Giving a voice to those who pull the strings

Giving a voice to those who pull the strings

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta

Voices of the Puppet Masters: The Wayang Golek Theater of
Indonesia;
By Mimi Herbert;
The Lontar Foundation Indonesia and University of Hawaii Press,
Honolulu, 2002;
251 pp

For some people, the word wayang alone conjures up the
intriguing atmosphere of a tropical night, with the tones of the
gamelan leading into the mystique of old-time myths and legends.
Lit by an oil lamp, shadows of leather puppets come to life by
the ingenuity of the puppet master.

Witnessing a wayang performance, one may wonder what is real
and what is myth or legend, for are not the gods, the goddesses,
the ogres and the fools that take position in the stories
representing the human character in its manifold manifestations?

Do we ever realize the key position of the dalang (puppet
master) in a wayang play? He is like a god who oversees the
universe of puppets, and cunningly operates them into the figures
they represent. From beginning to end, for more than 10 hours,
the dalang handles the puppets with both hands, imitating the
voices of the different figures they represent. He is the
narrator who is in control of everyone performing, including the
musicians.

Dalang then are people of many virtues, and Herbert selected
them to have their say in a book on just one art form in this
traditional story telling. Wayang golek, which is specific to the
West Java region and dates back to the beginning of the great
mosque in Cirebon (1349), uses three-dimensional wooden puppets.

The puppet masters come from environments where the tradition
of wayang is a living experience. Asep Sunandar Sunarya, whose
virtuoso performances has made him the hero of the art form in
West Java, looks back at his father and grandfather who were
well-known puppet masters.

Otong Rasa, who lives in Cimindi, a town on the western edge
of Bandung, followed in the footsteps of his father; Kamarudin
from Babakn Losari, some 30 kilometers east of Cirebon, comes
from a family where 22 generations were masters. Similarly, Aki
Eyet is from a distinguished family of puppet masters from
Cibiru, a village about 25 miles north of Bandung.

But Endang Subrata was inspired by his great grandmother and
grandmother who were ronggeng and tajuban dancers, while for
Tizar Purbaya, who had been intrigued by wayang golek for a long
time, it was his Swiss wife's suggestion that put him on the path
to "dalangship". Ahim from Ciampea on the outskirts of the city
of Bogor is actually a carver of wayang figures, but had been a
puppeteer in his younger days.

For American Kathy Foley, who had a master's degree in
theater, it was her doctoral thesis on wayang golek that led her
into fascination of the art, so much so that she became a dalang,
and one who innovatively endeavors to move the complex
performance structure of wayang golek into a western context.
Foley tells how she worked with the composer Dan Kelly to create
a wayang based on a Native American story.

She also asked the composer Lou Harrison to create pieces
similar to mood songs or traveling music in the wayang which do
not have to be played in the set order. She said she treated
passages such as in Hamlet's soliloquy "To be or not to be" as a
mood in the way that a set text in old Javanese is treated.

Based on five years intensive research in Indonesia by
Herbert, a sculptor-printmaker, theater activist and a scholar of
Asian art history, the book provides an enthralling entry into
the ways of wayang golek, its place in the world of the wayang in
its manifold manifestations and the cultural rubbings that are
giving rise to new innovative forms without losing any of its
basic, universal content.

In fact, Herbert is like the puppeteer of the book who allows
the authentic voices of the puppet masters to come through in a
text that blends the form of descriptive reporting with their
actual sayings.

Letting each puppeteer tell a specific story of the wayang in
a reader-friendly layout adds to attraction of the book, in which
the 160 full-color photographs heighten the fascination that
makes one wish for more.