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Didactic Wall Panels These panels appear in the in the Special Installation: Warrior Kings and Divine Jesters: Indonesian Puppets from the Mimi and John Herbert Collection, June 5, 2003 — Aug. 31, 2003 in the Hambrecht Gallery. Approved 4 June 2003; if there is any discrepancy, use wall label as final authority. The following panels appear on the walls. Click on the title to hop down to the text.
Warrior Kings and Divine Jesters Unlike in the West, where puppet performances are considered theater for children, on the island of Java in Indonesia, they are considered the highest form of dramatic performance art. While children may enjoy aspects of the show, the performance itself, usually running from evening to dawn, is aimed at an adult audience. The fight scenes and comic interludes provide raucous entertainment, but other parts of the show are serious and contemplative, and are sometimes taken as opportunities for spiritual transformation. Various forms of theater are called wayang, a term deriving from the Javanese word for shadow. In wayang beber, thought to be the oldest form, long rolls with painted scenes are unfurled as a narrator tells the story. Shadow puppet theater (wayang kulit) has been known in Java since at least the tenth century, and it remains a popular form of entertainment, particularly in central Java. Displayed here are rod puppets (wayang golek). They too are still popular, especially in western Java and along the north central coast of the island. While shadow puppets are associated with the court culture of central Java, the rod puppet tradition has closer ties to village culture. Some of the rod puppets in this gallery were made recently by known artists; others are as much as hundreds of years old. As a group, they represent all of the major centers of rod puppet production: western Java (Sunda), north coastal Java, and central Java. The puppets of each of these regions are stylistically unique. On the first platform are examples of the major types of characters. The second platform focuses on the repertoire, and the third on reasons for performances. Occasionally, in order to represent a scene from a particular play, puppets from different regions are displayed together. Characters drawn from the Indian epics are described by their Indian names followed by their names in Indonesian. Warrior Kings and Divine Jesters: Indonesian Puppets from the Herbert Collection, Asian Art Museum was made possible by Bank of America. The puppets in this room all come from the Indonesian island of Java. Indonesia is an archipelago nation made up of more than 17,000 islands, the most famous of which are Java, Bali, and Sumatra. Despite the fact that Indonesia is the fourth most populous country and the largest Islamic country in the world, it is less well known than many of its Asian neighbors. The artistic history of Indonesia is rich and complex, from the stunning ninth century Buddhist monument Borobudur in central Java to the fascinating textile arts of the outer islands. Indonesia is located at a strategic midway point on the trade routes between India and China, and ships have sailed through the Straits of Melaka for two thousand years. From the eighth century, Buddhist and Hindu stone temples were built in Java, indicating the spread of religious ideas and of trade. Inscriptions from the fourteenth century indicate the initial conversion of members of the eastern Javanese court to Islam. Despite the fact that over the next six hundred years most of the archipelago’s inhabitants converted to Islam, stories of Hindu origin have continued to be popular there. The history of puppet theater (wayang) also has deep roots. A Javanese inscription from 907 describes a wayang performance derived from the Indian epic Mahabharata. The rod puppets (wayang golek) displayed here come primarily from three regions: central Java, near the city of Yoygakarta; north coastal Java; and western Java (also known as Sunda). The plays of wayang theater are largely derived from two Indian epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Stories derived from historical works, local legends, and Islamic sources are also performed. The plays have no script; some portions are memorized by the puppet master (dalang), and other parts—especially the dialogue—are improvised. Most often, performances are arranged for transitional moments in the lives of families and communities. Marriages, pregnancies, births, and circumcisions are the most common occasions for the staging of a play. Sometimes a play is performed as part of an exorcism or a ritual cleansing of a village. In western Java, where wayang golek is especially popular, a famous dalang may be commissioned to celebrate the opening or anniversary of a business. The kind of occasion often dictates the choice of play. For a marriage, a play involving a wedding or the wooing of a bride may be used. Stories of heroes’ quests are appropriate for the