New 'wayang' translations reveal the past

New 'wayang' translations reveal the past

JAKARTA (JP): It is admired around the world, yet few are able to fully comprehend the extravagantly beautiful but complicated ways of the Javanese shadow puppet theater, or wayang.

With the recent translation of five volumes of performances into English, the language that is spoken by the largest number of people in the world, the Lontar Foundation has succeeded in bridging the gaping chasm that existed between the ancient art form and its numerous fans for so long.

The volumes are Released From Kala's Grip, a wayang exorcism performance from East Java; Demon Abduction, a wayang ritual drama from West Java; The Birth of Gatotkaca, a Sundanese wayang golek purwa performance from West Java; Gatutkaca on Trial, a new creation in the shadow theater of Central Java, and The Traitor Jobin, a wayang golek performance from Central Java.

In a forward to the performance text series, the editor, Joan Suyenaga, rightly points out that enticing and fascinating as it may be, the wayang has remained fairly inaccessible to all those uninitiated with the specific languages and traditions of that world. For it is not just non-Indonesians who remain outside, but also Indonesians themselves, as Sundanese wayang golek is not understood by the Central Javanese or vice versa, and Balinese wayang kulit by its neighbors in Java.

In having finally put into print the precious text series, the Lontar Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has been relentlessly working for years to foster a greater appreciation of Indonesian literature and the arts, throws open yet another door to this extraordinary entertainment that includes esoteric teachings, ritual observances, social realities and earthy humor. The translations are also valuable in further helping to understand this island's often elusive cultural practices that sway between myth and reality.

The story began more than a thousand years ago when it is thought a puppeteer of peasant heritage sat at the center of a glittering royal court in Central Java to invoke the spirits of gods and mythical heroes, and put on a performance for entertaining and glorifying his king. Born out of a cult to honor the spirit of ancestors, the wayang is said to have started as a religious ritual performed in the dark of the night to worship the creator and to tell inspiring stories about ancestors, some of whom had earned the reputation of a hero. This was done with the aid of a lamp that flickered mysterious shadows all around.

As long as man has reflected upon himself and his place in life and the world around him, he has struggled with the problems of illness, misfortune and death. Most of us spend at least part of our life trying to understand and give meaning to these afflictions in different ways.

One way is to make up myths, repeat the problem, give an explanation of its origin and also show some kind of a path to cope with the misfortune in the form of ritual acts to ward off, expel or prevent the problem from occurring again.

Over centuries the wayang learned to explore the deeper realities behind man's obvious presence on this earth. Today it has expanded into quite a repository of folk wisdom, a mine of musical fantasy, library of poetic imagery, treasury of spiritual teachings that attempt not just to entertain but also to explain the relationship of the natural world with the supernatural. And all the drama involved in doing so is said to thrill the soul so much that members of the audience feel sufficiently inspired at the end of each performance to face all the sorrows and joys awaiting them in their day-to-day life.

Over time, exorcism and cathartic rituals were added to performances, mainly to prevent the effects of evil in overpowering man's existence. It is fascinating to find in the translations that the wayang means different things in different languages to different regions of Java.

In East Java, the folk element of the performance belongs to an older tradition where people seem to expect blessings more readily from images of god rather than wait for the gods to smile upon them from their distant heavenly abodes.

Released from Kala's Grip is the shadow play translated from East Java. It was recorded on the outskirts of Kediri by puppeteer Sarib Purwacarita in 1983 as an exorcism ritual at the end of a marriage celebration to neutralize the young bride's vulnerability to the demon Kala.

This performance is full of magic formulae which the puppeteer repeats to enhance his spiritual strength against harmful spirits. Once the magic formulae were enviously guarded secrets known only to a few privileged people. Today readers can learn it all from books like the recent publication.

The wayang from East Java is more coarse but lively and vigorous, and enjoyed by the masses, unlike in West and Central Java where it is one of the main obsessions of mainly the nobility. In the courtly performances of the Yogyakarta and Surakarta schools, the style is more refined, articulated and close to the Javanese tradition of perfection.

According to Central Javanese lore, the wayang depicts stories in which the gods themselves descend to earth as puppeteer and also as props in order to protect humankind from all evil. The wayang here is a vehicle of the gods, a warning, making the American dalang (puppeteer) Marc Hoffman wonder aloud once to this writer as to why former president Soeharto, who is a great fan of the wayang, learned so little and so late about the turbulent end of his long rule over Indonesia.

The Traitor Jobin is one of a number of Menak tales from the Persian legend of Amir Hamzah, an uncle of the Prophet Muhammad. In this performance, Muslim values are coupled with Javanese notions of power where animistic and Hindu beliefs are assimilated under the idea of Islam accompanied, of course, by plenty of wit and humor.

The clever transformation of the legends of Hamzah from their origins in Persia to their arrival in Java as heroic epics reveal the amazing capacity for wayang stories to attach themselves to any culture as a vehicle for communicating universal values. For the Javanese are not so much preoccupied with where the stories come from, but with the moral lessons inherent in them.

Hence the spirits of ancestors are happily replaced by Hindu gods and later given generous Islamic significance. Here cultural practices prefer to unite in unique communication with life itself, and not just with a particular segment of existence. The most telling lesson that the Lontar Foundation, through its wonderful translations of the wayang, leaves its readers is the inspiration to continue concentrating on the moral and spiritual progress of the soul that knows no other god except goodness.

-- Mehru Jaffer