Workshop carries the torch for Javanese culture

Workshop carries the torch for Javanese culture

By Muhamad Achadi

YOGYAKARTA (JP): In the sedate Suryodiningratan neighborhood,
a bulwark against outside encroachment on Javanese culture has
been set up.

It is found in a nondescript Javanese-style house on a 4,000-
square-meter plot. The main area of the pendopo -- the front
section of a traditional Javanese home -- is resplendent with
carvings of sun symbols. Its assortment of gamelan instruments,
classic paintings, wooden masks and several wooden sculptures
harks back to the stately homes of Javanese nobles.

Welcome to Padepokan Puser Widya Nusantara, a nonformal
education institute aimed at conserving Javanese culture or, in
popular parlance, the kejawen values. In this padepokan, or
workshop, Prof. R.M. Wisnoe Wardhana is fighting the strong wave
of modernization eroding traditional Javanese cultural values.

"Many Javanese no longer know Javanese culture," said the 66-
year-old professor of Javanese dance at the Yogyakarta teachers'
institute.

"There are few Javanese who can lead a traditional ceremony."

Wisnoe founded the workshop in October 1991 to allow people to
immerse themselves in all things Javanese. "I endeavor to provide
a study of the Javanese culture at its roots, without influences
from any religion."

The 600 students receive in-depth study of reading and writing
Javanese, proper Javanese demeanor, the art of wayang shadow
puppets, batik, the creation and maintenance of sacred objects,
mastery of the special practice of plaiting young coconut leaves
(janur) and ancient Javanese customs.

The courses are thorough; in learning about shadow puppetry,
students study the puppet family tree, tales, philosophy and the
making of the puppets.

Ancient customs cover the simple -- such as the proper ways to
walk and sit -- and the complex, such as mystical guidelines on
preparing offerings and recitation of accompanying mantras.

Course graduates can fill traditional roles in ceremonies, and
simultaneously act as agents for cultural conservation.

The course, consisting of two lessons per week, lasts nine
semesters. Students study the same subjects each semester, but
intensity of courses differs in each period.

In the first semester, students learn basics in theory and
practice of the seven subjects.

They study sacred objects and the method of maintenance as
grounding. In the following semester, they learn the ritual
washing of objects, like the kris dagger, complete with the
mantra.

Students must wait until the final semester to learn how to
make the objects.

But they can consider themselves official students after
completing the second semester. By the third semester, they are
known as cantrik (male students) and mentrik (female students).

The task of teachers ends with completion of the course.

"From then on it is up to the students themselves to increase
their individual capabilities to become pendeta, resi and finally
maharesi," said Wisnoe, identifying the titles of masters
of Javanese traditions who have supernatural powers.

He added that a student must perform Javanese rituals
(nglakoni) to acquire the wahyu divine revelation to become a
master. A student can make a kris but is incapable of imbuing it
with supernatural powers.

All subjects are taught in Javanese and textbooks are written
in Javanese in the Latin alphabet.

Lessons are held on Saturdays from 2 p.m to 9 p.m., and on
Sundays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The majority of students have long
hair rolled into a bun on their heads, and the situation inside
the classroom seems a throwback to the ancient Hindu Mataram
kingdom.

Students are also taught tourism and English. "Culture today
is strongly linked to tourism," Wisnoe said.

Most students are farmers from villages around Yogyakarta and
in other places in Central Java. Many are members of Girinda
Pancasila Mawahyu Buwana, a sociocultural organization founded in
1951 by GBPH Suryodiningrat, Wisnoe's father.

The organization -- with 200,000 members in the Yogyakarta
area and Central Java -- holds spiritual gatherings on specially
designated Fridays. Most recruitment is done through the
organization.

Students, aged between 14 and 60, are mostly farmers and pay
Rp 5,000 for two sessions, including meals. Students from outside
Yogyakarta stay at the house. The majority of students have only
finished elementary school. A few are high school graduates.

"I joined the lessons because they will allow me to get
additional income from the skills obtained here," said Senen, 55.

The bachelor from Klaten, Central Java, can now assist in
Javanese rituals in his village. He knows how to ritually wash
the kris.

Wisnoe said someone skilled in cleansing sacred objects for
ceremonies was paid Rp 100,000, a significant amount for farmers.

But most students are motivated by thoughts of preserving
their culture, not dreams of financial gain.

"The Javanese community seems to have been stripped bare
because many do not know their own culture," said Harjono
Arumbinang, who teaches the intricacies of the kris.

The former director of Yogyakarta's Atomic Energy Agency
nuclear reactor said the younger generation was blind to the
merits of their culture because of a Western educational focus.

"My children, too, know nothing about wayang, and cannot read
or write the Javanese alphabet," Harjono said.