Batuan children create beautiful puppets

Batuan children create beautiful puppets

By I Wayan Juniarta

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): A tiny room in the Puaya hamlet, Batuan
village, 15 kilometers east of Denpasar, where children learn to
make beautiful wayang kulit (leather puppets), was virtually
empty.

Where are the children? There were only six wooden blocks, a
number of small carving tools, numerous half-finished puppets
hanging upside-down from the ceiling and some puppets laying on
the cement floor.

"They went home for lunch and have not yet returned. Well, we
are still in the festive mood of Galungan and Kuningan (two
important celebrations for Balinese Hindu)," explained the bare-
chested and smiling Ketut Daweg at his workshop.

It was 2 p.m., and the scorching sun was almost unbearable.
Yet, the workshop was quite cool. Daweg sat cross-legged on an
old green rug, focused on an unfinished wayang.

"Working with children is full of surprises. You have to be
able to arouse their curiosity, otherwise they lose interest in
their work," Ketut lamented.

For the past three years, Daweg has been meticulously teaching
the village children how to creating elaborate leather puppets, a
skill he inherited from his late father, a noted puppet master.

It all started when a boy knocked on his door and asked him to
teach him to make puppets.

When Daweg agreed, to his surprise, the boy came to his
workshop with some of his pals.

"At that time, I realized that I had found a way to transfer
my skill and knowledge to these children. I didn't want to expect
too much, but I believed that this was also a way to preserve one
of our precious cultural heritages," Daweg said.

Daweg set up his training as an apprenticeship program. He
teaches the needy children and at the same time he encourages
them to work with him.

He pays the children based on their skills and capability.

Daweg emphasized that money was just a way to enhance the
children's enthusiasm, to encourage them to work hard and to
master the art of making puppets.

"A skilled child can earn between Rp 15,000 and Rp 20,000 for
each wayang. It usually takes three days for a child to finish
one wayang," Daweg said.

He said it usually takes about six months to a year for a boy
to master the art of carving wayang. But, each child is
different. He said there was one boy who has been learning and
working with him for more than a year but still could not fully
master the art.

"I have never become angry or reprimanded him. Harsh words
will only discourage children from the puppet-making art," he
said.

Up to now, dozens of children in the village have joined the
program. Most of them are boys, but some girls have also joined,
including Daweg's two oldest daughters.

When the crisis hit Indonesia and the demand for leather
puppet was quite low, with just four to five orders a month,
Daweg was creative enough to teach the children to make
traditional dance costumes, just to keep them busy.

Daweg, 52, was born into a talented family. He recalled that
his father, his grandfather and even his great-grandfather were
respected dalang (traditional shadow puppet masters), and famous
puppetmakers.

"I learned the art of carving wayang when I was 7 or 8 years
old. And I did it because I loved it, not because I was a son of
a famous puppet master," he reminisced.

Yet, he was never interested in becoming a puppet master until
a strange phenomenon happened a few years after the death of his
father. Daweg suddenly found that he could not concentrate on
anything. He lost his motivation and ultimate goals in life.

Not until he studied under the famous dalang, Wayan Narta of
Sukawati, and Bapa Sidja of Bona, and then performed for the
first time at his village's temple that the strange feeling
finally disappeared.

"Sometimes you just cannot fight your own destiny," he
concluded.