Indonesia
 26. Mahakala, monster, son of Shiva, transformed into a protective god. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID225) |
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 27. Ganesh, the elephant headed god, invoked at the beginning of performances. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID516) |
 28. Garuda, the fabulous bird who attempts to save Sita but ends up slain by Ravana. Indonesia, Java. (Early 20th century. 2.1 ID177) |
 29. The clown Petruk (19th century. 2.1 ID169) sons of the clown Semar (20th century. 2.1 ID23). Indonesia, Java. |
 30. Narada, messenger and counsellor to the gods. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID501) |
 31. Yama. god of death. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID486) |
Shadow theatre, here called wayang Kulit, is believed to have first appeared in Indonesia under King Airlangga (1010-1049), who established his capital in Kedira (East Java) and re-established the unity of Java before then dividing the kingdom between his two sons. However, legend maintains a completely different source: the god Shiva received a premonition that his spouse Parvati (Umaya, in Javanese) would be unfaithful to him. One day, he falls sick and only milk can save him Parvati sets off in search of a cow breeder. However, he tells her that he will only give her milk if she agrees to make love with him and that if she does not her husband will die.
Following a great discussion, Parvati accepts but only on the condition that he only approaches her as far as her thighs. At this time, the cow breeder takes on his true form: non other than the god Shiva himself and who had organized the entire proceedings in order to put his wife’s loyalty to the test. Having become furious at her infidelity, he transforms into Kali, the bloodthirsty goddess of destruction. His sperm, which had fallen to the earth, transforms into a cradle of fire and generating the birth of Kala, a monster having been born only to a father and without any mother. Kala struts the earth devouring humans. One day, he wants to catch a child but this seeks refuge at the feet of a shadow theatre puppeteer, a sacred place where the child was protected. The puppeteer challenges Kala to respond to a very simple question and adding that he shall not be able to devour any more humans should he not know the answer. Kala accepts the challenge and the puppeteer asks the following: 《why do you devour human?》. Kala remains mute and the shadow theatre puppeteer then tells him as to the reason for his birth; and thus as Kala grasps the origins of his monstrous desires, he gains release from them. The puppeteer then assumes his own true form and revealing himself as the god Vishnu, who had created shadow theatre for this very same occasion.
Raiser, a Dutch researcher, thought that shadow theatre had originated in Indonesia and stemmed from practices related to the worship of ancestors. In the 《Great Homes》, in which the skulls of the dead were preserved and only adult males had the right to enter, a shaman would evoke the spirits of the ancestors and the divinities. There then came the idea to replace one of the walls with a cloth so that women, standing outside, might explain why, and up until recent times, women would be sat in front of the screen and witnessing the shadow performance while the men were behind the screen with the puppeteer, viewing the leather figures themselves. It was probably only much later, under the influence of India, that the technique to this ritual got restored for the purpose of performing the great Indian epics conveying the myths of Hinduism. Clearly, this is a theory that is not susceptible to proof. However, the idea of Raiser, even while he had allowed himself to be convinced by a single possibility out of many others, did stem from the impact that researcher experienced out of contacts with the sacred nature of Indonesian shadow theatre.
A ritual of exorcism consisting of performing, through the medium of shadow theatre, the story set out above on the conversion of Mahakala, also known as Murkwala, and the Birth of Kala and how this dangerous divinity that would devour the children of human got transformed into a benevolent protector. This performance is entirely ritual in nature; it happens by day and without any public; the shadow puppeteer (the dalang) effectively plays the role of a priest; the figure of Mahakala is the only one in the performance that appears face on and not in profile in order to highlight his particular and sacred character. This representation is specifically invoked to dispel any malevolent spirits and to cure the diseases supposed to originate due to the aforementioned spirits.
In Bali, celebrations of temple festivals or during cremations are occasions for shadow theatre puppets but without any screen and during which holy water is consecrated that is then dispersed over the faithful and thereby providing them with protection. At the end of cremation, there is also a performance without either a screen or an audience depicting the descent of Bima Parwa, a piece that correspondingly holds an entirely religious sense of meaning.
