Yang sangat, sangat besar terima kasih kepada teman-temansaya di Jogja untuk bantuan Anda dalam lapangan saya dari 10sampai 21 Desember 2010 – video ini adalah untuk Anda:
A very, very big thank you to my friends in Jogja for your assistance in my fieldwork from 10th to 21st Dec 2010 – this video is for you:
Terima kasih untuk membiarkan saya ke dalam budaya Anda,karena pasien dalam menjawab banyak pertanyaan saya, danjuga untuk kemurahan hati Anda dan perhotelan di menunjukkanSilei dan saya sekitar. Saya pikir kami mungkin punya seleralangka dari Yogya Real!
Berharap bahwa kita bisa bertemu lagi di Singapura atau Jogja(atau tempat lain)! Beritahu saya jika Anda datang ke Singapura.Sementara itu, melihat Anda di Facebook : D
Thank you for letting me into your culture, for being patient in answering my many questions, and also for your generosity and hospitality in showing Silei and me around. I think we might just have got a rare taste of the Real Yogya!
Hope that we can meet again in Singapore or Jogja (or anywhere else)! Let me know if you come to Singapore. Meanwhile, see you on Facebook : D
Catatan: klip pendek “Wayang Kancil: Natal Khusus” dibuatmenggunakan Wayang Menulis, sebuah program yang dapat Anda gunakan untuk menceritakan cerita Anda sendiri WayangKancil digital.
Untuk mempelajari lebih lanjut tentang Wayang Menulis, lihatvideo di bawah ini:
Note: The short clip “Wayang Kancil: The Christmas Special” was made using Wayang Composing, a program that you can use to tell your own Wayang Kancil stories digitally (developed by Marcus Ecken and Joachim Dietl).
To learn more about Wayang Composing, see the video below:
(ii) Meeting Mbah Ledjar and Nanang at their Studio!
Date: 19th Dec 2010
Venue: Jalan Mataram Dn 1/ 370
Mbah Ledjar at his studio
When we found Mbah Ledjar, he was working on a new gunungan, the leaf-shaped puppet that marks the beginning and end of the Wayang, which literally translates into “little mountain” (“Gunung” is Indonesian for mountain, e.g. Gunung Merapi). Traditionally, the Wayang Kulit gunungan has a structure that marks the entrance to a Javanese house painted in the centre. In his gunungan, however, he was experimenting with replacing it with a Dutch veranda.
He invited us to sit and have some tea, and began taking out the files of newspaper articles and academic journals he had compiled over the years that traced the development of the Wayang Kancil in Java and abroad. He kept track of its migration of the Wayang Kancil to England (Sarah Bilby), America (Tamara Fielding), Australia (Irene Ritchie), Germany, and even to a museum in Holland.
Mbah Ledjar shared how he is never recognized for his work as a Wayang Kancil maker. The exhibits of his work featured in the museum in Jakarta always cite the maker of these puppets to be Bo Liem, a Chinese man who is recorded in textbooks as the first maker of the Wayang Kancil, despite his stamp clearly imprinted on the puppets displayed. He argues that the Wayang Kancil did not begin with Bo Liem, but instead is his own invention. In recounting this to me he was animated with deep conviction; but he also appeared very weary, as if he had told this story to whoever would listen. But little has been done. His contributions, and the Wayang Kancil, still go largely unheard of in his community in spite of international recognition. (For more on this, you can read this article on “Ki Ledjar Soebroto: Puppet master left in the shadows”, written by the Jakarta post in March 2009).
His grandson, Nanang, came over too. Nanang has been performing the Wayang Kancil ever since he was two years old, and has designed programs to create digital forms of Wayang (such as the Wayang animation I posted in this entry which you can watch here). Mbah Ledjar has high hopes for Nanang to continue his battle against the museum authorities and the government for his rights to have his name and work recognized as a puppet-maker.
How did the Wayang Kancil begin? Hopefully I’ll have enough evidence to uncover this aspect of cultural history.
You can see more of the highlights of performances we watched in the video I made below:
This video includes recordings of Wayang Kulit (Purwa), Wayang Kancil and Wayang Beber performances.
Although the fieldwork has officially ended, the investigation of the Wayang Kancil has just begun.
The above quote came from Mbah (Grandfather) Ledjar, over a simple supper near his house. If you haven’t yet seen the light, it reads: “I am going (Ayam Goreng) back to Singapore”.
Eleven days later, we are now back in Singapore! Unfortunately, I couldn’t update more there, there was just too much to see and do to be on Facebook! I now present two highlights of days 7 – 11:
(i) All Night Wayang
We had the opportunity to watch three all-night Wayang performances in two days! Impossible, you say – well, we watched one full one and two halves.
