Everlasting art, entertaining while teaching the wisdom of life.
The Ministry of People Welfare Coordinator a.k.a Menko Kesra in Medan Merdeka Barat Street of Jakarta, held an important event on early February 2010. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Marty Natalegawa was there. The Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik and host Agung Laksono, the Minister of People Welfare Coordinator were also there. “My gratitude to all parties that contributed in our success of gaining Unesco’s acclamation,” Agung Laksono said in his opening speech.
The phrase put relieve to Indonesia’a minds. When Indonesia and Malaysia continuously quarrel on claims of art and culture, Unesco (United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural) put an end to it by issuing the certificate for intangible cultural point which is Indonesian cultural heritage. Aside from wayang (pupper shadow), batik and keris also received similar acclamation.
Beforehand, on 7 November 2003, Unesco already gave out legitimate acclamation that wayang is an excellent cultural product in the field of worldly narration and heritage originated from Indonesia.
The certificate was granted by Unesco to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Marty Natalegawa, to be handed over to Agung Laksono, and lastly to be held by Jero Wacik. Agung Laksono said that it has become a challenge for Indonesia, for the cultural heritage needs to be continuously preserved.
“The granting of certificate from Unesco is an approval from global society that wayang is cultural heritage of the entire world. That is why we need to keep on maintaining it,” Agung Laksono proclaimed.
This Indonesian art heritage is very close to the people. Not only on rural areas, but urban societies also enjoy the performance. This art goes with the era. It used to serve as entertainment with heroic stories of figures, tales of empires. The progress goes so rapidly amongst the society. For every era there is a change in plot, from the tale of overcoming colonialism that seeds the spirit of patriotism to now evolving into entertainment that brings laughter with anecdotes filled with social criticism. This is one of Indonesia’s artistic prides and the one that stands out from other cultural products. It is not easy to perform the art, because aside from having the skill of acting art, in it lie the elements of vocal art, music, narrative skill, literature, craft art, and also symbolic art.
The term wayang is a derivative of the word “wewayangan” which means shadow. The term was applied because in each performance, the art product relies more on the shadow seen on the spanned piece of white cloth that serve as the media for spectators. The person who plays the wayang is called dalang; the figure who controls the plot. To make the story seems more realistic, music is added, such as; gamelan, traditional flute, and other traditional musical instruments.
According to the experts on Indonesian cultural history, wayang is the native Javanese community culture. This culture has been around even before the hindu era. The art form was once considered as a culture that came from India, for the stories often took on the tales of Ramayana and Mahabharata. However the tales then become one into the tales of the ancestors with added figures such as Semar, Gareng, Petruk, and others.
There are many versions on the origins of wayang. Some say it is from East Java, some also thinks it is from India. However, the first opinion is much more acclaimed by Indonesian and also foreign researchers. This is proven by several artifacts that was made during that era, that mention the words of “mawayang” and “aringgit” which means wayang performance.
GAJ Hazeu, a linguist expert from Holland that researched wayang revealed that wayang art is a Javanese cultural product. Books on wayang, since the 19th century have agreed that wayang really is the art and culture of Javanese society. And this culture has been around since the years 976 – 1012 on the time of Prabu Airlangga’s empire in East Java. The stories those are also done with high literacy, had been written by Indonesia’s poets since the 10th century. For instance, the script of Kakawin with ancient Javanese language on the regiment of King Dyah Belitung.
The progress of wayang is so rapid that it spreads over the entire island of Java. Each region has their own unique versions as the identity of their customs. The oldest wayang is the leather shaow puppet. The progress and influence is concentrated on Java Island. The leather wayang is played by a dalang that controls the wayang; and also does the entire inter-wayang character dialogues he plays. The leather wayang is accompanied by the gamelan music played by a group of nayaga. While the song is sung by a vocalist called sinen. The dalang plays the wayang behind a white screen shone by electrical or oil lamp. The spectators view from the other side of the screen, watching shadows.
At the beginning, leather wayang often times take on the tale of Mahabharata and Ramayana. Afterwards it evolved by having different characters based on the legends of gods.
The story plot of leather wayang changes with the era. What is found now is the characters of gods with plots that is directing more to human wisdom, and at times tells social criticism to the leaders who are now no longer hospitable to their people. Aside from leather wayang, other wayang art form is the golek wayang, one wayang art form made of wooen puppet and is highly popular amongst the Sundanese community in West Java. This art form is a kind of tradition that is still upheld until now. Different from other wayang, the golek is an imitation of human-like puppets made of torak wood as the media of theatre performance.
The golek wayang art form has been around since the time of Padjajaran kingdom. It was then developed for the spread of Islam in the region of Cirebon, West Java, in the 16th century during the golden era of Sunan Gunung Jati. At that time, the local community knew it as the golek papak or cepak wayang. It was then evolved more to the Mahabharata tales that is more familiar with the name Golek Purwa wayang.
The existence of golek wayang is very much inspired by the leather wayang art form. The idea of transformation from leather material to wood with more human-like shape with clothes and colors; was pioneered by an official from the District Office of Bandung. This finally spreads across the entire Sundanese region such as Karawang, Indramayu, Ciamis, and others.
There are three kinds of golek wayang. First is the golek cepak. This wayang is famous in Ciebon that usually performs legends using local language. Second is the golek purwa that specialize only on Mahabharata and Ramayana tales by using Sundanese language. The last is golek modern that has the same tales as the golek purwa, but uses electricity for the performance trick sets. What has become the appeal of golek wayang is the shape that is made in accordance to the will of the maker for one story. The maker of golek wayang creates more on colors and building the wayang’s characters.
Moreover with the role support of a vocalist (sinden) that is equipped with songs. The sinded role is even prioritized as the story support. The role of golek wayang nowadays is more dominant as a folk performance art, functioning relevantly for the society as the facility to self approach, be it for spiritual and or material means. At religious or community celebrations, golek wayang is still performed as the attached and necessary art form. This goes for the events of family ceremonies, weddings, and other celebrations.
Another wayang art form is the human wayang. In Javanese language, this form has a term of wayang wong. The performance uses people as the characters in the tale. This wayang is no different from the leather and golek wayang. However, human wayang requires no dalang, but music and sinden are still significant as the backup. This art form has been around since the 18th century in Surakarta of Central Java. At the beginning, it is a Javanese traditional art that was only performed amongst royalty. The players of human wayang put on costumes those are decorated similar to the leather and golek wayang. On their faces, make up of decorative or paintings are often also used. To date, this art form is frequently performed as entertainment.
On costume, the human wayang has a strict standard. This is due to the fact that costume is a symbolic meaning that is related to the body figure and character behavior those are highly important in each tale. The most required musical instrument is the wayang gamelan is a brass percussion called gender. The music changes along with the story.
Ki Dalang uses the wooden baton (cempala) and a big wooden box that is commonly used as the compartment to store all wayang characters. The said instruments are used to give cues to the gamelan players on which kind of music to play. Wayang has evolved into a cultural expression that is authentic to Indonesia. Asia from Java, wayang has also expanded into other regions in the country, such as Bali, Kalimantan, Sumatra, and Lombok. It seems that wayang refuses to fade away with time.
i like the pisture!
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