In this theatrical genre, the main characters are Indian heroes or the incarnation of Indian gods even while some, such as Arjuna, are attributed Javanese origins. The clowns serve to portray the Indonesian people; and there is a point in all performances when they pop up to fortunately guide the heroes on their way. The father of the clowns, Semar, is also a god and a figure that holds a sacred dimension. Originally, he would very probably have been the god protecting all of the earth in accordance with a Hindu influence, via Ismaya,
considered a brother of Shiva. There are various myths about Semar with the most common being how Tunggal, the Supreme God, equivalent to the Hindu Brahman, had three sons born of the same egg: Betara Guru (Shiva), born of the yolk, becomes god of the sky; Antaga, born of the shell becomes god of the spirits and the demons; and Ismaya, born of the egg white, god of the earth. For reason that vary between the respective different versions, Ismaya and Antaga get condemned to human existences in grotesque forms; Ismaya is transformed into Semar, a clown adviser perceived as on the side of the good in these representations whilst his brother Antaga gets transformed into Togog, a clown adviser on the side of evil. As Semar feels so very lonely on earth, his shadow gives birth to another clown, Bagong; before having two sons, Petruk and Gareng, who assist him in his endeavors.
As happens with Semar, the figures of Krishna, the incarnation of the god Vishnu, and Betara Guru are still considered by many puppeteers with all the same respect that Christians show to a crucifix or an image of a saint.
Still today, even following the importance attained by Islam and its respective prohibitions and following the arrival of the still more destructive Western style of modernisation, Indonesian shadow theatre retains a religious function. Generally, it is held that shadow theatre is banned in Muslim countries on the grounds that representing man enters into competition with god; but would the real reason rather not be because this artistic form is inseparable from the religion that originated it? The proof stems from the fact that modern theatre, entirely secular in nature, has not come in for any prohibition. Muslims, who swiftly grasped the religious facet to this theatrical genre, sought to ban it because its origins lay in religions different to their own and from which it proved impossible to separate.
When tolerated, as in Turkey, they are allowed to be performed but within the framework of humoristic parody and without any connection to religion. However, in Java, where shadow theatre and the beliefs conveyed were confronted by the Islamic ban in the 16th century, the original cultural background proved too strong with shadow theatre proving overly popular and hence it was not possible to establish such a compromise. The figure were stylized to become somewhat less realistic even while their ancient forms have survived in Bali, where those fleeing Islam took refuge and the inhabitants continue to practice Hinduism. The supreme god was
 32. Betara guru, name of the god Shiva in Indonesia. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID535) |
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 33. Vishnu murti, the god Vishnu in his terrifying form. Indonesia, Bali. (20th century. 2.1 ID356) |
never again portrayed apart from in Bali, where they call him Tunggal. This was not incompatible with Hinduism as this Brahman, as the Supreme Being, holds no form and hence simply not susceptible to representation. As regards the gods, they became the descendants of Adam and Eve and were accepted as spirits given that Islam already contained genies, angels and demons. Everything became possible with even the story about how Yudhistira, the eldest of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata, incarnated as a Javanese king so that the Muslim saint Sunan Kalijaga, founder of the Demak mosque, explained to him that it was a sacred Hindu text before the saint then revealed that, in truth, the story was a corruption of a sacred Islamic text. The repertoire also ended up serving the new faith: a series of pieces was created about the adventures of Amir Hamzah, the Prophet’s uncle (a series entitled the Menak Cycle). All that was needed was a greater emphasis on the stylisation of the characters, disguising their overly realistic features in order to ensure the Mullahs eased up on their opposition to shadow theatre. This style was performed in the courts of sultans and remained common to popular celebration whether for weddings, circumcisions, the seventh month of pregnancy, the 40th day after somebody’s death and even as an exorcism rite or when commemorating the opening of a new store.