Tis the season for Wayang performances. According to the Javanese calendar, it is the Sura month, marking the beginning of a new year. It is also known as the Rijal month, meaning the light of life created by the mystical power of god / gusti. In this season, several ceremonial rituals are held (we are just in time to catch them!).
#1: 16th December 2010 – Ceremonial rite, Sultan’s brother’s house
Stage @ Sultan's brother's home
The first performance is held at the Sultan’s brother’s home at a square near the Kraton. The dhalang is Ki Seno Nugroho (Ki, meaning “Sir”, is the address for male dhalangs, while “Nyi” is the address for female ones, as a show of respect by the Indonesian people – I learnt this from my friend Ria!). He is the junior regional dhalang, who is currently about 30 years old. Pak Eddy has watched him perform since he was 8. This performance even incorporated a Western drum amidst the traditional gamelan orchestra! The cymbals are used to great effect to accentuate the emotive moments.
Front view
This performance is a part of a religious rite, and begins with a period of prayer / chanting. The audience is made up of the royal family, figures dressed in uniform (a political party?) in an outdoor performance space. It seems that that the first row is reserved for important people (or spirits) because no one attempts to sit there. No sitting on the stage for this performance. A large proportion of the audience is 50 and above, and we are seated next to a French couple from Nice who were recommended to watch this show by their hotel. Even though the performance is seven hours long, and we are hindered by our inability to understand Javanese, the performance is so engaging that we can’t fall asleep (especially the fight scenes! Wow!).
According to my friend Dhani, the most exciting moments come at 10pm, 12am+, and 2am+. Of course, the non-stop flow of free food and drinks helped too! It takes such great stamina to watch the Wayang to its end – can’t imagine how much energy it takes to perform it. (Ki Seno looked absolutely exhausted when it was over!) At 4am, there is still a sizeable audience of about 30 – 40 members – looks like these performances must mean a lot to them.
#2: 20th December 2010 – Commemoration of Ki Roger Alan Long’s death (attended from approx 8pm to 12am)
Food offerings for Roger Allen Long (in picture)
The second all-night performance is made in honour of the deceased American Dhalang Roger Alan Long (1938 – 2007). He was an eminent director and actor who also had a passion for Javanese shadow puppetry, and also a professor and associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Hawaii.
In the Javanese culture, rituals are held several days after one passes away: 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 40 days, 100 days, one lunar year – 354 days, 11 days less than an international year – 2 lunar years, and then 1000 days. Today we are commemorating the 1000 days since Ki Roger’s passing (the event was pushed back slightly becuase its organization was disrupted by the Merapi eruption).
The performance is held in the house that he used to stay in, and the puppets used tonight are from his favourite set, which he sent back to Yogyakarta to be used by the local people. The Wayang tonight does not tell a specific story, but is constructed by several episodes based on the character Setyaki from the epic the Mahabharata, whom Ki Roger loved and his teacher said he resembled: full of innter drives, determination, and focus. In the episodes, Setyaki is portrayed as a hero that the people in the town all like very much, probably what Ki Roger was to this community.
The event appears to be a private function. This observation is confirmed by Joan Suyenaga, the host of the event. Joan is an American – also a third-generation Japanese – who has come to make her home in Yogyakarta after studying music under Ki Roger at the University of Hawaii. In the audience are many other students,a academics, Wayang practitioners, neighbours, and family friends who are gathered to remember Ki Roger with a Wayang Kulit performance because the Javanese shadow puppet theatre meant so much to him, and his memory means so much to them.
She shares that Roger’s last wish was to spread his ashes in three different locations – one third with his brothers and sisters in Illinois, another third in Hawaii, and the last third in Jogja. The family will be spreading his ashes over the sea in a ceremony on the Monday after the Wayang Kulit performance (20th December 2010).
#3: 20th December 2010 – Celebration of Universitas Gadjah Mada anniversary (attended from approx 12.45am to 4.30am)
The last Wayang Kulit performance is held in conjunction with the celebration of the anniversary of Universitas Gadjah Mada. Despite being a ‘school function’, it is still open to the public, and there do not seem to be many students among the audience.
We made it there at about 12.45am, just in time for the funniest bit with the comic characters. Ki Seno was also the dhalang for this performance (same as performance #1 near the Kraton). This time, we had Wisnu next to us to translate the story! The name of the story is Sesaji Rajasuya (thanks Wisnu! :)), which is translated as ‘offering to the gods’. You can watch his explanation here:
+ The good king Krishna wants to have power so that everyone in the kingdom can prosper, while the bad king Jurosando wants the power for himself.
