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!
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Which explains the sleep that we had to catch up on upon our return…
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:
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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’m leaving in a few hours! Thanks for reading and liking the first note, if you did – it was an encouraging start. 🙂
Also, things are falling into place: thanks to Shawn (Chua :D) I now have a broader range of ideas / materials on performance anthropology to draw from, which really helps because there is limited academic material available on the Wayang Kancil tradition as compared to other forms of Wayang e.g. Wayang Kulit (shadow-puppet theatre), Wayang Wong (dance-theatre) that is written in English. Most papers I’ve come across are written in Bahasa Indo. Which might just mean that this research is breaking new ground! Well, at least it would be exciting if it did eh. I was also very worried because people I had requested for interviews with were taking some time to get back to me, but they all responded last night at about the same time 😀 Thank God for that.
Just so you get an idea of what the Wayang Kancil is, here’s a video of one of the practitioners I am going to be in touch with.
Note: It’s quite a long video, and I suspect it was performed in Europe because you can hear a translator. Camera angle changes at 1:45 from the shadow puppets on the screen to the puppeteer, and watch closely…an elephant comes in at 0:45! 🙂 (the creature in the centre that talks the most is the mouse-deer / kancil).
The practitioner’s name is Ki Ledjar Subroto (the one in the photo, same one I highlighted in the last entry – there are more, but he is the most famous), and he is a puppet maker as well as dhalang (puppeteer). The dhalang is super cool – he gets to coordinate the gamelan orchestra that plays with him (an Indonesian musical ensemble made of metallophones, pots, and gongs, more on that another time!), and tells the story by voicing all the characters all by himself!!! Ah, can’t wait to watch him in action… xD
On a practical note, here are the most important words on my English-Indo phraselist:
ADDRESS
Sir: Pak (// father)
Ma’am: Bu (Ibu // mother)
Aku: I
You: Kamu
GREETINGS / MANNERS
Good morning: Selamat Pagi
Goodbye: Selamat Jalan
How are you: Apa Kabar
Please: Tolong
Sorry: Maaf
Thank you: Terima kasih (Terima kasih banyak – thank you very much)
OTHERS / “STREET CRED”
No: Tidak
Fast: Cepat
How much: Berapa
I want: Saya mau
Toilet: Kamar kecil
What? : Apa
What did you say? : Anda bilang apa?
Any other phrases I should take note of? 🙂
And again, I’m trying to test out how effective Facebook / new media technologies are in marketing / preserving digital art forms, and one yardstick is the number of people who read these updates. So if you read this note, please “like” it!
Next note will be an update from Jogja! See you there! xD
Ok so – I’ve received a grant to do research for a module next semester!
Basically, I submitted a proposal for a project I was interested in doing, and the Department of Southeast Asian Studies at NUS has agreed to supply the funds I requested for to do my research (in this case it’s travel expenses, access to journals etc.).
My research project is about the Wayang Kancil, a genre of Wayang Theatre in Indonesia that performs the folktales of a mouse deer (Kancil) using shadow puppets. It’s a traditional art form, but has been revitalized and reinvented over the years. I’m going to investigate how it’s changed, its relevance to Central Javanese society, how its role has evolved, and how far the art form is sustainable today. I was inspired to do this project when I met the last remaining puppet maker of the Wayang Kancil in Indonesia while on a fieldtrip to Java in July (he’s the one in the picture! I didn’t know he was so famous when I met him, but now I do – and will find out why).
I’ll be using a portion of the fund to travel to Yogyakarta in exactly (one day less than) a week for ten days to do research! Yogyakarta, also known as Jogja, is in central Java, Indonesia. It was badly affected by the eruption of Mount Merapi, so I’m glad that I still get to go…According to some of the people that I’ve been in touch with, there are quite a few Wayang Kulit / Wayang Kancil (various forms of shadow puppet theatre) performances being staged especially right now to entertain the refugees who were affected by the eruption. It would also be good exposure for me to see first-hand how art / theatre can be used in community development.
My friend Silei will be joining me halfway through the trip – hopefully between us we’ll get to do some puppeteering of our own 😀 Or rather, she will learn how to make the puppets and I will figure out how to manipulate them…
As part of the project I’ll be exploring the idea that Wayang Kancil can only be sustained using digital heritage – that is new media platforms such as Youtube, Blogs, on Facebook, Twitter – you know the works (that’s why you’re here, I’m guessing)! The plan is to blog and upload videos regularly about the Wayang Kancil / other types of heritage in Indonesia / Singapore for 4 months (Dec – Apr), and to get people to watch and click on videos.
I’m quite new to this so if you could help me out, it would be great 🙂 If you clicked on this note, please “like” it so I know that you’ve read it – this is just so I can get an indication that people would read my notes / videos if I put more of them up. Also, if you know anyone who is an old hand at this (video blogging / online marketing), do let me know too! It would be really helpful to me 🙂 Terima kasih!
Haha I’m very, very thankful for the grant and to be able to return to Jogja again because so many things cropped up in the process and (i) I wasn’t expecting to get it and (ii) almost couldn’t go for the trip because of the Mount Merapi eruption. I’ve been looking forward to this all sem 😀 😀
wayangkancil 
