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.