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.