WAYANG KULIT IN CIREBON (Part 1 - Setting the scene)

The pockmarked Cungkring (right), one of the nine principal clown-servants of Cirebonese wayang kulit, seeks mystical knowledge from an elderly sage

Wayang kulit (shadow puppet theatre) in Java does not refer to a unitary, monolithic art form. Many regional variants exist, or have existed in the recent past. In Java today, there are four main regional centres with vital shadow puppet traditions: Surakarta (also known as Solo), Yogyakarta (Yogya), Banyumas and Cirebon (Cerbon). The variants associated with central Java - the Surakarta, Yogyakarta, and Banyumas multiforms - are closely related in terms of puppet iconography, manipulation techniques, musical accompaniment, dramatic structure, repertoire, language, ritual features, and patterns of sponsorship. Surakarta and Yogyakarta wayang kulit, in particular, are taught in conservatoires for the performing arts, well-represented on national television, enacted regularly for tourists, and sent abroad to cultural festivals.

Much less familiar to puppet enthusiasts outside Java is the shadow puppet theatre of the Cirebon area, which differs from the better known puppet theatres of central Java in many respects. There are no regularly scheduled performances for tourists; the art is not taught at conservatoires and never broadcast on national television. Until Taham performed this year in continental Europe, to the best of my knowledge, only one Cirebonese dhalang (shadow puppeteer) had ever performed abroad - Sudarga Lesek (d. 1999).

Some have assumed consequently that Cirebon’s wayang kulit is an archaic form, lacking popularity or interest. Such could not be further from the truth. For the last seven years, I have been studying wayang kulit in the Cirebon area as a theatre anthropologist and a practising dhalang. I would like to outline some of its contextual and generic characteristics, indicate what makes it appealing to me and to other devotees and, finally, suggest some of the reasons for its relative obscurity in Indonesia’s national puppetry scene and abroad.

Heirloom puppets of the royal house of Kacerbonan during the monthly isis (airing-out) enacted by the court puppeteer Kurnadi in 1993. Visible from left to right here are a variety of ponggawa (bold knight) puppets, Gonjaka (centre), Catrik, Togog, Curis (with the long neck), Temblem, and a female maid-servant. The basket in the background is where parts of the royal gamelan are stored.

Wayang kulit in Cirebon: past and present

Cirebon, defined here as a cultural region, is a stretch of Java’s north coast from Cilamaya in the west to Brebes in the east, characterised by a particular dialect of Javanese (Cirebon Javanese), a shared historical tradition revolving around an Islamic sultanate founded in the 15th century and existing to date, and distinctive customs and mores. A recent estimate of the number of Cirebonese is five million, including major populations in the regencies of Krawang, Subang, Indramayu, Majalengka, Kuningan, Cirebon, and Brebes, and the municipality of Cirebon. The cultural region is bordered by the highlands of Sunda to the south, the Betawi area to the west, and what people in Cirebon call ‘eastern Java’ to the east (people culturally oriented to the royal court cultures of Yogyakarta and Surakarta as the standard-keepers for all things Javanese).

There are many distinctive art forms practised in the Cirebon area, as well as those shared with its neighbouring cultural regions. The people of the northern littoral consider themselves Javanese, not Sundanese, although the proximity of Cirebon to Sunda, and many differences from ‘the eastern Javanese’, results in them being often typed by outsiders as Sundanese, or a mixture of Javanese and Sundanese.

The oldest Cirebonese text describing wayang kulit in performance is the Suluk Wujil, which survives in a redaction dated by scholars to 1607. The text describes the well-known play, Kresna Duta (Kresna, the Envoy), being performed by the puppeteer Sari for an audience that included two of Java’s semi-legendary Islamic ‘saints’ or ‘friends of God’ (wali): Sunan Kalijaga and Sunan Bonang. Continued literary interest in wayang kulit and its stories is apparent from Serat Kandha (Book of Tales) texts, combining wayang kulit mythology with tales of the Islamic prophets and localhistory. It is believed that this genre of literature first developed in 17th century Cirebon.

There was strong interest among Cirebon’s royal court elites in wayang kulit in the 18th and 19th centuries. Each of the royal courts and houses owned one or more sets of puppets, some of which still survive as sacred heirlooms. Village puppeteers were appointed as ‘court puppeteers’ and given titles, performance duties, and obligations for the care of puppets.

