Week 1 Day 2 - Research

What is "Wayang Kulit"?

• "Wayang" = Puppet
• "Kulit" = Leather
• One of the oldest continuous traditions of storytelling
• Finely carved and painted thin leather puppets move behind a white linen screen
• Audience on other side of the screen sees the shadows only

Who is in ?

• Puppets are stored in line on a banana tree trunk behind the screen and in front of the puppeteer.
• The puppeteer is called the Dalang.
• He manipulates the puppets, sings and taps out signals to the gamelan (orchestra). He also speaks the parts for all characters.

Where is it held?

• An open air performance under the stars.
• A temporary bamboo platform had been constructed in the village square.

It had a raised stage on which the puppeteer and musicians of the 'Gender Wayang' orchestra sat cross-legged.

When is it shown?

• Special days
• Public holidays
• Religious festivals
• Weddings
• Birth celebrations
• Cremations
• Traditional Muslim event of the transition from childhood to teenage
• Usually last approx. 12hrs
• Also as a means of conveying messages across to the villagers of the area in rural Bali.

HOW a wayang kulit is made?vr2

Indonesian shadow characters, or Wayang Kulit, are made of rawhide. Kulit means skin, usually from the hide of an oxen or bull. Other materials in use around the world include, goatskin, cardboard, and plastics.
Most Indonesian characters are carved in profile. Some figures have two moving arms, some have one, and some have no moving parts at all. Some have a leg that kicks, a few have mouths that move.
Size, physique, type of clothing, amount of jewelry, skin color, shape of eyes, and sometimes shape of teeth, determine the character of each figure.

Tracing and Carving
The figure is drawn or traced onto the leather or other material, including interior shapes and motifs. The maker uses intricate metal tools to carve the figure. Small tightly curved chisels are used to make holes. Larger arc chisels are used to carve more elaborate designs and outlines. One "hole" may take several different tools with varying blade arcs to execute it correctly.
Once all interior holes are carved, the figure is cut out from the hide. Arms and other pieces are cut out next. The arms are made in two pieces and jointed with thick plastic line, or joints made of bone. They look like small white rivets and function in the same way.
Indonesian Wayang have exaggerated upper body proportions and the lower area is shrunk. This makes the figure appear with correct dimensions in shadow. The entire length of the puppet is never totally flush with the screen. The face pressed against the screen for clarity, and the lower half stands slightly back. Without this special sizing technique, the image would appear bottom heavy.
Some other cultures, such as China and Turkey, hold the characters flush to the screen from top to bottom. In this case regular proportions produce the desired shadow.

Sanding and Painting
The carved leather is sanded to make it smooth and ready for painting. The figures are blacked out with ink, rendering the puppet opaque.
At least one coat of white paint is applied over the black to prime the figure before coloring. Any area to be painted with gold leaf must remain black. Acrylic paint replaces the vegetable dye used in earlier times.
The Balinese use a four layer shading technique for each color, from dark to light. In Java, the colors are blended to show a more even gradation. Gold leaf is always applied last.
Not all cultures use opaque puppets. Some, like the Chinese style to the right, are translucent, so color can be seen in the shadows. This is done by dying instead of painting the leather. In Indonesia, the shadows are black, with one exception. In Bali, the face of Agni, the fire, is opaque, but the flames are not blacked, creating a translucent red after paint is applied.
One or two thin coats of acrylic finish are applied, and when dry the sticks are attached. The figure is sewn onto the main stick in three or four spots depending on the puppet's height. The top of the stick ends slightly below the top of the figure. The bottom of the stick continues about six inches below the bottom of the puppet. Arm sticks are affixed at the hands and hang freely.