 34.Laksmana (20th century. 2.1 ID6) and his brother Rama (20th century. 2.1ID115) in front of Sita, wife of Rama (19th century. 2.1 ID273). Indonesia, Java. |  35. Witch (20th century. 2.1 ID120) and Krishna (20th century. 2.1 ID96). Indenesia, Java. |  36. Srikanti, wife of Arjuna (20th century. 2.1 ID295). Arjuna, oe of the five Pandava brothers (19th century. 2.1 ID1). Indenesia, Java. |
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 37. Laksamana (19th century. 2.1 ID191), Rama (20th century. 2.1ID339) and Sita (20th century. 2.1 ID337). Indonesia, Bali. |  38. Yudhistira (20th century. 2.1 ID40), the eldest of the five Pandava brothers. Drona (20th century. 2.1 ID53) master of the Koravas and the Pandavas during their youth and fighting on the Korava side in the final battle. Indonesia, Java. |  39. The King of Naga, serpent guardians of subterranean treasures. Indoneisa, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID 223) |
In order to best understand Indonesian shadow theatre, we need to recall how the religious beliefs involved form successive different levels in accordance with the arrival of different religion. In addition to the mythological base, which may be classified as animist and in which nature represents an essential dimension with the earth god, Dewi Sri, playing an important role, there came Hinduism, which arrived in Java in the 4th century and became preponderant as from the 8th century, followed by Buddhism and then Islam that swept to dominance in Java in the 16th century, while Bali remained Hindu and before finally Christianity arrived in conjunction with westerners. All these religions had their own respective influence on shadow theatre. The majority of the gods featuring are of Hindu origin with the most important Being Shiva, called locally Betara Guru. Buddhism instilled the notion of the power of meditation and the ideal of merging a person with a supreme entity. Islam brought to Java an evolution in both the style of the puppets and in the content of certain plays. Furthermore, without the missionaries, there would be no shadow theatre plays depicting stories from the Bible in the same way that without the Chinese traders there would be no stories featuring animals as this genre was created by the Chinese writer Bah Bo-liem in 1920.
Wayang Kulit, above all, belongs to the performing arts. This theatrical type contains songs with musical accompaniment that involves an orchestra (gamelan) and a codified body language with different movements in accordance with the respective characters. The format also extends into the visual arts given that some of the bovine leather figures are authentic art.
In Java, the figures are made from buffalo skin and held up by animal horns. The faces are presented in profile with the exception of Kala, who appears face on. Only the arms contain joints. Extended narrow eyes and long noses depict refined characters whilst their violent counterparts get round eyes, big noses and semi-open mouths. The colour of the face varies: black represents a tranquil strength, gold conveys a noble character whilst red means violence and white purity. The inclination of the head and the distance between the legs also differs in accordance with the respective character’s personality. The hairstyles display tiaras and turbans; with the hair either bound up in a bun or lifted to form a shrimp’s tail shape or still furthermore, for younger characters, falling loose over the shoulders. The hair may also be tied with an accessory that depicts Garuda, the mythical bird. The clothing is in the customary Javanese style: a sarong around the waste with a naked at the arms in order to cover the breasts. The men frequently carry a kris (a traditional Indonesian dagger) affixed at the waste. In order to distinguish between the gods theses normally wear trousers, a scarf and a long cloak as well as shoes. The majority of characters wear jewellery: necklaces, earrings and bracelets on their arms, their wrists and their ankles. The kings wear crowns and a type of jacket that form wings at the back.
 40. Horse. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID220) |
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 41. Elephant. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID467) |
 42. Giant. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID36) |
 43. Duryodana, the eldest of the one hundred Korava brothers. Indonesia, Java. (19th century. 2.1 ID246) |
 44. Ravana, the ten-headed king of Langka. Indonesia, Java. (19th century. 2.1 ID246) |
 45. Bima, one of the five Pandava brothers. His nail is a magic weapon that was given him by a god. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID50) |
Each figure represents but a single character in accordance with the unique attributes connected to both the personality and the episodes making up their respective life. For example, Bima has to have a very round face and a thick nose in order to convey his violent nature alongside a long nail on his thumb, a powerful weapon given him by a god. Semar has to have an enormous belly and even bigger buttocks. However, the same puppet may be used for Krishna and Rama as both not only display the same characteristics but are also incarnations of the god Vishnu. As regards the secondary characters, each figure corresponds to a social type and, therefore, may serve to represent any character falling within the scope of the respective category. Furthermore, there is also the need to distinguish between the armies made up of court nobility that are extremely refined and even finished with gold leafing and the people’s armies, far simpler but very often with greater impact and strength and reflecting the very social charms of popular art.
