'Wayang' consoles grieving community<\/p>\n
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Kuta, Bali<\/p>\n
The hundreds of people who had flocked to the Kuta Square Arcade
\non that Saturday night could not take their eyes off the giant
\nwhite screen. On the screen, the imposing shadow of Delem, the
\nperennial coward par excellence of Balinese shadow puppet theater
\n(wayang kulit), was busy giving a pep talk to a group of young
\ngiants.<\/p>\n
\"You have got to destroy everything, show no mercy, OK? Kill
\nthe man, slaughter the animals, destroy the village, raze the
\nforest and topple the mountain, OK?\" Delem shouted in his
\nirritatingly cocky voice.<\/p>\n
Soon, the young giants wreaked havoc on the screen. And,
\nimmediately the fictional carnage brought painful memories back
\nto the spectators.<\/p>\n
Just a few weeks before, a suicide bomber had detonated a
\ndeadly bomb in a restaurant in that arcade, killing dozens of
\npeople and inflicting a deep psychological wound on the
\ncommunity.<\/p>\n
\"This performance is aimed at consoling the grieving
\ncommunity, persuading people to cope with the tragedy as a
\nsingle, unified community, and to motivate them to fight the
\nviolence in a healthy, peaceful manner,\" the chief dalang
\n(puppeteer), I Made Sidia, said.<\/p>\n
The performance was sponsored by the Yayasan Kemanusiaan Ibu
\nPertiwi (YKIP), which had carried out extensive post-bombing work
\nto assist the traumatized communities, as well as the Annika
\nLinden Foundation.<\/p>\n
Sidia, a young and brilliant dalang, had prepared a special
\nstory to uplift the spirit of the people. It was aptly titled
\nDasa Nama Kertha (The Ten Names of Peace).<\/p>\n
Modern Wayang<\/p>\n
The Dasa Nama Kertha (DNK) is the modernized version of
\ntraditional Wayang Kulit shadow puppetry, one of the most popular
\nperforming arts in Bali.<\/p>\n
Inspired mostly by Hinduism's great epics, the Mahabharata and
\nRamayana, and, to a lesser degree by the Indian fable of Tantri
\nand the Javanese court stories of Panji, wayang kulit has for
\ncenturies provided the Balinese people with both captivating
\nentertainment and profound moral and philosophical directions.<\/p>\n
The onslaught of modern audiovisual entertainment, however,
\nhas gradually driven wayang kulit to near extinction. It has
\nturned into an outdated art form that is disconnected from the
\nreal, everyday lives of the contemporary Balinese, particularly
\nthe young people of the island's most urbanized areas of Denpasar
\nand Badung.<\/p>\n
For these young people, Hollywood movies and hip-hop music are
\nthe most popular forms of entertainment. An ancient Japanese
\nsamurai played by an obviously American Tom Cruise is the
\nultimate source of morals.<\/p>\n
Several dalang have tried to resuscitate wayang kulit and get
\nit back on the main stage again by imitating best-selling recipes
\nfrom Hollywood along the lines of Basic Instinct and Rambo: more
\nsex and action.<\/p>\n
The recent, growing popularity of Wayang Cenk Blonk and
\nWayang Joblar owe much to the puppeteers daring experiments with
\npolitical critique, sensual allusions, outright social jokes and
\nprolonged fight scenes. The experiments have often gone too far
\nwith the real story buried so deep under heaps of attractive
\nimprovisations that the spectators fail to get the point.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, this sort of improvisation could have dangerous
\nalbeit subtle ramifications. It could turn wayang kulit into the
\nkind of art that glorifies violence and sex.<\/p>\n
DNK is also the result of similar experimentation with
\nelements drawn from modern entertainment. However, Sidia has
\nmanaged to maintain the integrity and clarity of the story and
\nits message.<\/p>\n
The enhancements included a giant screen, the utilization of
\ncomputer-processed digital images and in-focus projector to cast
\nvarious colorful backdrops on the screen, strobe lights and
\nmodern musical instruments.<\/p>\n
Sidia has also created numerous new characters, from an African
\nFlamingo and Sundanese rhinoceros to a present-day Balinese
\nteenage girl with gyrating hips and Western attitudes.<\/p>\n
To cope with the gigantic size of the screen and the larger
\nthan usual wayang characters, Sidia employed six puppeteers for
\nthe performance. These puppeteers sat on a wheeled wooden
\nplatform which enabled them to quickly glide into the corners
\nbehind the screen. These platforms have earned DNK the nickname
\nof Skateboard Wayang from the island's expatriate community.<\/p>\n
Sidia created DNK in 2002 following the brutal terrorist
\nbombings in Kuta that killed at least 202 people, mostly
\nforeigners. He has performed DNK several times in Kuta and other
\nplaces on the island to both calm and comfort the people.<\/p>\n
DNK was inspired by an episode from the ancient palmyra
\nmanuscript of Siwa Tattwa, illustrating the victory of peace over
\nthe brutal violence of the demons.<\/p>\n
\"It was my father that first told me the story. He convinced
\nme that it was the perfect story for that difficult period
\nbecause it teaches people how to overcome hardship and violence
\nwithout succumbing to hatred and desperation,\" Sidia explained.<\/p>\n
His father was I Made Sidja of Bona, an eccentric dalang who