Assembly
After coloring, arms and other moving pieces are fastened to the body with plastic or bone hinge joints. Some characters have moving mouths or legs. The mouth moves via a string trigger connected to a perpendicular wooden or horn stick which acts as a spring. A thumb pad of tanned leather or suede makes operation comfortable. When triggering the mouth, the horn stick flexes past the cut out of the eye, creating the appearance of blinking eyelids.
Indonesian Wayang have a main structural stick for operation that runs the length of the figure. It is split down the middle so that it supports the figure on both sides. There is also a stick for each moving arm. Sometimes the stick is fashioned from bull horn by heating and stretching it into a particular shape. In Java, this has become a very refined craft, making sticks that twist and curl with the shape of the character.
The bottom of the stick is tapered to a point so that it can be stabbed into a banana log or other soft material to support the character against the screen.
In China, the sticks are usually metal rods. The main rod is hinged to the character and held out and away from to the screen. In Turkey, a thicker stick is mounted perpendicular to the character. This type of mounting allows the characters to twirl.

HOW to make a wayang kulit?

A small family business with specialty in making wayang kulit, shadow puppers in leather like you see in my cave.Below are three artists who work delicately and attentively on each and every wayang/puppet. Cutting the leather into character shapes. Carving it. Drawing it. Coloring it. They use water-buffalo skin for all their puppets because it's durable and thicker than other skins. For the skeletons and sticks to move arms while playing characters in puppet show, they utilize buffalo's horns.

Water buffalos are used to plow rice fields there, to get the terrain ready before farmers plant rice seeds in the soil. I was impressed by the natural materials they use and how they create these pieces of Arts. puppet show (shadow or not) is still presently popular in Indonesia as one of the continuing oral traditions of telling stories from one generation to another. Because of Indonesia's historical background when it was once kingdoms (Majapahit and Sriwijaya), there's strong influence of Indian/Hinduisme in many traditional stories like: Ramayana and Mahabrata for examples. These puppets represent different characters of these two legendary stories.

Shadow puppet show is done usually behind a white screen, where a Dalang (story teller) sits behind and below the screen. The room needs to be like in a theater where you will only see the silhouetes or shadows of these different characters.

A dalang will tell a story and play different characters with its different voice, with Gamelan, Javanese traditional orchestra, as the background music. Or to emphaize certains scenes or movements, a specific noise will be used. It's impressive to see these puppets shows in person.

WHEN/WHERE is wayang kulit held?

Southeast Asia [Performing Arts]

When is it done?

Wayang kulit performances can last from dusk till dawn. Exciting battle scenes are usually staged shortly after midnight. It is performed the whole night commencing at about 09.00 PM to 05.00 AM, just before the sunrise. It needs around eight hours to perform a plot of stories from Ramayana or Mahabrata epoch.

Wayan Kulit performances are held for religious occassions, purification ceremonies, or when some transitional event occurs within the life of the people. But the art is also called upon for other tasks too. It can also be devised as a means of getting messages about public health and hygiene across to the villagers of the area in rural Bali.

In the darkness the insects have already begun to fly around unsteady flame of the oil lamp, which casts its dazzling light on the large white screen of the stage. at the lower part of the cloth-screen, the beautiful leather puppets (wayang kulit) are neatly arranged, their body-sticks firmly planted in banana-stems, placed beneath the screen itself.

On the right hand side are the good characters, on the left hand side the bad. The open space between them, about two meters wide, represents the stage.



Here the puppets will come to life and, like human beings, will each in his own way pursue the endless path to human happiness."

From Ramayana, Sunardjo Haditjaroko

Shadow plays
In Java, these plays are performed in villages and towns on public holidays, religious festivals, weddings, birth celebrations and the traditional muslim event of the transition from childhood to teenage. In Bali, they are also staged at cremations.



Where is it done?

The STAGE

It is needed to accommodate the performance, sometimes it is an elevated stage around 0,5 to 1 meter higher than audience's chairs.

On stage there is a white cotton screen illuminated by blencong (an oil lamp, hangs above the dalang), nowadays, a spotlight is used. From behind the scene, some audience watch the performance. They see the shadow of the puppets. Shadow in Javanese is wayang, from here the words of wayang kulit come. The mass of the audience sits in front of the screen to watch the wayang played by dalang.

