Indonesian shadow puppets struggle for encore

Indonesian shadow puppets struggle for encore

Dean Yates, Reuters, Kaliwinonglor, Indonesia

Timbul Hadiprayitno sits behind a white cotton screen,
manipulating the limbs of an array of leather puppets and
altering his voice to match the characters playing out a
centuries-old story.

With lungs that belie his waif-like size, Hadiprayitno chants
in ancient Javanese as cigarette smoke drifts over rows of
mesmerised faces in a village in the heart of Java, Indonesia's
main island and cultural centre.

Throw in Hadiprayitno's 22-member gamelan orchestra of brass
instruments and a bright lamp and you have Javanese shadow
puppetry, or wayang kulit, at its purest and most elaborate.

Unfortunately for the famed puppet master, most of the faces
on the other side of the wide screen watching the shadows act out
tales of war and betrayal are old and wizened.

Hadiprayitno, 70, is fighting a losing battle to win young
fans and keep alive the ancient tradition, one often used as a
metaphor to describe the byzantine and frequently opaque world of
Indonesian politics.

The threat to the puppets is not the strengthening of Islamic
practises in the world's most populous Muslim country, but rather
from MTV and other television.

While that might be expected in urban areas, the intrusion of
new ways is just as strong in villages such as Kaliwinonglor, an
hour from Yogyakarta city, an ancient royal capital.

"Wayang is out of fashion, it's boring and I don't understand
the old Javanese language. It makes me sleepy," said Ramino, 25,
as haunting, high-pitched tones from one of Hadiprayitno's four
female vocalists echoed over the tin roofs of the village.

Outside a flash new shopping mall in Yogyakarta city, plenty
agree.

"I think we should preserve our traditional culture but wayang
for the young generation is not interesting. It's less attractive
compared with modern culture," said Zaenul Falah, a 21-year-old
university dropout.

Wayang was first practised in Java more than 1,000 years ago.
The two-dimensional puppets made from buffalo hide and sticks are
a mix of the warrior, the grotesque and the comic, representing
characters drawn from ancient Hindu traditions that held sway on
Java before the arrival of Islam.

Pure wayang sometimes uses sub-plots that touch on
contemporary events, although most focus on old stories and use a
language that is totally inaccessible to many young Indonesians.

Shadow play has long been a metaphor for Indonesian politics.

Wayang was used in a popular 1983 movie, The Year of Living
Dangerously starring Mel Gibson, to illustrate the confusion and
struggle for power behind the scenes in the mid-1960s during
turmoil that led to the downfall of founding President Sukarno.

The man who eased Sukarno out of power, Soeharto, was often
likened to a wayang master because of his skill in playing rivals
off against each other. That expertise deserted Soeharto three
decades later when Indonesia's economy crashed and students hit
the streets, forcing the former general to quit in 1998.

Hadiprayitno grew up in a family in which puppeting goes back
generations but he is unsure how long it will last, even though
he has 14 children, from three wives, and 24 grandchildren.

Ever chirpy and sporting an impish grin despite the sadness he
feels at the decline in classical wayang, Hadiprayitno and other
experts said wayang had changed in the past 20 years, drifting
toward entertainment produced for mass TV audiences.

"We do live in a modern world...so I urged my children to go
to school, to learn. One is a lecturer, although he can still
perform wayang," said Hadiprayitno, a puppet master for 50 years.

"The difference is, nowadays, wayang is only seen by the eyes.
Wayang in the old days was felt in the heart."

Despite the growing cultural assertiveness of Muslim practises
in Indonesia, from increased mosque attendence to more
conservative dress, few see that posing a threat to wayang.

Indeed, wayang was vital to spreading Islam when Arab traders
arrived in Indonesia centuries ago.

"When Islam came to Indonesia, wayang already existed and it
was used as a tool to explain Islam, by using native culture to
conceptualise Islam which Javanese would easily comprehend," says
Seno Gumira Adjidarma, an expert on Javanese culture, in Jakarta.

Adjidarma disagrees with those who say interest in wayang has
dived, pointing out that performances were now shown on
television.

"The problem is perhaps the quality, which I think is really
declining. Wayang now is just entertainment," he said.
PUPPETS AND ROCK BANDS

Didi Yulianto, an executive producer of a weekly wayang
programme for Indosiar television station, said he showed
classical masters such as Hadiprayitno performing, but he also
needed to meet the demands of younger audiences.

This meant modernising shows for an Indosiar programme called
"Spectacular Wayang", adding rock bands and female singers who
belt out pop music known as dangdut.

"Younger people, such as teenagers, prefer 'Spectacular
Wayang' because they want to see rock bands and dangdut singers,"
said Yulianto, whose show appears three times a month.

At Hadiprayitno's home, the master gazes lovingly at a few
puppets he wants to give some air, swirling them around the room.
His has more than 600 puppets, some 200 years old.

His performance at Kaliwinonglor village is also breathtaking,
even if the language is incomprehensible.

Wearing a purple and black batik shirt and chocolate coloured
sarong, and with a Javanese kris, or dagger, tucked into a sash
behind his back, Hadiprayitno jerks the limbs of puppets in front
of him. The lamp above his head brings their shadows to life on
the other side of the white screen.

Constantly refilling his reed-like frame with gulps of air,
Hadiprayitno nods his head from side to side each time he changes
voice or tones to match the puppet characters.

Shows generally last a whole night, finishing before dawn, and
Hadiprayitno still performs 20 times a month.

"I used to do it every night. The voice is good but the body
is not so strong," he says, roaring with laughter.

(With additional reporting by Karima Anjani in Jakarta)