Ki Seno seems to be excellent at the comic scenes – if only we could understand them all!
–
Which explains the sleep that we had to catch up on upon our return…
Over the past few days, I have been able to see how the eruption of Mount Merapi in early November is affecting the people here – the many faces of Merapi. Borobodur is now closed because there is so much ash in it, tourists can only look at the structure from the outside, trees hang their heads because of the weight of the ash that pulls them towards the ground. Most importantly, I have been able to meet people who have been affected by the eruption of Merapi in one way or another. Trauma ruptures one’s memory, and I am able to see how the cultural memory of the people of Jogja has been visually erased, or at least damaged, because of the eruption.
Today, with my friend from UGM, Hesti, and her boyfriend Wahyu, Silei and I made our way up to see the aftereffects of the volcano eruptions. Hesti picked us up at 5.30am and we drove up to Wahyu’s house (he lives in the village 12km from the top), before we travelled the steeper parts of the mountain by motorcycle. Merapi means ‘fire’ in Indonesian, and Mount Merapi is one of the active volcanoes in Java, 2400 metres above sea level. It erupts every year, and the lava usually travels 3 metres down – this year was an exception. Most of the people who stay there are farmers.
Destruction post-Merapi
We rode past several villages until we saw an area that stood in marked contrast. No more green and brown, everything was grey. The effect of the eruption hangs over this place like a shadow (that’s probably an understatement) – trees that once stood tall are now bowed over, having been swept by the rush of the molten lava. We see a few bricks that might have been a well – ‘This was once a house,’ Wahyu remarks to me. I could only imagine what it could have been before, based on their tales, their memories, their stories.
With Hesti and Merapi
‘This place that we are walking on,’ says Hesti, ‘this used to be a beach, 25 metres wide and 50 metres deep. Now it is all covered’. We walk on and all that is left is several large stones, fallen tree branches, and a lone tree in the distance. ‘You don’t believe it?’
In the evening, we made our way to Jalan Parangtritis. It’s the cultural part of Jogja. We managed to visit several Batik shops in the area.
We were there to watch Pesta Boneka, a mini-puppet festival showcase by organized by Papermoon Puppet Theatre. It was intended to be a large-scale puppet festival, but because of the eruption of Mount Merapi they had to reduce it to a one-night performance in conjunction with the opening of my friend Iwan Effendi’s visual art exhibition “The Artworks of MWATHIRIKA” (a performance they did) instead. (He’s got a wild imagination – you can see his works here). Typically, they invite puppet makers and puppeteers from all over the world – Mexico, Australia, Europe and so on – to perform at their festival. However, this time they chose to focus on showcasing the regional arts of Indonesia (yes, that makes me very fortunate to be doing research here right now!). It was an amazing exposure for Silei and me to witness the performance of Indonesian arts from across the region. There were four performances: the Wayang Beber Kota performed by Dani (Surakarta-Indonesia), the Wayang Kancil performed by Ki Ledjar Subroto (Yogyakarta-Indonesia), a performance by Automne 2085 Theatre (France), and Wayang Hip Hop (Yogyakarta-Indonesia).
Iwan's painting
More about the festival from their programme booklet:
“Growing with a strong history of figure theatre in Indonesia, with the huge variety of figure theatre (or object theatre) in Indonesia, Papermoon Puppet Theatre had the ideas to present those wealth of culture to wider publics through PESTA BONEKA.
Pesta Boneka was designed as a biennial puppet festival that will bring different forms in each period. The first Pesta Boneka was presented (in) 2008. At that time, Pesta Boneka brought 6 artists from 4 different countries (Indonesia, Australia, France, Mexico) that worked together for 9 months to produce 4 different performances.
This time, Pesta Boneka #2 will present variety puppet performances, exhibit Iwan Effendi featuring Papermoon Puppet Theatre’s artworks, and do a workshop on puppetry for children and teenagers from Tembi village”
Wayang Beber performance
The Wayang Beber Kota performance is the most ancient form of Wayang – it works like film, where the performers tell a story based on pictures on a scroll that is reeled out as the story progresses. It is so rarely performed today that even my friend Ria, herself a puppet-maker and puppeteer, had not watched it before. Dani from Surakarta (Solo, also in Central Java) revitalized the traditional medium and incorporated modern aspects into it that to make it more relevant and appealing to present-day audiences – what aspects he modified I don’t know, but we have arranged to meet him in Solo this weekend! Hopefully I’ll be able to find out more about his work then. The dhalang was a little boy, not more than twelve years old, telling the story of various people at a crowded pasar (market). He certainly won the hearts of the musicians and the audience, who were hanging on to every word of his tale, guffawing at all his jokes, even imitating some of the voices he put on.
