’s survival over the centuries.

The repertory and performance techniques were transmitted orally within the families of puppeteers, musicians and puppet-makers. Master puppeteers are expected to memorize a vast repertory of stories and to recite ancient narrative passages and poetic songs in a witty and creative manner.

Wayang performances still enjoys great popularity among Indonesians, especially in the islands of Java and Bali. They are usually held at certain rituals, certain ceremonies, certain events, and even tourist attractions.

In ritual contexts, puppet shows are used for prayer rituals, healing or protective rites, and thanksgiving to God for the abundant crops rituals.

In the context of ceremonies, usually it is used to celebrate Javanese wedding ceremony, and circumcision ceremony.

In events, it is used to celebrate Independence Day, the anniversaries of municipalities and companies, birthdays, commemorating certain days, and many more.

Performances of puppetry are still held once a year at cemeteries where the founders of each village are buried. Ancestors are believed to have particular favorite stories.

There is evidence that local animism has been a source of the puppet arts. In times past, if the harvest was threatened by various pests, the story of the Indonesian rice goddess, Sri, might be performed to ward off the attack.

Today, such ritual stories are performed infrequently, but they remain a part of the history of the art.

Overall, Wayang is one of the peaks of Indonesian culture, with a large palette including acting, singing, music, drama, literature, painting, sculpture, carving, and symbolic arts.

The tradition, which have continued to develop over more than a thousand years, is also a medium for information, preaching, religious life, culture, education, philosophical understanding, and entertainment.

Wayang developed and matured into a Javanese phenomenon. There is no true contemporary puppet shadow artwork in either China or India, that has the sophistication, depth, and creativity expressed in Wayang.

To compete successfully with modern forms of pastimes such as video, television or karaoke, performers tend to accentuate comic scenes at the expense of the story line and to replace musical accompaniment with pop tunes, leading to the loss of some characteristic genuine features.

Today major wayang performers are known all over Java. They appear on television and radio, and cassettes of their performances are available in stores.

While it is still true that most major dalang are descendants of the families of traditional performers, sadly in the twentieth century they began to be performers who were not trained by their own elders.

With everything in the hands of the dalang, the great art of Wayang kulit combines deep spiritual meaning, ancient stories, mystical mantras, entertaining storytelling, extraordinary musicality (both in the gamelan and vocals), deep philosophical messages, current political commentary, and bawdy humor.

It is one of the most complete art forms. UNESCO designated wayang as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Indonesians have all the interests to preserve it.