Despite characteristics being shared nationwide, each region has its own particular style and recognisable in certain feature and especially nuances in the colour scheme deployed. For those with practice, it is easy to swiftly identify a figure originally produced in Surakarta, Cirebon or Banyumas. As for the case of figures from Bali, where the population remained Hindu, they are immediately recognisable as they are smaller and more realistic in their portrayal as it were and the rod that holds them up goes vertically rather than along the puppet’s border as in Java.
As similarly happens in the case of religious art or popular art, this art form does not display an overall aesthetic objective, as in the case of painting: there is a function and that is to serve as part of a performance. Even while certain producers have gained a personal reputation among figure collectors that is an exclusively aesthetic function, the majority of puppets are of normally anonymous origins: motivations over their aesthetic quality derive from the degree of respect for the characters portrayed and resulting from a job well-done, characteristics shared by many artisans around the world.
These figures shared the same destiny as western religious art: in the same way the sculptures were, above all else, representations of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary, they ended up becoming works of art with a place in museums. These leather figures once were, above all else, Semar or Krishna, and are today pieces for collectors given that both amateurs and professionals swiftly grasped their original aesthetic value.
One particular Indonesian shadow theatre figure called 《Tree of life》(kayon) or the 《Sacred mountain》(gunungan) in Java, takes the shape of a tree leaf while shaped in Bali in an oblong form and representing only a vegetal scene. In java, the upper section contains a tree on whose branches we may see birds, a tiger, a buffalo and monkeys with the centre sometimes featuring the face of Kala, in depiction of the violence of nature. In the lower section, there is the entranceway to a palace that conveys the human world or a water bowl with fish, to show that without water there is no life, with monsters making an appearance on either flank, a type of guardian holding off the subterranean world. The kayon in the middle of the screen indicates the beginning or the end of a piece as well as changes in the locations where the story is taking place. The puppeteer turns the piece through a series of dancelike moves in order to indicate the beginning of the performance and the symbol is also agitated across the screen to represent wind, water and fire. Hence, these pieces very commonly have flames painted on the reverse side unless the puppeteer has a kayon specifically for fire. When not in usage, the kayon is left lying down next to the screen on the right up until midnight when it then moves to the left side.
 46. Giant. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID514) |  47. The clown Bagong, created by Semar from his own shadow. Indonesia, Java. (19th century. 2.1 ID146) |  48. Dursasana, second of the one hundred Korava brothers. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID8) |
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 49. Sugriva, king of the monkeys. Indonesia, Java. (19th century. 2.1 ID260) |
Puppeteers, also called dalang, need not only to be excellent in handling the figures, taking them out and skillfully replacing them in the banana wood trunk at the base of the screen, but must also be, and above all else, a teller of stories able to switch between different voices in accordance with the respective characters. They need to know all of the plays written in verse and Kawi, the ancient Javanese language whilst also able to improvise and especially whenever the clowns take the stage. They are considered on some occasions as religious figures, able to establish connections between spirits and men, and on others, as professors who, through the comments made, both serious and humorous when expressed through the clowns, played a social role.
In order to indicate to the orchestra just what to play next, the puppeteer strikes together either bronze plates or the base of the puppets with a wooden stick that is otherwise secured between his fingers with the same procedures followed when calling for song during the combats. In Bali, for the pieces sourced from the Mahabharata, the orchestra only has four metallophone players that make recourse to small hammer like instruments. For the other plays, the orchestra is somewhat larger. In Java, there are numerous musical instruments making up that known in the West as the gamelan: there are the various types of xylophones, one or more double-sided drums (kendang), a flute (suling), a lute(rebab), a small drum(elampung), different horizontal gongs set into a base alongside suspended gongs. Along with the musicians, there are usually two singers (pesinden), specialists in smooth and harmonious melodies. One piece (lakon), performed in an evening, normally unfurls according to the following plot:
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The court of the good gathers
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The warriors depart
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The court of the bad gathers
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First meeting between the two parties
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Intervention by the clowns
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Battle against giant ogres or against Cakil
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The fight making up the final battle
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Victory and the triumphal return of the good
The ogres and the giants, that are common to all of the plays, are rude and greedy beings and engage one of the heroes in combat but are always defeated. Examples include Cakil, depicted with a prominent chin, and Terong, with an enormous aubergine shaped nose, who make appearances in many of the performances effectively only to take a good beating as also happens with the spirits, displaying deformed appearances, that haunt the cemeteries.