Pak Ledjar and me
The highlight of the night was when I met Ki Ledjar in person, and watched as he set up his creations, making sure not a puppet was out of place, like a gardener affectionately pruning his masterpiece. He is truly a dedicated craftsman, paying attention to the intricate details of re-presenting animals and nature through his puppets. Examining the quality of the puppets alone, I could understand why he is so famous. His grandson Nanang was the dhalang for the performance, and he was accompanied by digital sound and a keyboard. Nanang has really inherited his grandfather’s love for Wayang Kancil and his great skill in capturing the essence of each animal through his puppet manipulation and the wide range of voices he put on to animate the characters!!! He was able to accurately portray all the animals of the jungle, from the greedy hog, to the majestic lion, to the smart Kancil, to the annoying human being who attempted to dominate the other animals in the jungle (but of course, was outsmarted by Kancil and collectively defeated by the animals when he fell into a ditch…he was trampled by a rhinoceros several times, and even had his head jumped on by a mouse). It was such a delight to watch – I can’t imagine the work that must go into making the puppets and the practice.
Wayang Hip Hop
The Wayang Hip Hop was interesting – the dhalang made two puppets talk, radio-DJ style, and dance to Hip Hop music, accompanied by beatboxers. It was good exposure to see how the Wayang performance has been culturally adapted.
The festival was featured in the Jogja news! Congratulations Papermoon!! (You can read the article here. It’s in Bahasa Indonesia – Google Translate is always a readily available option!)
With Papermoon Puppet Theatre and a part of the set from their most recent production Mwathrika (Dec 2010)
Today I met several of Pak Eddy’s students from Gadjah Mada University from the English faculty (hooray!!). It was quite a relief to be back in a familiar space of a campus.
Friends from UGM! L to R: Juned, Meta, me, Ashika, Rule
These are students in their graduating year, and they are the pioneers of the SemataWayang group – short for Sekelompok Mahasiswa Pecinta Wayang, which translates into “A group of students who love Wayang”. They are passionate about Wayang and felt that the traditional forms of Wayang Kulit / Purwa did not suit their taste. And so, inspired by the Wayang Kancil – that uses the medium of shadow puppets to tell simple stories through animal folklore, rather than attempting to embody a cosmic message as other forms of traditional Wayang do – they set up their own group to tell folktales of their own regions (including Sunda, Bantul, Minangkabau) to appeal to a younger audience. Looks like I’m wrong to assume that Wayang does not appeal to the youngsters of Indonesians. They are finding their own way to adapt the traditional Wayang form to express a voice that is unique and relevant to their generation.
English Day!
The faculty was also celebrating “English Day” – they had a funfair, selling food from “English” countries, with an Australian Menu, a British Menu, and an American Menu. They also had a photo booth where you could take a photo in front of a British telephone booth (it even came with snow!).
Tomorrow Silei will be here! We will make our way to the south of Jogja towards Parangtritis to meet my friends from Papermoon Puppet Theatre, who I had the opportunity to meet when they came to Singapore in July – Aug 2010. You can read more about them here. Mbak Ria (in green, left of me in the picture) was herself a student of Pak Ledjar.
Papermoon Puppet Theatre in Singapore (Aug 2010)
I’ll also be meeting Pak Ledjar and his grandson, Nanang! Nanang designed an animated version of the Wayang Kulit for the digital generation. You can watch it in the clip below:
When I meet him I’ll have the chance to ask him more about it!
The Wayang Kuilt and Wayang Kancil performances were amazing- almost magical. You can see more about the process of setting up (including me experimenting with manipulating a Wayang Kulit puppet) in the video below:
.
In the morning, we get into Pak Eddy’s yellow van and drive north of the city of Yogya to the village of Sleman, within 20 kilometres from the top of Mount Merapi, literally translated as the fire mountain. A few weeks ago, the residents in this area were made to evacuate – some were housed in universities (including the Indonesian Islamic University, Gadja Mada University), while others moved to other regencies to stay with their relatives.
Faculty of Universitas Gadja Mada
The house where the performance is staged belongs to a large family, all of whom went to Gadja Mada University. This event is held by the university, in conjunction with their anniversary, which they are celebrating this week.