\ncould transform a cigarette butt or a single leaf into a
\nmesmerizing wayang character.<\/p>\n
Rampaging Demons<\/p>\n
The story starts with the anguish of Lord Siwa, who came to
\nearth in frantic search for his long-lost wife, Uma. On earth, he
\nfound that Uma had transformed into Durgha, the terrifying queen
\nof the giants and demons. In frustrated anger, Siwa was
\ntransformed into Kala Rudra, the embodiment of the cosmic force
\nof violent destruction.<\/p>\n
Soon, Kala Rudra and Durgha led their armies of angry giants
\non rampages that set the world on fire -- literally. People were
\nmassacred and kingdoms were destroyed in their meaningless and
\nmotiveless war against humanity.<\/p>\n
Even Arjuna, the most skillful of Pandawa's warriors, could
\nnot stop the wanton carnage.<\/p>\n
\"You cannot fight fire with fire. You cannot fight anger with
\nhatred. By doing so, you only transform yourself from a victim
\ninto a perpetrator, from the killed into the killer,\" Sidia
\nwarned while the whole screen turned bright red with blood and
\nfrustration.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Arjuna sought divine guidance. The four major
\ndeities appeared in the sky, promising the exhausted warrior that
\nthey would fight Kala Rudra themselves.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, Brahma, Wisnu, Iswara and Bayu descended on
\nearth unarmed and in peaceful mood. Brahma appeared as the dancer
\nin the masked Topeng Bang dance, Wisnu as the dancer in the
\nmasked Telek dance, Iswara as the dancer in the Barong dance and
\nBayu as a wayang kulit puppeteer.<\/p>\n
Instead of charging into the giants' restless columns, the
\ndeities performed their arts serenely, evoking the divine spirits
\nthat resided in every sentient being, including in the hearts of
\nthe giants, and in the hearts of Kala Rudra and Durgha<\/p>\n
The Somya<\/p>\n
The sacred Topeng Bang, Telek, Barong and Wayang Kulit are
\nstill performed regularly at every major temple festival in Bali
\nup to the present day.<\/p>\n
This shows that the teachings of Siwa Tattwa on the
\nsuperiority of peace to violence is an integral part of Balinese
\nreligious faith and life.<\/p>\n
\"It also displays the important role that aesthetic beauty
\noccupies in the Balinese Hindu's belief system,\" said Balinese
\nscholar Ketut Sumartha.<\/p>\n
The fact that the Balinese Hindu believes that the universe
\nwas created by Siwa through a dance, known as the Siwanataraja,
\nproves the importance of aesthetic beauty. Moreover, the Balinese
\nalso believe that plagues and disasters can be prevented by
\nperforming those aforementioned sacred dances at certain times of
\nthe year.<\/p>\n
\"This month, for example, is believed to be a period of
\nturmoil in the Balinese traditional calendar. Many communities in
\nGianyar and Klungkung have already organized performances of
\nsacred barong in their respective villages to ward off any
\npotential disasters,\" he said.<\/p>\n
This belief also stems from the teaching of the three main
\npillars of Balinese Hinduism; Satyam (Truth), Siwam (Divinity)
\nand Sundaram (Beauty).<\/p>\n
\"It is the primary guiding principle for a true Balinese. It
\nis not enough that your thoughts, deeds and words be true and
\npure but they must also reflect beautiful,\" he added.<\/p>\n
The emphasis on aesthetic beauty was later manifested in the
\nconcept of Somya, a return to innocence.<\/p>\n
In the DNK, the four deities defeated the demons not by
\nkilling them but by elevating their consciousness, thus, making
\nthem realize their own aesthetic, peaceful inner selves. The
\ndeities had helped the giants to return to their true selves,
\ntheir innocence. That was Somya.<\/p>\n
Toward the end of DNK, the giants, mesmerized by the sacred
\ndances, kneeled in shame before the deities -- tears flowing from
\ntheir eyes as they begged for forgiveness. In the end, they
\nbecame aware of the divine in their hearts.<\/p>\n
\"We are part of a single universe. A destruction of one part
\nwill soon lead to the annihilation of all,\" Sidia said.<\/p>\n
The ten names<\/p>\n
The future of the universe lies in mankind's ability to
\nprevent the destruction of any single part of the ten names of
\npeace. Interestingly, the ten names are not made up of sacred
\nincantations or esoteric texts. Instead, the ten names are the
\nrepresentations every existing being.<\/p>\n
\"Siwa Tattwa states that the ten names are earth, fire, water,
\nwind, plant, animal, fish, bird, human and god,\" Sidia said.<\/p>\n
If mankind failed, he warned, to protect and nurture any of
\nthe ten names then the cosmic order will fall into a state of
\nimbalance and various violent natural or manmade disasters would
\nquickly take place.<\/p>\n
\"We are part of a single universe. The destruction of one part
\nwill soon lead to the annihilation of all,\" Sidia said.<\/p>\n
With these words, he concluded his fabulous performance,
\nsending his dazzled spectators back home with a new realization
\nof the futility of violence, the importance of peace, the
\ninterdependence of every sentient being and the need for Somya.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/wayang-consoles-grieving-community-1447893297",
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