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