The clowns, however, defend popular good sense and, in contrast with the lead characters that focus upon religious, ethical and political ideas, who advise and admonish always through humour laden dialogues. In one classical pay, that lasts an entire night, the clowns take to the stage around midnight.
Currently, the trend is towards providing them with increasingly large roles and with some puppeteers going to the extent of giving them the largest amount of stage time as they speak in the modern language understood by the entire audience whilst the other characters speak in the ancient language of Kawi: furthermore, this also enables the puppeteers and expands the time for singing.
This theatrical genre also includes a pair of female clowns, servants to the ladies of the court: fat Cangil and her very thin daughter, Limbuk, who always goes around with a comb.
Certain figures represent people in general, very often carrying their children and fleeing from war; still others represent animals, monkeys, serpents, buffalos, horses; and still others chariots and carts, armies on the march, their weapons with the sight of arrows flying behind the scene very commonly included.
At the end, we may encounter a ballerina, who is no longer a leather figure but rather a wooden stick puppet (golek) with her dance signifying a return to earth and leaving the world of myths behind.
The shadow theatre repertoire also holds literary value. This is above all an oral literature even while there are written versions of the plays (lakon), above all on palm parchments and in ancient Javanese (Kawi) and enabling us to confirm that shadow theatre traces is origins back to at least the 11th century. However, the absence of any earlier written documentation does not exclude the affirmation that this genre has far earlier origins as given its nature as an oral tradition, it is perfectly natural that its setting down in writing would only have happened at a later stage in its development. In addition, the scope for improvisation left to each dalang is of such scale that the diversity of this literature proves enormously expansive and it proves different not only to grasp its extents exclusively through the texts but also to preserve its legacy due exactly to the relevance of this oral dimension.
The traditional repertoire includes four sets of plays or lakon: seven lakon on specifically Javanese myths; eight lakon on the birth of Ravana and on his adventures in Ramayana, the origins of the king of the monkeys and on Sarasbahu, the ancient incarnation of the god Vishu; eighteen lakon accompany the unfolding of the Ramayana, plot whilst one hundred and forty-seven follow the Mahabharata. We are in a position to distinguish between those lakon lifted loyally from the Indian epics and those that merely take out the characters and tell of what happened to them next in addition to those that are totally local creations as their plots either do not fall within the framework of the Indian epics or are told of in an entirely different fashion.
The Indonesian lakon hold particular interest as they do not prove to be simple copies of the Indian epics. Perhaps due to the Aravic and Persian influence, they express thinking drawn from these epics but are far more explicit than the Indian theatrical versions, developing them and structuring them according to an original interpretation. Some of these original stories recall Greek myths and would certainly have been of interest to Sigmund Freud had he known of them. They detail the relationships arising out of passion, family bonds and politics that endow these lakon that tells of her myth, she is Umayi (spouse of Shiva and called Parvati in India). Born as a shadow in flight, her father had to appeal to the god Shiva, who manages to grasp her. She then took the form of a hermaphrodite but Shiva was able to remove the male organ. She subsequently transformed into a very beautiful girl and Shiva betroths her. In the meanwhile, the latter becomes impassioned by a celestial fairy, who is called on to transform into a grain of rice for humans to plant. Shiva continues to shower her attention on this fairy even while now in the form of a rice plant and transforms into a bird in order to take her with him. Thus, Umayi gathers all the celestial fairies and transforms them into stands of corn around the rice plant in order to protect it; and Shiva, in the form of a bird, hurts his beak on the leaves of the corn. Henceforth, Umayi, reproachful of his conduct, refuses to couple with him. In rage he then transforms her into Durga, a terrifying goddess and comparable to the Hindu god Kali. Thus we encounter there an original myth on the origins of Durga and clearly different to that found in India.
