The Mysterious, Phantasmagoric World of Javanese Wayang Theatre

The morality in addition to also messages conveyed in Wayang Kulit plays still permeate Javanese thought in addition to also daily life.

The spellbound audience is actually the best show of all. A wayang show is actually like eavesdropping on neighbours, or more accurately, friends in addition to also relatives. I’ve seen thousands of Javanese sit up all night in an overflowing theatre reeking of clove cigarettes, with babies fall asleep on mothers’ laps, people tip off chairs in hysterical laughter, children alternately sleep in addition to also come awake, giggling in front of or behind the screen until dawn. The audience already knows all the stories in addition to also roles by heart. Though they’re constantly moving around eating, sleeping in addition to also talking, they never lose the thread.

You probably won’t be able to follow all the wayang stories, however you can’t help however be infected by the supernatural atmosphere. The messages conveyed from the 3,000-year-old works of myth still apply to This specific day. of which’s living in addition to also dynamic – more of an electric in addition to also kinetic exchange than film can ever be. The audience loses all sense of time as the gods themselves – not merely their shadows – are felt to appear on the screen.

A Javanese word meaning literally ‘shadow’ or ‘ghost’, wayang is actually a theatrical performance of living actors, three-dimensional puppets or shadow images projected before a backlit screen. The word can also refer to the puppets themselves. In most forms, the dialogue is actually in Javanese or Sundanese; sometimes Indonesian is actually used. Most often the chants are in Kawi (Old Javanese), as archaic a language on Java today as Shakespearean English is actually in Great Britain.

All wayang drama forms reflect Javanese culture. Characters are judged not by their actions however by their devotion to what is actually appropriate to their castes in addition to also by their predetermined roles from the drama. Gestures are given more weight than common sense, style more than content. Courage, loyalty, in addition to also refinement always win out from the end. Fate is actually accepted without question. however the wayang plays do not just show the direct victory of not bad over evil. They also display weakness as well as greatness in all the characters in addition to also, by implication, in society as a whole.

Today there are at least 10,000 individual performers of the wayang kulit shadow play on Java in addition to also Bali. In addition, there are wayang orang dance plays in addition to also wayang topeng masked dances. The Sundanese prefer wayang golek, carved wooden puppets, to the flat leather figures of the wayang kulit. of which’s believed wayang golek is actually the last development of all the native wayang forms. In addition, there are a few rare, vestigial in addition to also refurbished forms: wayang beber, a narrated presentation in which drawings are unrolled in addition to also completely new forms such as Jakarta’s garapan sedalu ‘all night’ style pioneered by dalang (puppeteer) virtuoso Purbo Asmoro, in addition to also Bali’s wayang tantri which features Indonesian fables presented by Wija. On Madura, one troupe of wayang orang wears masks covering only the top part of their faces, exposing their mouths to speak freely. The Chinese of Java have their own form of wayang golek, performed only in temples.

Besides the abbreviated tourist performances held in Jogjakarta in addition to also Solo, wayang is actually staged whenever an important transitional event occurs in a person’s life: birthdays, weddings, important religious occasions, or as ritual entertainment during family feasts or selamatan. Coming of age (puberty), circumcision, a promotion, even the building of a completely new swimming pool – all could be grounds for putting on a show. While providing entertainment, wayang also teaches the meaning, purpose, contradictions, in addition to also anomalies of modern life. The policies of the government are even explained in terms of wayang theatre, not only by the puppet masters, however in newspaper editorials in addition to also even in government statements. For example, the character of Krishna, the most widely venerated Hindu deity, has sometimes been compared with of which of Indonesian presidents.

A DEEP PRE-ISLAMIC HISTORY

Wayang dates by before the 9^th century BC, preceding Indian influence. In ancient, pre-Hindu times, wayang puppets were perhaps corporeal manifestations of deceased ancestors who came down to Earth during the performance to visit in addition to also communicate with their descendants.

Wayang’s function was to placate in addition to also please the gods so as to raise fertility in addition to also exorcise or propitiate ghosts in addition to also evil spirits.

Since the moving, flickering silhouettes were considered the very souls of the dead, the dalang was originally a shamanistic priest, a medium between the dead in addition to also the living.

With the arrival of Hinduism by India sometime after the 1^st century AD, the dramatic Ramayana in addition to also Mahabharata epics were incorporated into existing wayang dramas, to This specific day by far the most common form of wayang. During the time of intense Hindu influence (8^th-15^th C.), Hindu teachers used wayang as a vehicle to propagandize in addition to also popularize their religion. Indian heroes, gods, demons in addition to also giants eventually began to supplant the ancestor figures. Indonesian backgrounds were supplied for the Indian epics.

Themes are usually variations on the struggle between gods in addition to also demons, with people choosing sides, sharing glory with the gods, helping the gods ward off demon attacks or being ultimately destroyed by them. The original epics brought by India were translated into Kawi over 1,000 years ago, however were only adapted for Javanese theatre from the 19^th century. For many Indonesians, these classic stories, in addition to also not the Quran, are the true holy books. In fact, wayang mythology has been called ‘the Bible of Java’ because of which alludes to a time when the gods were still on Earth; a time when they established the great universal rules in addition to also traditions of life.

Wayang shows have also had a strong influence on Hindu-Javanese sculpture. On 13^th-century bas-reliefs at Panataran temple, you can see figures similar to wayang puppets of the time, portraying all the same characters in addition to also events found in wayang today.

When Hinduism commenced to give way to Islam from the 13^th century, Javanese Muslims simply turned Islamic literary personalities into puppet characters. Shadow plays were used by sultans to flatter themselves in addition to also their retinues, to glorify in addition to also perpetuate the feudalistic court rituals of Javanese royalty. Wayang, by reinforcing the class system, kept the masses in their place.

Because Muslims banned the reproduction of the human form, both not bad in addition to also evil puppets were made ugly in addition to also grotesque so they wouldn’t resemble living beings. The faces, colouring, hairstyles, clothes in addition to also jewellery of the puppets are still so strongly stylized of which they are more symbols than actual human figures. Wayang puppets remain the only surviving figural representations by the graphic arts of the early Islamic period.