Cirebon's 'wayang cepak' tradition still hanging on ...

Cirebon's 'wayang cepak' tradition still hanging on ...

By Paul W. Blair

BANDUNG (JP): For the next four days the lobby of the Chedi
Hotel in Bandung will be even fuller than usual with well over a
hundred intriguing new faces on hand to greet visitors. They
belong to Cirebon-style wayang golek puppets in a remarkable
month-long exhibit which began on Aug. 2 as part of the hotel's
continuing initiative to showcase the traditional arts of
Indonesia.

The main focus on the Chedi Hotel exhibition is a full set of
well-used wayang cepak puppets loaned by the Indramayu dalang
Warsad. They have been stuck into two banana tree trunks much as
they would be during a traditional all-night wayang show. In
conjunction with the exhibit's opening, two abbreviated shows
were staged at the hotel: one featuring Warsad and another the
well-known Cirebon dalang Marta.

Warsad also brought several dozen of his hand-carved puppets
to sell to visitors. His wife made the costumes. Also on display
are some remarkable miniature puppets created for the Chedi event
by Rini Joeda, a Bandung-based designer active in encouraging
local artisans. Although they're too small for a real
performance, each of her puppets is exquisitely carved, painted
and outfitted, then displayed on gold-painted wooden stand. They
will continue to be available at the Chedi's gift shop even after
the current exhibit ends on Sunday evening.

Wayang golek refers to the traditional Indonesian puppet
dramas using three-dimensional stick puppets carved from wood.
Wayang cepak, a sub-division of the genre, may date back as far
as the 15th century. It originates in the Cirebon area and uses
puppets that have flatter, more angular and more highly stylized
faces than those usually seen in Bandung. And, while the wayang
purwa plays from Bandung are based on episodes from the Ramayana
and Mahabharata epics, wayang cepak plays come from the Babad
Cirebon history of nine pious leaders who helped spread Islam
through Java. Some other stories are taken from Panji fairy tales
and other legends well-known along the coast near Cirebon.

Although the stories they tell include a variety of non-
Islamic elements, wayang cepak plays are often held in
conjunction with Moslem holy days. They are also used in Chinese
New Year celebrations in Cirebon temples. Whatever the venue,
these puppet shows have always served as a medium for the
exchange of wisdom, information and gossip as well as pure
entertainment.

Many of the puppet characters in wayang cepak are analogous to
those familiar in the wayang purwa and wayang kulit (shadow
puppet) traditions. The clown named Lamsijan, for example, is the
local incarnation of Cepot, the red-faced rascal who is one of
the most easily recognizable characters in any wayang purwa set.

A full set of Cirebon puppets is likely to contain 90 to 100
puppets in all, just like a complete Bandung set. But almost
every puppet in a wayang purwa set has its own name and identity.
A wayang cepak set contains many more interchangeable characters.
No dalang would ever mix puppets from the two traditions in a
single performance.

Recounted in the program notes published in conjunction with
the Chedi Hotel exhibit is an incident at a recent all-night
wayang cepak show held in Waled Kota village near Cirebon. As a
musical interlude was about to end, a young local resident thrust
a handful of 1,000-rupiah notes into the face of the dalang in
charge of the performance with the request that the puppets'
reappearance be postponed.

"More songs, please!" he urged. "You can have the golek show
later!"

The dalang, still smiling, seemed to understand the situation.
He told his pesinden (singer) to keep the music going for a while
longer. Then she and the music group swung into the popular
Cirebon dangdut number called Nembe Ketemu. The young man and his
friends continued to dance with abandon between the stage and the
guests' seats. As soon as the music stopped and the puppet play
resumed, the dancers disappeared, only to reappear with more
banknotes and more requests for dangdut hits during the next
musical interlude a couple of hours later.

The evening's performance typified the current state of wayang
cepak in Cirebon in many ways. The dalang chose the story Raden
Said Putra Demak and presented the story in Sundanese because
Waled Kota is a Sundanese-speaking village. But when the show
began at 7:00 p.m. in a village clearing, barely 30 villagers
were on hand. And when the performance ended near 3:00 a.m., even
the members of the village committee who'd hired the dalang and
his troupe had gone home. Given this decreased level of interest
and appreciation in local villages, wayang cepak is a tradition
with an uncertain future. The Chedi Hotel exhibit, however,
proves that the wayang cepak heritage is well worth preserving.