In the same series on the origins of the gods, one lakon, distinctly recalls the story of Oedipus. The wife of a king, despite being a recluse, falls out with the king’s other wives and flees to the forest. There, she gives birth to a son who proves so terrible and voracious that she sends him away. Afterwards, having failed to find him again, she returns to the palace. This son becomes a powerful warriors who gathers together a great band and adopts the name Watugunung. After conquering the kingdom, he slays the king and marries his wives without ever knowing that he had killed his own father and married his mother. One day, whilst questioning his own infancy, his mother realizes that he is her son. In horror, she draws on the pride of the usurper in order to lose him: first, she calls on the gods to send her son the celestial nymphs. The gods clearly refuse and the mother then conveys that refusal to her son. Overwhelmed with fury, he then attacks the gods and is slain by the god Vishnu. Here, it is Jocasta who kills Oedipus. Watugunung, his three wives, the former king and all of his children transform into period of time and make up the seven days of the week and the thirty weeks that compose the Javanese annual calendar.
Among the lakon telling the tales of what happened before the Ramayana, there are two that tell of the curse that weighed on the birth of Ravana. King Visvara abdicated in favour of his son and set off to conquer, on his behalf, the hand of Sukesi. The competition had already begun and a raksasa (giant) had already defeatd all other comeptitors but the young female had refused him and only wanted to accept a competitor able to reveal the secret doctrine that would enable her to attain a mystic union with the supreme being. Visvara gains her hand by conferring this secret which earned him the rage of the gods. The raksasa, in a state of fury, battles against Visvara but loses and gets cut up into pieces. Before he dies, the raksasa predicst that one of Visvara’s decedents will suffer the same fate, which in fact comes to happen to Kumbakarna, brother of Ravana. Seduced by the sheer beauty of Sukesi, Visvara keeps her for himself instead of handing her to his son, who then enters into conflict with his father. Narada, a celestial character and messenger to the gods appears and separates them announcing that the first three sons that Visvara bears with Sukesi shall be monsters in punishment for having kept his own son's bride and while the son, for having taken up arms against his father, shall be killed by his own half-brother. As happens, Visrava and Sukesi bear Ravana, a ten-headed monster of titanic strength, Kumbakarna, a terrorising giant, and Surpakarna, a horrible ogre and only then is Vibisana born, a normal and good children who would become an ally of Rama. Ravana ends up killing his half-brother, his own father’s eldest child when he becomes king, usurping the throne before committing many other abuses.
Another lakon, meanwhile, evokes incest. Ravana has a daughter. His brother Vibisana, noting the child’s resemblance to the goddess Laxmi, desired by Ravana, wants to make sure that the latter will not commit incest with his own daughter. He places the baby into a basket and releases it into the flow of a river and replacing the missing infant with a baby boy that he shapes from a cloud. This boy grows up to be Indrajit, who later, on being slain by Laksmana, returns to the sky and resumes his original cloud form. The baby, carried off by the water lands on an isle in the kingdom of Janaka, where she is adopted and given the name of Sita(《isle》) and later goes onto marry Raman. That Sita is in fact a daughter of Ravana, who comes and kidnaps her and then commits unconscious incest is a Javanese interpretation that does not correspond to any of the contents in the Indian epic in which Sita is presented as a daughter of Earth.
One lakon created out of the Mahabharata shows how the weight of casts and families may lead a man into committing bad actions. Salya, who is no longer the king of Mandhraka, meets raksasa who is also a saint and falls in love with his very beautiful daughter Satyavati. However, he belongs to the warrior caste and fears that his father will not forgive him for having a raksasa in the family. Thus, the raksasa kills himself to ensure the happiness of his daughter but, before dying, makes Salya promise to be faithful to Satyavati before giving him a magic weapon even while foretelling that he shall die on the battlefield for having caused his own suicide.
In the struggle between the fighting cousins, which makes up the theme of the Mahabharata, amorous passion plays almost as important a role as does the desire for power. The hand of Gandhari was conquered by Pandu, father of the Pandavas; but who, given that he already had two wives, offers her to his half-brother, the future father of the Koravas, who was blind. Gandhari, furious at having been rejected by Pandu, sets about nurturing the hatred of her children against their cousins, the Pandavas with the help of her brother who becomes a minister to the Korava brothers. Banovati, daughter of Salya, has to wed the eldest Korava even while she is in love with Arjuna, the most seductive of the Pandava brothers and whom she finally unites with on the death of her husband.
 50. Garuda, the fabuolous bird that attempts to save Sita but who is slain by Ravana. Indonesia, Bali. (20th century. 2.1 ID126) |  51. Ravana, king of Langka. Indonesia, Bali. (20th century. 2.1 ID189) |  52. Narada, messenger and counsellor to the gods. Indonesia, Bali. (20th century. 2.1 ID509) |
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 53. The clown Tualen (semar in Balinese) (20th century. d.1 ID347) and his son Sangut (20th century. 2.1 ID346). Indonesia, Bali. |  54. The clowns Merdah (20th century. 2.1 ID345) and Delem (20th century. 2.1 ID344), sons of Tualen (semar in Balinese). Indonesia, Bali. |
The most philosophical lakon, Deva Ruci, is a Javanese product even while the main character, Bima, is also one of the heroes in the Mahabharata. Bima strives to obtain knowledge. He gets close to the master Drona, who is also the master of arms of his cousins and enemies. Drona tricks him and sends him to a mountain inhabited by ogres to take him out of the picture. However, Bima slays the monsters and returns and meets Drona, who confesses to him that knowledge is found at the bottom of the sea.
Despite the danger, Bima heads downwards and killing on the way a serpent, which represents passion, and reencounters his ancestor, the dwarf Dewa Ruci. He tells him to enter into his head through listening and, over an extensive dialogue, reveals the knowledge in which the final and ultimate truth is that the soul survives the energy that provides life to the body because the soul is part of an eternal god in an evidently Islam inspired idea.
Two lakon particular to Bali evoke black magic and, in different ways, reveal the nature of primitive beliefs. Rangda, a demonic divinity, has a son, Cupak, who is very ugly, quarrelsome and greedy. The latter, depressed at his own reality, retreats to the forest. However, there was also a mythical bird, Garuda, who devoured humans. The king promises his daughter to whoever can rid the kingdom of this curse. Cupak kills the bird and marries the princess. However, he feels unwanted by his wife due to being so ugly and goes to ask his mother for help and she then transforms him into a beautiful young man. In the other lakon, although there are many existing version, the witch Saronarang is a widow living in the forest. She has a very beautiful daughter and would like to see her marry a prince but, with a mother like her, nobody would risk asking for her hand in marriage. Angry, Sronarang casts a plague on the kingdom. On learning the reason behind this from his great priest, the king sends his son to marry her daughter and thus bringing an end to the epidemic. However, her daughter brings her husband her mother’s book of magic spells and they are then entrusted to the great priest. Saronarang, once again furious this time because the secrets to her power had been revealed, enters into conflict with the great priest and uses her magic but ends up dying. However, before dying, she asked to be forgiven and the great priest grants her absolution and opens up the doors of paradise to her.
There is also all of the later repertoire that did not come into being until the 16th century and was correspondingly subject to an Islamic influence. Some of these pieces were created by walis, missionaries encharged with converting the local population to Islam. This is the case with the Menak cycle, based on Arabian legends, in which the hero is Amir Hamzah, the Prophet’s uncle as well as plays featuring the adventures of those prophets from the Old Testament venerated by Islam. This same phenomenon happened all over again in the 20th century with the establishment of wayang katolik, that tells the stories of the New Testament and demonstrating how Christian missionaries swiftly grasped the impact of this theatrical style and its scope for propagating their faith.
Furthermore, a series of historical and purely secular plays were created based on events taking place during the different kingdoms of Java even while historical fact in this case is frequently mixed in with magic and stories of romance and love. This is the case with the pieces telling of the adventures of Panji or Damarwulan with this trend continuing into the modern period with the production of works on the struggle for independence from the Netherlands.
In order to evaluate such a broad sweeping and diverse repertoire, we always need to recall that the genre is above all oral and that the same plays, whether written to be read or meant to be heard, have very little in common. The simple act of writing the play down immediately eliminates all of the art of the storyteller and which in this case is an essential factor. Indonesian audiences are not about to be fooled: they perceive the dalang more as a storyteller than a puppeteer and the visual spectacle is no more than an illustration of that being told. Any library wishing to preserve such heritage should, above all else, include soundtracks or even better video recordings.
