Doelkamid carves success out of stone

Doelkamid carves success out of stone

Bambang M
Contributor
Muntilan, Central Java

Doelkamid Jayaprana's elegant stone house stands out among the
houses of sculptors in Prumpung village, Muntilan, in Magelang
regency: Hanging on the walls of his verandah are media clippings
about him and his work.

Inside, a striking photo collection of him with numerous
figures of high rank, from regents to presidents, decorates his
living room. One is a photograph of him presenting a small statue
to President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Doelkamid, 64, is known as a pioneer in the art of stone
sculpting, which has developed into a big business in Muntilan.

"There have been 600 such sculptors in Muntilan and its
surrounding areas since I began the business in 1953," said the
artist.

Prumpung village has, for centuries, been famous for its
stone-based cottage industry, with products ranging from
tombstones to lesung, a mortar for grinding rice. Sculpture began
only in the early 1950s, and one of its early pioneers was
Doelkamid's father, Salim Djayaprawiro.

"I was still in elementary school when I decided to become a
sculptor. My father would encourage me to go and see Borobudur
Temple for inspiration," he recalled.

So he would go to the famed ancient Buddhist temple with his
relatives, Kasrin Indroprayono and Ali Rahmat.

"We used to walk the 13 kilometers to the temple," said
Doelkamid.

He learned how to carve stone from his father and, inspired by
the temple, his first sculpture was a bust of Buddha. Often, he
sculpted frogs -- the animal he loved to catch and keep in a
glass jar.

The piece he considers monumental among his early work is the
bust of General Sudirman, one of Indonesia's military greats; he
still has it now.

As he sharpened his skills, people bought his work and orders
began to come in.

He recalled his neighbors strongly objected to his
unconventional choice of art. "Why should you make statues? Do
you worship statues?" an angry neighbor once attacked him
verbally.

But the criticism failed to discourage Doelkamid.

The most memorable order came in 1960 when he became an arts
and crafts teacher in Yogyakarta: Gen. Gatot Subroto asked for an
entrance gate for his villa in the cool Central Java town of
Ungaran.

"Pak Gatot told me my work was good and encouraged me to go
further," Doelkamid said. He took the encouragement so much to
heart that he quit his job as a teacher and founded a workshop he
called Sandjaya.

In his quest to sharpen his already vast knowledge and skills,
he visited more temples in Central and East Java.

His business boomed after then-president Sukarno ordered a
tombstone for Sunan Kalijaga in Demak, Central Java, in 1965.
Sunan Kalijaga was one of the propagators of Islam on Java.

"I experienced something spiritual when I was doing the
project: I found the stones I had arranged in a mysterious pile
the next morning. So I meditated and asked for Sunan Kalijaga's
permission to carry out the work, and after that, nothing
happened any more," he said. He claimed his hair stood on end
while he was telling this story to The Jakarta Post.

As his business flourished, he recruited craftsmen from among
his neighbors. Many of them later quit and started their own
businesses after they had learned the craft from him, and the
stone sculpture business bloomed throughout Muntilan.

Among his former craftsmen are Warsito, owner of the Kawulo
Jaya workshop and Sisuri, owner of the Selogiri workshop --
thanks to Doelkamid's tutelage, both are now famous sculptors in
their own right.

Doelkamid's sculptures can be found in major cities across
Java, with the entrance gates of 30 towns and cities to his
credit. His other major pieces are the gate to Surabaya's Juanda
Airport, the relief of Gen. Sudirman in Purbalingga, Central
Java, and the gate to Sukarno's cemetery in Blitar, East Java.
The statue of Hindu god Vishnu riding atop a mythical garuda bird
at the residence of former president Soeharto on Jl. Cendana,
Jakarta, is also his work, and his sculptures also decorate
Indonesian embassies around the world.

For Doelkamid, the most difficult pieces to make are Buddha in
meditation and queen Ken Dedes of ancient Singasari, who has
become an icon of beauty.

"Before making the Buddha statue, I will pray in front of a
model statue," said Doelkamid, who believes he is a descendant of
the sculptors and craftsmen who built Borobudur temple.

His dedication to sculpture and his talent have won him a
total of 14 awards, including an award from the Magelang
administration for giving the regency a good image and the
Upakart award that was presented by president Soeharto in 1990
for his dedication to the arts.

"The awards have given credence to the old adage that a good
sculptor enjoys the favor of powerful officials," he said,
looking at the numerous photographs of himself with various
politicians.

In fact, sculpting statues is not all Doelkamid does -- he
also carves replicas of temples. So far, he has made replicas of
10 temples, including the replica of Borobudur at Taman Mini
Indonesia Indah in Jakarta and that of Gedongsongo Temple at Tugu
Rejo, Semarang.

Temple replicas requires the highest level of skill and
expertise for stone sculptors, as it involves the immensely
complicated task of arranging thousands of stones into a perfect,
harmonious structure. Doelkamid meditates at the original temple
before starting on its replica.

"Now, I know that our ancestors who built the temples must
have been brilliant. Just imagine -- they managed to build such
sophisticated structures using only simple tools," he said.

Although fellow sculptors call him empu, an honorific title
meaning "master craftsman", Doelkamid has only just begun -- and
has a master work in the planning: To build a miniature museum at
his home that tells the story of his life.