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.