Wayang Kancil
The Wayang Kancil performance is set in a dry season. Both the tigers and the elephants face a shortage of water, so they make their way to a source of spring water. However, this water is guarded from the big animals by dogs, because it is only meant for small animals. However, Sri, the goddess of Padi and symbol of prosperity (played by a Wayang Kulit puppet) decides to cast a solar eclipse put a stop to their squabbling – this secret she entrusts to Kancil, the clever mouse deer.
Water negotiations: Large animals debate with Sri and Kancil
Together with Sri, Kancil tells the other animals of the need for each of them to depend on one another, instead of fighting. Sri (the goddess of Padi) needs the animals for fertilizer, the animals need Padi to sustain themselves, and they all need water. The message put across to the audience is the interdependence of the ecosystem and the need to preserve water. I loved watching the animals myself, and the children obviously enjoyed watching and responding to them. The puppets are mostly made from leather and in some cases cardboard, designed by Pak Eddy’s friends with several of them from Pak Ledjar. The Kancil (mouse-deer) Pak Eddy used in his performance was presented to him by Pak Ledjar as a gift – no wonder it looked so familiar. Pak Eddy also mentioned that foreign dhalangs who perform in cities such as London expose audiences to animals that they would not have the chance to see, except in the zoo.
Wayang Kulit - Front View
Wayang Kulit - Back View
I also get a taste of my first Wayang Kulit performance (the dhalang is a professor from the Faculty of Engineering at Universitas Gadja Mada, specializing in electrical engineering). I’m not able to identify all the characters, but the lack of translation doesn’t alienate me from the story because the pace is so strongly established by the music.
The gamelan ensemble in this performance is wicked – their coordination is impeccable, the balungan (main melody) whizzes past your ears like dynamite. The relationship the performers have with one another is very intimate – the dhalang cracks spontaneous jokes that the orchestra laughs at, and the musicians also provide stimulus that inspire the dhalang to improvise.
In these performances, audiences are not forced to sit at one spot for the whole duration of the performance but are allowed to walk around to watch from different angles, and to eat, smoke, mingle, and make as much noise as they want. Same goes with the performers, it seems (the Rebab player has a cigarette pack fitted neatly between the strings and face of his instrument). It’s an intimate and communal performance-ritual for all.
Boyong River (one of the rivers flowing from Merapi) - Filled with volcanic debris
In addition, I managed to find out how these performances function as a form of ‘trauma healing’ in the community. Children from the villages were entertained by the Wayang Kancil folklore stories of ‘history’ (in their words), and it helped them to forget their problems. For an older man I interviewed, watching the relationship between man and the cosmos played out on the screen by the Wayang Kulit shows him the right and wrong way to live, and this guidance helps him to be less afraid of his immediate circumstances. This reflects the ideology of the Javanese people, with their strong belief in the world of spirits, and the need to cooperate with the gods to bring about order and stability within the human realm.
It’s sobering to see how the people here are affected by Merapi – a large proportion (about two-thirds to three-quarters) of the Yogyakarta population are farmers. The pollution of the river by lava and volcanic stones, in addition to the destruction of crops has caused many of them to lose their source of livelihood. The village is currently in the process of restoration.
Ok, that is all for now – till the next time!
Gunugan - leaf-shaped puppet symbolizing the cosmos, representing the beginning and end of everything
Thank you for reading and following my project, it means a lot!
Today I conducted my first interview with Pak Eddy Pursubaryanto, a dhalang and academic who did his masters thesis on the Wayang Kancil. It was a useful conversation – you’ll see more video clips of it in the days to come (I say hopefully)!
Pak Eddy has invited me to watch him perform a Wayang Kancil as a dhalang tomorrow. This show is staged for victims of the Mount Merapi eruption. When he first told me about it he called it a ‘trauma healing’ performance. I’m wondering how far a performance can go in easing psychological damage of such a magnitude – I’ll find out soon enough.
In the next few days, I will be interviewing more puppet makers / performers and academics of the Wayang Kancil / Wayang Kulit. If you have any questions that you’d like me to ask them about puppets / Indo performing arts, or are curious about Indonesia in general, drop me a comment! I’ll see if I can get the answers for you.
Here’s the first video! Detailing departure / arrival, and preview of day 2:
P.s. Bella: “Do you speak English” has been my phrase of the day. Heh.
I’ve included a writeup about the project background and objectives here.
Feel free to check it out if you’d like a better understanding of the aims of my research, its interdisciplinary features, and the significant impact it aspires to have on the community – that is, the public in general, and Central Javanese society in particular, especially Wayang Kancil makers, practitioners, and academics.
wayangkancil 