On the right and left side of dalang, the wayang figures were arranged stuck to a banana tree poles. And at the left and right ends of the screen, banquets of bananas and leaves tree are decorated. Behind dalang the gamelan music instruments are arranged and played by the wiyogo (gamelan players).

The chorus of some pesinden (woman singers) as well as male singers are sitting there too. Next to the left side of dalang, there is a wooden box used by dalang to beat his instruments. The 'keprak', several pieces of small size iron plates hit by dalang by using right foot. From time to time, dalang during narration hit the wooden box with his hand by a 'cempolo' (wooden mallet).

This was an open air performance under the stars. A temporary bamboo platform had been constructed in the village square. It had a raised stage on which the puppeteer and musicians of the 'Gender Wayang' orchestra sat cross-legged. A fine cotton screen, called 'kelir', separates the dalang from his audience. This screen represents the universe and the light from a bronze oil lamp, called 'blencong' just in front of the dalang throws magical flickering shadows onto it.

The puppets are stored in line, in a banana tree trunk, behind the screen and in front of the puppeter. The dalang manipulates the puppets, sings and taps out signals to the orchestra. He also speaks the parts for all characters; he must be able to render the shy sweetness in the voice of a princess, the spiteful whine of a lackey and the righteous but controlled anger of a noble hero.


DALANG (The Puppet Master or The Story Teller)
After deciding the title of wayang story, a dalang (puppet master), a dalang to perform the show must be appointed. Dalang position is very important, as he is the leader of the performance. Sometimes dalang could be chosen first, afterwards a consultation with him could be held to choose an appropriate title.
Dalang comes from the words juru udalan (juru : an expert, a skillful man - udalan abbreviated to dalan, then becomes dalang means to tell stories), so dalang is a story teller.

The audience, from the very young to the very old, including one white man, was held spell bound by the skills of the dalang and the stories he told. Little children, cradled in their parent's arms, stared wide-eyed at the screen, transfixed by its magic.

Week 1 day 1

Our group name is 5 Fingers. We are doing on Southeast Asia - Wayang Kulit.



Group members: Shavien Chow, Tok Xin Lin, Tan Wan Teng and Timothy Pang. (Starting from Left.)

WHY wayang kulit exists?

Hinduism arrived in Indonesia from India even before the Christian era, and was slowly adopted as the local belief system. Sanskrit became the literary and court language of Java and later of Bali. The Hindus changed the Wayang (as did the Muslims, later) to spread their religion, mostly by stories from the Mahabharata or the Ramayana. Later this mixture of religion and wayang play was praised as harmony between Hinduism and traditional Indonesian culture. On Java, the western part of Sumatra and some smaller islands traditionalists continued to play the old stories for some time, but the influence of Hinduism prevailed and the traditional stories either fell into oblivion or were integrated into the Hinduistic plays.

While the night wayang performance is considered pure entertainment, there exists another variant that is purely religious. This religious wayang performance usually takes place in the broad day light, without the coconut-husk lamp. In place of the translucent screen, a piece of string is drawn to separate the dalang from the audience, which may not even exist. This variant may be performed prior to a ngaben or cremation ceremony.


From these extracted passages, it explains that the purpose of the Wayang Kulit is to facilitate the spread of religions, mainly Hindu and later, the Muslims. Also, they believe that during the peformance of Wayang Kulit, evil is repelled from the grounds of the show.

Puppet of a Hindu deity

Wayang Beber, the Islamic version.

DID U KNOW?

Theatre seems to pervade Javanese life. Whenever westerners speak of polite Javanese encounter, with its elaborately orchestrated conversations and choreographed gestures, they fall almost instantly into theatrical metaphors.
But in all dramaturgy, the shadow play stands out as the preeminent art form in Java.