celebration of a young man’s coming of age. Some stories are considered so powerful that they are reserved for exorcisms. Although every performance is different, most plays are composed of a certain number of set episodes. The performance begins with the placement of the kayon (a large leather “tree-of-life” puppet), followed by the dancing of a servant puppet and then an initial period of singing by the puppet master. During this time the ancestors are evoked and their blessings are requested. Generally, a series of scenes set either in a palace or a battlefield follows; these are interspersed with comic interludes or periods of singing by the female performers. The play ends with the final planting of the kayon in the center of the stage. Performance: The Missing Elements Without the puppet master (dalang), the gamelan (tuned percussion) orchestra, the singers, and the audience itself, the wayang golek puppets shown here can give only a small sense of what a puppet performance would be like. Portions of actual performances can be seen on the video monitor in this gallery. But much is still missing, and the atmosphere is impossible to re-create. Most performances last all night: People come and go; food vendors set up their stalls on the periphery; different people move toward the front to watch different scenes. The air is filled with the smells of smoke, offerings, incense, and the sounds of the dalang’s many voices, the audience’s laughter, and the gamelan’s underlying melodious percussion. At the center of the performance is the dalang. The majority of dalang are male, and most were brought up in families involved in the wayang tradition. The dalang manipulates all the puppets and speaks for all of them, differentiating both their movements and their voices. He also leads the orchestra and performs some of the music. He tells the story from memory, interspersing the narrative with chanting and dialogue. The dalang uses several languages: an archaic form of Javanese for poetic passages, modern Indonesian dialects for much of the dialogue, and colloquial language for the jokes of the jesters. He must be able to tell a riveting story, to sing, to lead philosophical discourses, and to make the audience laugh. And he must do all this sitting cross-legged from evening to dawn. Wayang golek performances are enacted for many reasons: to honor the ancestors and obtain their blessings, to celebrate life’s major events, to entertain, to philosophize, and to joke. A larger purpose can be seen in the words of this song from a wayang performance:
Generally, Indonesian rod puppets (wayang golek) are carved out of light-colored softwoods. A long stick runs through the puppet’s torso, fitting into the base of the head. The arms are composed of two thin sticks articulated at the elbow. The puppeteer (dalang) manipulates the puppet’s gestures using bamboo rods attached to the puppet’s hands. A long skirt, often made of batik fabric, attaches to the puppet’s waist, covering the puppet master’s hand. This skirt may be ornamented with beads, sequins, and tassels. The heads of the puppets are carefully painted with vibrant colors. The puppets fall into several broad categories: refined characters, coarse characters, demons, jesters, and special characters. For many of the major figures from the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, the iconography of the puppets is standardized. For the puppet theater of northern Java, in which indigenous stories are more common, one puppet is sometimes used to represent several characters. While at first glance many of the puppets seem alike, a person familiar with the tradition can determine the identity of a puppet by examining the color of the face, the angle of the head, the slant of the eyes, the size of the nose, and the type of headdress. In western Java the faces are more stylized and the headdresses more elaborate than in northern Java, where puppets tend to have flat headdresses. Years ago, puppeteers always carved their own puppets, but today many commission sets from master carvers. Wayang Golek: Performing Arts of Sunda; VHS, 23 minutes; Open University, 1999 This video introduces the Indonesian tradition of rod puppet theater (wayang golek), focusing on puppeteer, musician, and puppet maker Atik Rasta and his family. It features footage from an all-night performance as well as interviews with the artists. The video will automatically rewind and replay. If you believe the equipment is malfunctioning, please notify the security officer in the gallery or one of the volunteers at the Information Desk on the ground floor. A second segment to this film (not shown in the gallery) examines the music of the gamelan (tuned percussion) ensemble that accompanies puppet theater performances. Both segments can be viewed in the Resource Center on the ground floor from 12:30 PM to 4:30 PM. (This video is available for purchase directly from the distributor; for more information, please inquire at the Information Desk.) |