Wayang kulit

Wayang Kulit in Indonesia

Wayang kulit is a traditional puppet-shadow play found in the culture of Java, Bali, and Lombok, Indonesia. In a wayang kulit performance, the puppet figures are rear-projected on a taut linen screen with a coconut-oil (or electric) light. The Dalang (shadow artist) manipulates carved leather figures between the lamp and the screen to bring the shadows to life.

Wayang kulit is one of the many different forms of wayang theatre found in Indonesia, the other being wayang beber, wayang klitik, wayang golek, wayang topeng, and wayang wong). Wayang kulit is among the best known, offering a unique combination of ritual, lesson and entertainment. On November 7, 2003, UNESCO designated wayang kulit from Indonesia as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Etymology

"Wayang" derives from a word meaning "shadow" or "ghost", in turn originating from two ancient words: "Waya" meaning "ancestor or descending", and "Ang" meaning "symbol". Another source is the phrase "Ma Hyang", meaning spirit, God or God Almighty.

Wayang, in modern Indonesian language, is loosely translated to mean puppet. Kulit means skin or leather, the material from which the figures are carved.

History

history wayang in Indonesia

Hinduism arrived in Indonesia from India before the Christian era. Sanskrit became the literary and court language of Java and later of Bali.

The Hindus changed the Wayang (as did the Muslims, later) to spread their religion, mostly telling stories from the Mahabharata or the Ramayana. This mixture of religion and wayang play was later praised as harmony between Hinduism and traditional Indonesian culture.

When Islam began spreading in Indonesia, the display of God or gods in human form was prohibited, and thus this style of painting and shadow play was suppressed. King Raden Patah of Demak, Java, wanted to see the wayang in its traditional form, but failed to obtain permission from Muslim religious leaders.

Religious leaders attempted to skirt the Muslim prohibition by converting the wayang golek into wayang purwa made from leather and displayed only the shadow instead of the puppets themselves.

Components

Wayang Kulit shows involve the Dalang (puppeteer), Gamelan (traditional orchestra), Sinden (singers) in Java and Wayang (puppets).

Dalang

The Dalang sits behind a cotton screen with a light source above him. Softwood logs, traditionally made of banana wood, are placed between the puppeteer and the screen. During the performance, the dalang can stick the rods of the puppets into the soft wood, holding them in place. To the right of the dalang sits the puppet chest, which the dalang uses as a drum during the performance, hitting it with a wooden mallet. Usually (in Java), he has a cymbal-like percussion instrument at his feet that he uses for emphasis or to cue musicians.

Gamelan (in Java)

Gamelan is an orchestra consisting of bowed stringed instruments, flutes and a variety of percussion instruments. The musicians are the Niyogo. It is the traditional ensemble music of Java and Bali. The most common instruments used are metallophones played with mallets and a set of hand-played drums called kendhang, which keep the beat.

Many styles of Gamelan instruments and music exist in Indonesia. Each area takes its own approach to accompaniment evolving from similar roots.

The repertoire typically consists of an overture, music for traveling, character pieces and battle music.

Sinden (in Java)

Pagelaran Wayang

The singers are divided into Pesinden (female singers) and Wirasuara (male singers).

Shadow Music of Java

Wayang puppet figures

The wayang comes in sizes from 25 cm to 75 cm. The important characters are usually represented by several puppets each. The wayang is usually made out of water buffalo and goat hide and mounted on bamboo sticks. However, the best wayang is typically made from young female buffalo parchment, cured for up to ten years. The carving and punching of the rawhide, which is most responsible for the character's image and the shadows that are cast, are guided by this sketch. A mallet is used to tap special tools, called tatah, to punch the holes through the rawhide. Making the wayang sticks from horn is a complicated process of sawing, heating, hand-molding, and sanding until the desired effect is achieved. When the materials are ready, the artist attaches the handle by precisely molding the ends of the horn around the individual wayang figure and securing it with thread. A large character may take months to produce.

There are important differences, between the 3 Islands where Wayang Kulit is played (due to local religious canon) :

• in Java (where Islam is predominant), the puppets (named "ringgit") are elongated, the play lasts all night and the lamp (named blencong) is, nowadays, almost always electric. A full Gamelan with (pe)sinden is typically used.
• In Bali (where Hinduism is predominant), the puppets look more real, the play last a few hours and, if at night, the lamp uses coconut oil. Music is mainly by the four "Gender" wayang, with drums only if the story is from the Ramayana . There are no sinden. The Dalang does the singing.
  Balinese dalangs are often also priests (amangku dalang). As such, they may also perform during daylight, for religious purposes (exorcism), without lamp and without screen (wayang sakral, or "lemah")
• In Lombok (where Islam is predominant and Bali's influence is strong), vernacular Wayang Kulit is known as Wayang Sasak, with puppets similar than Javanese ringgits, a small orchestre with no sinden, but flutes, metallophones and drums. The repertoire is unique to the Island and is based on the Muslim Menak Cycle (adventures of Amir Hamzah).

See the gallery below, where the Mahabarata character shown is Kresna (all pictures, except the last one)

• 
  Central Java ringgit
• 
  Carving the leather, in a Jogyakarta factory
• 
  Painting the Ringgit, in a Jogyakarta factory
• 
  All stages of the making of a ringgit
• 
  Bali ringgit
• 
  In the specialized village of Sukawati, Bali

Performance

The components of wayang performance include a stretched linen canvas (kelir) which acted as a canvas, a coconut-oil lamp (Javanese blencong or Balinese damar) which in modern time usually replaced with electric light, and a banana trunk lying on the ground (Javanese gedebog, Balinese gedebong) where the figures are put during a performance. Behind the puppeteer (dalang) is the gamelan performance. Spectators sit on the floor in front of the screen, where they see the shadows of the wayang puppet figures.

The setting of the banana trunk on the ground and canvas on the sky symbolizes each the earth and the sky, the whole composition symbolizes the entire cosmos. When the dalang animates the puppet figures and moves it across the screen, divine forces are acting in his hands with which he directs the happening. The lamp is a symbol of the sun as well as the eye of the dalang.

A traditional wayang kulit performance begins after dark. The first of the three phases, in which the characters are introduced and the conflict is launched, lasts until midnight. The battles and intrigues of the second phase are about three hours. The third phase of reconciliation and friendship is finished at dawn.

Wayang shadow plays are usually tales from the two major Hindu epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The puppet master contextualizes stories from the plays, making them relevant to current community, national or global issues. Gamelan players respond to the direction of the Dalang.

See also

• Wayang

External links

• "Bali & Beyond Educational Resources". www.balibeyond.com. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
• "About wayang kulit". Kanda Buwana: Wayang Kulit Puppet Theatre. 2010-06-13. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
• "Wayang Kulit - a shadow play". minyos.its.rmit.edu.au. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
• "History of Wayang Kulit - Wayang". shadowtheatre-ika.blogspot.co.id. Retrieved 2016-05-21.