... as Endo does his best to preserve the art<\/p>\n
BANDUNG (JP): One good source of information about wayang
\ncepak is Endo Suanda, a Bandung resident who helped assemble
\ndocumentation for the Chedi exhibit. For the past two decades,
\nEndo has been dancing back and forth over the line which tends to
\nseparate artist and scholar.<\/p>\n
\"I grew up in the village of Majalengka, about 60 miles from
\nCirebon,\" he says. \"None of my relatives were artists. But my
\ngreat-granduncle had a gamelan and a complete set of Cirebon-
\nstyle shadow puppets that he used to rent out, so I gradually
\nbecame intrigued with these traditions.\"<\/p>\n
\"My first experiences as a performer were as drummer in a
\npuppet show musical group when I was a teenager. Eventually, I
\nstudied dance at the Konservatori Tari arts academy here -- the
\nschool that's now called Sekolah Tinggi Seni Indonesia
\n(Indonesian Institute of Arts). I became especially fascinated
\nwith the mask dances from Cirebon and went back to Cirebon to
\nimmerse myself more completely in those performances. After I
\ngraduated from college, I went to Yogyakarta for an undergraduate
\nprogram. But then I came to see that the only way to really
\nunderstand these traditional arts is to experience them at the
\nvillage level. So I dropped out of the academic program.<\/p>\n
\"I joined a Cirebon troupe that danced and played music
\nregularly in villages. I followed them everywhere for a while,
\nthen formed my own Cirebon-style group that performed in Jakarta,
\nYogyakarta and elsewhere. Eventually, I hooked up with an
\nexperimental theater group in Bali, then went back to school. I
\napplied to Wesleyan University in Connecticut for an
\nethnomusicology program and won a scholarship. After getting my
\nMasters degree there, I taught at Cornell for a year, then toured
\nEurope with the La Mama theater experimental group from New York
\nand finally came back to Indonesia to take a position teaching
\nethnomusicology at the Universitas Sumatera Utara in Medan. After
\nthree years there, I decided to work toward a doctorate in the
\nfield at the University of Washington. I'm finishing up my
\ndissertation now.\"<\/p>\n
Endo says that wayang holds particular fascination for him
\nbecause it also includes so many other cultural elements -- music
\nand puppetry that may touch on such subjects as religious
\nbeliefs, local agricultural practices and politics on both the
\nlocal and international levels.<\/p>\n
\"On the one hand, scholars consider wayang in its purest form
\nto be one of the highly refined court arts. But to me, it's
\ndefinitely a village-based tradition. For example, many of the
\nfunctions that wayang cepak serves in the Cirebon area have
\nnothing at all to do with court life. In the old days, many
\ndalangs (puppeteers) were hired to perform at ceremonies like
\nmarriages and circumcisions. Now, though, the reason for
\narranging a performance is more likely to serve some broader
\ntraditional religious function connected with day-to-day life in
\na village. For instance, a committee of local people might
\narrange a show as part of an exorcism.\"<\/p>\n
\"Believe it or not, there are 33 different circumstances which
\ncall for an exorcism of some sort, to clear the air of evil
\nspirits and influences. If a person is born an only child, that
\nsituation eventually needs to be taken care of. If you're born as
\none in a pair of boys or one in a pair of girls -- or even if
\nyou're half of a pair of boy and girl -- or if a child is born in
\na breech birth or born entangled in the umbilical cord, a sort of
\nexorcism is required, just to be on the safe side. Staging a
\nwayang show is a good way to handle this, to intercede with the
\nspirits who might be hanging around.\"<\/p>\n
\"If there's a newborn child in the village, it might well be
\ncarried to the stage during a performance for a kind of blessing.
\nThe dalang might even be asked to suggest a name for the child.
\nThe stage, you see, is viewed as a place holding great power
\nduring a performance. But after the puppet troupe leaves at the
\nend of an all-night show, the area is regarded as especially
\nempty, with all spirits having temporarily fled from the scene.<\/p>\n
\"There are also shows held in conjunction with the beginning
\nof planting or the approach of the rice harvest or serious
\nillness in the village. Shows are often held in local graveyards,
\ntoo. There are even certain shows performed at road
\nintersections, which are seen as important places spiritually in
\nCirebon, just as they are in Bali. The problem is that as belief
\nin these things diminishes, there are fewer and fewer jobs for
\nthe dalangs who arrange the shows. And for weddings,
\ncircumcisions and holidays, people these days often prefer to see
\nother kinds of shows -- dangdut music, for example. In fact, they
\nmight even just rent a large-screen video set-up instead because
\nit costs less and the logistics are simpler.\"<\/p>\n
Endo says that there a still a couple of wayang troupes that
\nstay very busy, maybe giving as many as 200 performances a year.
\nThere are perhaps five or six dalangs that still play 100 shows
\nannually and maybe another ten who do 40 shows a year. But out of
\nthis total, there might be only twenty or thirty full-scale
\nwayang cepak performances every year. Some dalangs -- Mansyur and
\nBasyari from Gesik, Sudin from Selangit and Anom Rusdi and his
\nbrother Tomo from Indramayu -- use Cirebon-style shadow puppets.<\/p>\n
One of the most popular of the older dalangs carrying on the
\nwayang cepak tradition is Ali Wijaya from Losari. He's now 74
\nyears old and has lost all his teeth -- but he's still very
\nstrong and does maybe two shows a month. Kamarudin, also from
\nLosari, gets lots of work too. In Cirebon, the dalangs most in
\ndemand are probably Marta, Ahmadi and Warsad. If you really want
\nto understand more about this tradition, you should try to visit
\nWarsad in his own village. His two young sons are now carving
\npuppets, too.<\/p>\n
Sad to say, Warsad is about the only carver who's still
\ncreating really good wayang cepak puppets on a continuing basis.
\nOther carvers aren't as productive. They have to wait for special
\norders to come in. In the meantime, they earn their livings by
\nfarming or driving becak (pedicab).<\/p>\n
-- Paul W. Blair<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/as-endo-does-his-best-to-preserve-the-art-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }