INDONESIAN PUPPET HISTORY

History of Indonesian theatreThe Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia), an archipelagic nation in South East Asia of over 18,000 islands and hundreds of distinct ethnic and liguistic groups, is the world’s fourth most populous country. An important trade region since the early centuries CE, during which time the maritime and commercial empires of Srivijaya (7th-13th centuries) and Majapahit (13th-16th centuries) traded with India and China, Indonesia has assimilated foreign cultural and political models and religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. Colonized by the Netherlands for three and a half centuries, Indonesia declared its independence in 1945.

In Indonesia, puppetry (wayang) and the related mask (topeng) performance are seen as the model for human theatre which is called wayang wong or wayang orang, literally “human puppetry”. The human dancer tries to emulate the movement of the puppet, perhaps because the figure can represent the ideal better than a mortal can. Puppetry is considered the oldest performance, the most prestigious art and the model for other theatres. (For an example of ritual figures on the island of Sulawesi the Celebes see Tau-Tau).

Though the 20th century has brought newer forms of puppetry influenced by Western television puppetry, most Indonesian puppet performances at the beginning of the 21st century remain rooted in the tradition of wayang. The term probably comes from bayang “shadow” and shadow theatre puppetry is considered the most important tradition. Wayang is a style of presenting traditional theatre in which a central puppet master/narrator called a dalang (dhalang in Javanese) is in control of both ritual and performative aspects of the presentation. He, or sometimes she, uses voice to deliver all the mood songs (suluk in Javanese), narration and dialogue, uses a wooden hammer played by hand or held between the toes to give cues to the musicians playing the gong chime (gamelan) orchestra. This hammer (cempala) creates musical and sound effects by striking the wooden puppet box.

The puppeteer in Java and Sunda (West Java) also uses metal plates hanging on the puppet chest (kotak), tapping it with a foot to create percussive music and sound effects. Puppets dance in his hands. Shadow puppetry (wayang kulit) uses flat, perforated hide figures from 30-70 centimetres with three control rods: one central rod and two others attached to the hands.

A related art which is often practised by puppet masters and their families is masked dance, topeng (“to press against the face”). Older, exorcistic forms of mask dance are, like puppetry, performed by a single person. Other mediums in which a wayang performance is presented include painted scrolls (wayang beber), flat wooden figures (wayang klitik), 3-dimensional wooden rod puppets (wayang golek) or unmasked human dancers (wayang wong or wayang orang).