Manuscripts closely associated with the performance tradition, such as the Old Javanese Bratayuda (owned by many Cirebonese dhalang and quoted and translated in performance), were closely studied by noble elites and word lists were compiled to facilitate their reading. Mystical poems of Islam, or suluk, containing numerous allusions to shadow puppet theatre were circulated among the noble elite and other literati.

Interest in wayang kulit in Cirebon’s royal court circles diminished at the end of the 19th century due to financial limitations, decline of traditional Javanese and the rise of modern Western education, and the appeal of European ‘polite’ entertainments and pastimes, such as balls, among Cirebon’s noble elite, most of whom lived in the city of Cirebon. Today, few performances of wayang kulit, or any other form of dance or drama, take place in the royal courts or the city of Cirebon as a whole. In contrast, wayang kulit in the densely-inhabited agrarian hinterlands, fishing villages, and the small towns of the coastal plain has remained of vital significance. Performances occur in conjunction with the celebration of rites of passage (circumcisions, weddings) and communal events such as harvest festivals, village purification rites, ancestral commemorations at cemeteries, and fishing thanksgiving celebrations. There are villages where, even with the competition of today’s modern media (television, radio, video and CD), 20 or 30 performances of wayang kulit are staged annually. Older folk say that in the performing season (March-November) in the recent past, the sounds of wayang kulit in performance could be heard nightly in some towns.

Performances in connection with a circumcision, wedding, or other rite of passage ensure good attendance and sizable donations of raw rice and cash from guests. Performances for communal events are necessitated by local tradition. Hiring a troupe costs approximately £50 to £150, and it is always incumbent upon a sponsor to provide refreshments and Cigarettes. Night-time shows take place between 8.00pm and 3.00am. They are commonly preceded by  daytime  matinee  shows  running  between 9.30am and 3.00pm (with a pause for the mid-day Islamic prayers). If the event is communally sponsored, it is normal for mandatory stories such as the birth of one of the incarnations of the rice goddess, or the origin of lightning and thunder, to be performed during the day.

Troupes are headed by a puppeteer, and might include 10 to 15 musicians and from two to six technical assistants, who are responsible for setting up, striking, and maintaining the performing equipment, including the sound system. The dhalang manipulates puppets, speaks all the dialogue and narration, provides sound effects with a wooden knocker and metal plates suspended to his (or her) left, sings mood songs, directs the gamelan, and acts as ritual officiant when a ritual drama is being performed. He also announces song requests and communiqués from the audience or host.

The author performing a matinee show of Greeting Sri at a communal hall in conjunction with a rice-planting celebration. Hanoman (right) is shown addressing the animals of the forest, to the rapt attention of youthful spectators.

Some puppeteers and exegetes suggest that there should ideally be 17 musicians in a gamelan group, as there are 17 rokaat (ritual actions and prayers) conducted by a practising Muslim in the course of a day. Mulyaman, a cultural inspector for Palimanan, provides the following list of 17 musical instruments: kendang; gong; saron; gender; kenong; jengglong; penerus (demung); gambang; beri (cymbals) kebluk (kempyang); klenang (two small kettles, rarely used); kemanak; ketipung; bedug; bonang; kemyang (bonang panerus); suling. In addition a second saron might be added to play saron imbal. Also unmentioned are the ketuk, biol (fiddle) and titil (peking). The auspicious number 17 is an ideal to conform to in theory, but not generally in practice.

The musicians also function as the dhalang’s interlocutors, responding to dialogue with questions, interjections, and comments, often of a scatological nature. One of the musicians in the troupe acts as the matinee dhalang, typically a junior, aspiring performer or an older, semi-retired puppeteer related to the troupe’s leader. Performances also prominently feature one or more pesindhen (female vocalists), who are usually free agents not attached to the troupe, but hired separately by the host.

There is,in fact,not one'Cirebonese wayang kulit’, but many local styles, centred iN particular villages or regions. The vast majority of Cirebon’s puppeteers are from    puppeteer families, and    skills and equipment are transmitted generationally. One of the most famous styles today is the Gegesik style, associated with the agrarian town of Gegesik (population c. 20,000). This small town has 12 active professional troupes, including several of the most famous in Cirebon. Its musicians are renowned for their high degree of professionalism.