An example of this wayang, integration into the civilisations prevailing is how they still remain an essential input at the most defining moments in the lives of individuals: at births, circumcisions, on losing one’s milk teeth, marriages, funerals and all currently still requiring a wayang, performance, with the piece chosen in accordance with the event taking place. Even events in broader society, such as the opening of a store or acquiring land to build upon, get celebrated with wayang performances. Whatever says festive celebration also says wayang kulit.
This wayang social importance was not overlooked by either the Islamic or Christian missionaries and was also adopted by the government following independence to spread certain political concepts as well as specific hygiene measure as wayang proves a language to which every strata of society responds, which also explains its broadcast on radio and television.
Defending that wayang once represented an integral component of Indonesian civilization, its religion, literature and its performing arts is entirely justified when referring to past periods. However, does this still remain as true today? The number of dalang currently active enables a positive response to the question even if with certain reservations. The poverty prevailing throughout much of the population sometimes forces the replacement of a live performance by the showing of a video where not a simple audio cassette. Modernisation has brought competition from other types of spectacle and performance, such as karaoke. The advent of television has meant that young people tend to be more fascinated by Rambo than by Bima or Rama. In order to attract audiences, it is not uncommon for dancers to appear between the wayang scenes as if such are more able to hold the attentions of the audience. Whilst in Bali, there is not a single night when there is no temple festival taking place somewhere and featuring wayang kulit performance, some dalang, and those most in demand, sacrifice much of the traditional plot content in favour of scenes featuring the always very popular clowns and making them last for hours and hence the traditional performance gets reduced to an above all humour based genre, with a few moralising points thrown in, and the sheer wealth of tis repertoire, which represents its greatest point of interest, does run serious risk of being lost.
 55. Fire kaon. Fire is generally painted onto the reverse sides of kayon, with the face depicting the universe. However, certain groups have a separate, special kayon for fire. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID390) |  56. Tree. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID459) |  57. Kayon, the symbol of the universe, generally displayed to demonstrate the beginning and edn of performnaces. Indonesia, Java. (18th century. 2.1 ID230) |
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 58. Kayon, the symbol of the universe, generally displayed to demonstrate the beginning and end of performances. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID92) |  59. Krishna murti: Krishna, the terrifying form of incarnation of the god Vishnu. Indonesia, Java. (20th century. 2.1 ID400) |
Contrary to the wayang beber or wayang klitik, that have all but disappeared, it would be a clear exaggeration to state that wayang kulit is en route to extinction even though that does prove the case in some regions; however, it does represent an art form that shall have to face down certain dangers.
These dangers stem perhaps as much from within the art itself as from third party competitors. An art, to remain alive, should evolve and adapt to its times. However, this all depends on the actual way in which this evolution takes place. The example of lighting in shadow theatre proves of significance: in Bali, they generally still make recourse to oil burning lamps and the flickering light given off confers a magical dimension to the performance. In Java, these have been replaced whether by electric lamps or by a neon tube, which throw off harsh and static light. Should we thus advocate the rejection of electricity based means of illumination? Not necessarily. An artist in Yogjakarta placed lights both in front and behind the screen and varying their colours and intensities to nurture very interesting effects that has surprisingly failed to gain more widespread usage.
With the exception of the clowns, for whom the dalang adopts the daily language form, the other characters, and especially nobility, are portrayed in classical language that is no longer understandable to the majority of people, which helps explain why the scenes in which they participate have tended to be cut back to the essential minimum. We might correspondingly consider whether it would not make sense to make recourse to common, daily language for such characters, with the exception of the sung sections, and differentiate between social status through tone of voice and vocabulary.
The current solution involves practically ignoring the highly rich literature to transform this art into long scenes of clowning in which moralising lessons get mixed in with the crudest of jokes and amounting to no more than a painful cultural impoverishment.
The aforementioned Yogjakarta artist established a personal style through the interweaving of various different traditional characters and very often with great talent. However, he also introduced new figures inspired on the West generating some dissonance. Earlier there was a Bali dalang who prepared an entire performance feature large scale pre-historic animals, inspired on Jurassic Park; however, such efforts to enter into competition with cinema are certainly not the best means of renovating an art such as shadow theatre and even incurs the risk of the genre losing its soul. However, these are experiments that we should not rush into condemning as experience demonstrates how managing to be entirely modern and entirely Indonesian proves no easy task and this facet is certainly not only true for the case of Indonesia.