Puppet craftsmen turn to farming

Puppet craftsmen turn to farming

By Bambang Trisno

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Tracking down handicrafts around and about
this ancient city, you will arrive in Gendeng village in the
Bantul area, which has been well-known for its wayang or leather
puppet production for years.

Located some 15 kilometers south of the city and three
kilometers further on from the ceramic center of Kasongan, the
village accommodates some 35 wayang puppet craftsmen. Many of
them, however, can no longer maintain their present business due
to the sharp drop in demand they have experienced since 1997,
when the country was hit by economic crisis.

Those that own land have returned to their previous profession
as farmers. While others have become manual laborers or are
working for potters in Kasongan.

"I'm a lucky that my wife runs a business selling staple
foodstuffs. However, it's not so big but we can rely on it," said
Suprih, one of the few surviving wayang craftsmen who is still
manages to employ nine workers at his home.

Other surviving craftsmen include Sagio, one of the most
successful craftsmen in Gendeng, who started the village's puppet
making tradition in 1963. Before the economic crisis, he used to
employ around 20 workers. That number is now down to between five
and seven.

In fact, wayang puppet production in the village is at its
lowest level ever. The prolonged economic and political crisis
has caused a dramatic drop in the numbers of foreign tourists
visiting the country.

Foreign tourists were once the main market for the puppets.
Now, however, orders from art galleries and workshops in Jakarta,
Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Surabaya and Bali have reduced
drastically.

The prices of raw materials makes the business even harder to
maintain. Buffalo leather, the best material for wayang puppets,
used to cost Rp 125,000 a sheet. It now sells for Rp 300,000.
Glue that was once only Rp 12,000 a pot is now Rp 60,000.

"I chose to switch to wooden crafts as I could no longer
afford to buy the raw materials for making wayang puppets,"
former wayang maker Wito Hadiprayitno said.

Wito said that one-and-a-half years ago, and with a starting
capital of Rp 5 million -- about one-third of the capital he
needed to produce wayang puppets -- he began to make wooden
masks, wooden puppets and children's toys known locally as dacon.
Now he employs six people and is managing to pay his bank loan
back smoothly.

"Marketing wooden handicrafts is much easier than marketing
wayang puppets," Wito said, adding to the reasons why he chose
his current line of business. Moreover, the skills needed to do
this job are not very different from the ones needed in the
previous one.

Wito is not the only one. According to him, about one-third of
those who previously produced puppets now make the same
handicrafts as he does.

The history of puppetmaking in Gendeng began in the 1950s,
when a servant from the Yogyakarta Palace named Budhu married a
girl from Gendeng and initiated the art to the village. He chose
to live in the village and began teaching his skills to other
residents, especially younger ones.

One of Budhu's students, Pudjowinoto, was acknowledged as a
prominent wayang puppet maker in Yogyakarta in the 1950s. Pudjo
was at first forbidden by his parents to produce leather puppets,
since they thought that doing so would not bring in enough money
to live. Yet Pudjo's determination proved his parents wrong.
Sagio, the most successful craftsmen in Gendeng today, was one of
Pudjo's students.

The superiority of the puppets made in Gendeng lies in the
finesse of their carving and coloring. The touch of a fine carver
can be seen in the thin section between the puppet's body and the
part that a craftsman leaves. The more skillful the artist, the
thinner that section will be.

Gendeng puppets also undergo an intricate carving process.
Gendeng puppet makers never mass produce their products. By
working a puppet individually the quality of the carving is
guaranteed.

This explains why different craftsmen carve and paint -- both
require specialization. "We rarely find anyone who can do both
the carving and painting," Suratman, a painter at Sagio's
workshop said.

Suratman, who has been working for Sagio since 1994, receives
Rp 100,000 to paint a puppet. He usually earns a monthly wage of
between Rp 150,000 and Rp 250,000 depending on how many orders
there are.

The prices of Gendeng wayang puppets vary, mostly with the
size. A 20-centimeter tall puppet, for example, is sold for about
Rp 75,000. A 60-centimeter tall gunungan (mountain-like figure
symbolizing the universe) is sold for Rp 1.5 million.