Probing revival of shadow puppet shows

By Darmanto Jatman

SEMARANG (JP): Well-known poet Rendra has noted a new vogue in Jakarta: people are lining up at ticket offices to attend traditional Javanese puppet shows (wayang kulit).

"Many of the them are young and, interestingly, not all of them are Javanese. I wonder, what does this phenomenon mean?" Rendra pondered.

Some attribute the trend simply to improved marketing of the puppet shows, but many others regard it as a genuine cultural change.

Rendra himself takes it as a sign of creativity and an ability to appreciate the culture of other ethnic groups. "The Bataks, the Minangkabaus, the Bugis, and the Ambonese," he said, "are coming to watch the puppet shows. It is a voyage into our past, when people from throughout the archipelago gathered and established our lingua franca: the Malay language."

Another interpretation of the greater interest in Javanese puppet performances is that it is part of a process of secularization. In the past, experts say, the puppet shows were an important part of rituals of Java's indigenous religions.

Those who staged the shows, to celebrate certain events in their lives, were the ones who provided for the puppeteers and their entourages.

Those who came to attend the performances were the believers; they participated in the rituals, which were lead by the puppeteers. Now these rituals are alive once again.

Cultural organizations hold wayang performances, not merely as shows, but more as symbolic ceremonies for reawakening the human conscience.

A spiritual experience takes place, either religious or cultural, as was the case during the downfall of the Majapahit empire and the rise of the Demak kingdom.

Moslem teachers, recognizing the power of certain aspects of Javanese culture, took advantage of the puppet show tradition, which had been imported from Hindu India, and used it to spread their teachings.

It was then that Sunan Kali Jaga laid the foundation for the use of two-dimensional puppet show pictures, which had formerly been three-dimensional. The faces of the characters from the puppet show were also modified so that they no longer resembled human beings.

According to Professor Machfoeld, it was during the dawn of the Islamic era in Indonesia that the puppet show figure Semar was first introduced. Machfoeld says Semar had never appeared before in any of the puppet show stories, whose origins were in India.

His view has been questioned by other experts, who say that the figure of Semar already appears in the Sutasoma story.

What all of this means is that the puppet show was already a part of cultural struggle during the change of power that was caused by a change of religions. As a matter of fact, this had already happened earlier, as Buddhism and Hinduism arrived in Java a couple of centuries prior to the arrival of Islam.

All of these historical facts are the backdrop to the various questions surrounding the strong revival of the puppet shows in Jakarta.

Is it possible that we failed to notice or interpret something when President Soeharto suggested recently that Semar be re- examined? Is it not true that Semar is a unique puppet show figure? He did not come from the country where Arjuna or Krishna came from.

In various traditional puppet show stories, he is depicted as the manifestation of the god Batara Guru, alias Siva Java, the oldest and the highest-ranking god in heaven. He is also a common citizen in a society in which the people are sovereign; where power is not in the hands of nobles.

The growing number of performances of the traditional puppet shows featuring Semar -- which are expected to exceed fifty in Central Java alone this year -- represents a Javanese renaissance, a revival of Javanese culture in the context of the Indonesian spirit.

It represents a response against the torrent of globalization which is sweeping the entire country. It is a redefinition of the term 'indigenous culture', as we swim against the tide of globalization. It falls within the slogan "Becoming self- sufficient economically, becoming independent politically, and having a character culturally."

How should we interpret the explosive growth of traditional puppet shows in Yogyakarta during the past two decades?

Actually, in addition to the various efforts to "Indonesianize" the Javanese puppet show or to translate it into and present it in English, there have been efforts to turn the puppet show performance into a commodity by offering a condensed show of two hours.

"Many of our clientele are not Javanese. Some are Americans, Europeans, Australians and East Asians," said one puppeteer. "That is because the shows have been packaged for tourist consumption and cater for their logic."

If we were to interpret the growing number of puppet show performances in Jakarta as being a result of these new marketing trends, we could conclude that it was nothing new.

If we said it was one of the results of urbanization, industrialization or secularization, it would have no significance.

On the other hand, if it is viewed as a revival of the values of the Javanese nobility, it will at once be seen that it is fairly widespread. Pay a visit to the homes of Javanese nobles, and you will find their favorite puppet show figures displayed in their living rooms. These are the figures with which the Javanese nobles identify.

A colonel puts the puppet show figure Bima in his guest room, Hanoman in his dining room, and Gajah Estitama in another room.

"It is a common practice," says intellectual Fachri Ali. "Even in the directives of the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) leadership almost all the names of the Javanese knights are present: Taqwa, Prasaja, Ing ngarso sung Tuladha . . .". That is why, says Fachri, the ethical code of ABRI is the same as that of the Javanese knights, despite modern technology and organization.

As the growing number of performances of traditional puppet shows in Jakarta a single and independent phenomenon with no cultural connection?

It seems, fifty years after we became independent and almost seventy years after we pledged to have one nation, one language and one motherland, all has not been in vain. Interaction among cultures has resulted in challenges to individual ethnic groups and has resulted in the growth of mutual respect -- far more than the mere fulfillment of tourists' curiosity.

We are witnessing a pleasing blending of the past and the future into the present. Aceh, Java, and Irian Jaya are all present simultaneously. Commercials on TV have collected all the pleasing blends in a highly favorable manner. It is the phenome non of "Now, here, and I am ready!" It represents a mixture of variety: "Unity in Diversity".

If it is true that many young people from different ethnic backgrounds are queuing for tickets to attend puppet show performances, then surely that means that we are witnessing the advent of market pluralism, a phenomenon that will surely defeat the phenomenon of a hegemony of one single ethnic group -- the Javanese -- over Indonesia's other ethnic groups. Hopefully, that is the kind of phenomenon that we are now witnessing.

The writer is a poet and a lecturer at the Diponegoro University, Semarang.