Other varieties of performing ARTS:
topeng – dance with masks
langen mandra wanaran – a performance in which players sing, but gesture only from a kneeling position

INTERESTING FACTS:

a. SHADOW PLAYS & SOCIAL SCIENCE
Wayang Kulit’s influence on other traditional art forms is great.
Much of the court dance tradition consists not only of stories adapted from the shadow play tradition, but also of movements modeled after those of its flat leather puppets.

In fact, such dance is called wayang wong: a human shadow play

When in conversation Javanese speak of someone showing up or leaving a place, they often illustrate the point with a particular gesture.
They hold one hand in front of their chests, fingers pointing upward and the back of the hand facing outward. They then move their arm to the side, raising and lowering it slightly.
The gestures are reflected in the way a puppet moves across the screen.

JAVANESE SHADOW PLAYS, JAVANESE SELVES by Ward Keeler

b. STAGES OF THE PERFORMANCE
Traditionally a performance starts soon after sunset, at about 7.30 p.m., and continues without a break until dawn, at about 6 a.m.

The Wayang Kulit performance is viewed from almost all angles.
In the past there was a tendency to separate the audience according to gender: Women sat facing the screen onto which the shadows were projected
Men sat on the other side with the dalang where they could see the actual puppets.

Private performances:
Hosts & guests view from inside the house, i.e facing the screen
Guests were given a choice to watch either fron the yard, under the stars or inside the house with the dalang.

SHADOW THEATRE IN JAVA, the puppets, performance and repertoire


c. CATEGORIES OF CHARACTERS
character type:
Luruh – refined knight, polite
Lanyap – aggressive
Gagah – muscular
Gusen – generalized
Simians – monkey
Dhugelan – clown

Stature
A large stature symbolizes great physical strength, a violent nature or a lack of self control. This is in contrast to well-proportioned medium size figures, which do posess self control and finesse. Sizes vary from 23 cm to more than 100 cm.
A slim, small body is the indication of refinement. The bodies of moderate characters are medium sized (pideksa), bodies of coarse characters are largest and most heavy (ageng inggil)



Face
Personality is portrayed with the face, especially through the shape of the eyes and the nose. There is great variation in eyes, noses, mouths and shapes of bodies occurring in all sorts of combinations which result in detailed individual expressions.
There are at least 13 different shapes of eyes and noses.

CHARACTERS
The noble:
- elongated, slanted eyes, appearing half closed (liyepan, or jaitan, ‘sewn together’, or gababan, ‘like a grain of rice’)
- a lincip (long pointed) nose
- the mouth is half closed , and the teeth are visible

The intermediary:
- eyes shaped like kedelen (soya beans), rounder than liyepan, but still elongated
- the nose is long and ‘well-shaped’ (sembada) and slightly turned up at the end.

The coarse:
- physically powerful and violent type
- round wide-open eyes (telegan, or with a round pupil)
- base of nose is strongly accentuated, nose is bulbous
- mouth is open in a grin, with the fat lips revealing two rows of teeth, including incisors

Wayang Kulit, Shadow Puppets Characters

5 brothers of Pandawa

Yudhistira (first son)

Bima (second son)

Arjuna (third son)

Nakula (4th son)

Sadewa (5th son)

The Pandawa, especially Arjuna, are always accompanied by their five loyal servants clown by the name of panakawan: Semar, a very fat man with big belly and enormous buttock; and his sons Gareng, with his misshapen arms and cross-eyes; Petruk, a tall man with a very long nose; Topog and Bagong, with a squat body and very big eyes. Semar’s sons have been brought to life by their father’s practice of meditation.
They live in the village of Karang Kabolotan, bolot means human body's dirt. Panakawan (pana means ‘clear vision, clever’ and kawan means ‘companion’), thus, those who have clear vision and that can give a wise advice. Although they are only servants, with ugly faces and disproportional bodies, they are very wise and good advisers.