Another well-known regional style is the Southern style, associated with the southwestern part of the regency of Cirebon, in the vicinity of the industrial town of Palimanan. This style is distinguished by the use of a gamelan tuned to the heptatonic (pelog) scale; nearly all other wayang kulit styles use the pentatonic (prawa) tuning exclusively. Southern puppeteers frequently perform Islamic plays, such as Semar Lunga Kaji, in which the clown-servant Semar tries to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, but is opposed by his Hindu brother, Divine Guru (Shiva to South Asians). Villages tend to have preferences for certain regional styles over others.


Equipment               

A set of puppets numbers typically between 130 and 200. Puppets are made out of carved and perforated  dried  buffalo  hide,  painted  on  both sides, and braced by a central support rod made from painted rattan or (less commonly) buffalo horn. Puppet carving and painting tends to be more expressive in Cirebon than in Surakarta and Yogyakarta, though with less attention to fine details. Cirebonese puppets tend to be more durable than those currently produced elsewhere in Java; one can find puppets in many sets dating back 50 or even 150 years. Few puppeteers are themselves carvers, but most spend long hours painting and doing minor repairs on the puppets they own. Performances  for  communal  events take place in a variety of settings, including cemetery pavilions and open-air reception areas of town halls.

A decorated buffalo head and other offerings on public display during a nadranan, thanksgiving celebration, sponsored annually by a fishing community, featuring a day-time ritual wayang kulit play entitled Budug Basu.

A night-time performance by a Gegesik troupe in a communal hall in the town of Gegesik. Children of dhalang learn how to perform from infancy; the son of puppeteer-musician Sudarso sits on his lap as he plays jengglong/kenong to accompany his elder brother, also a puppeteer. In Gegesik style wayang the kenong and jengglong are usually played by the same person.

A night-time performance by the Gegesik dhalang Basari of the classic play, Arjuna Sasrabau. Somantri (left) is challenging his lord and king Arjuna Sasrabau (right) to a duel of chariots, demanding the puppeteer’s simultaneous manipulation of four puppets. Note the improvised electrification of the oil lamp.

Performances for private  functions take place    on panggung, temporary stages elevated About four feet above the ground and covered with a tarp. Troupes generally arrive in  the morning in a truck which is also used to transport the performing equipment, including the sound system and the diesel generator which powers it. The panggung is normally rented by a host from a local service and is erected well before a troupe’s arrival.

Setting up for the troupe takes about two hours. Along one side of the panggung, bamboo battens are lashed rectangularly to form a frame for the white cotton screen. Banana logs are arrayed horizontally in two adjacent rows about 18 inches above the planks of the panggung. Simultaneously, the gamelan instruments are unpacked and set up on the panggung. The puppet chest is placed to the left of centre, the lid taken off and placed to the right. Puppets in the chest are taken out and arrayed along the left and right sides of the banana log in order of size, leaving the central area blank except for a kayon, the spade-shaped ‘tree-of-life’ puppet icon. Some puppets are placed on top of the lid, a small number remain in the puppet chest. Arranged in such a way, all puppets can be retrieved in an instant by musicians or technical assistants at the dhalang’s request during a performance.


Microphones are placed inside or adjacent to the musical instruments and the sound checked. Before night-time shows, the white cotton screen is stretched tightly along the bamboo frame with cord, and spiked into the banana logs; the light source (traditionally an oil lamp, more frequently today an electric light bulb) is suspended screen-centre by metal chains. (No screen or light is used for daytime shows.) The light is placed so that it hovers above the head of the dhalang. It must be able to swing back and forth and rotate during performances. Cirebonese puppeteers place enormous stress on shadow effects and use the light in various subtle and creative ways. A dhalang goes to great lengths to ensure that the shadow of his hand is not visible as he manipulates puppets before the screen.

Performance spaces differ considerably; not all panggung are the same size and trees and overhangs from buildings constrain the physical setup in certain ways. This means that the arrangement of the equipment must be flexible. Many puppeteers carry bamboo battens and screens of different sizes to accommodate unknown performance conditions. Small spaces mean that puppets not in use might be draped over strings instead of arrayed in banana logs, or that some musicians will be playing on a patio or on an extension of the stage instead of on the panggung proper. A downpour of rain means that the speakers and puppets have to be covered with plastic sheets. All of this is normal, and expected by the troupe.

 **
Source : Cirebon Arts
These articles appeared in Seleh Notes, The UK Gamelan Magazine, Volume 9 Nos 1 and 2
By Matthew Isaac Cohen - Lecturer, Theatre Studies, University of Glasgow.
Photographs: Matthew Isaac Cohen and Aviva Kartiningsih Cohen.