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A puppet renaissance in Bali
Reaching out: The joy of puppetry as seen in the smile of the dalang of Wayang Cing Cing Mong
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Reaching out: The joy of puppetry as seen in the smile of the dalang of Wayang Cing Cing Mong.
The sacred and the mystic are at the heart of puppetry in Asia and the Middle East.
During wayang kulit performances, the shadows of the puppets are meant to evoke souls and spirits as they flit in the light to reach for an audience in the world that cannot be seen, according to Ghulam Sarwar Yousof.
The professor from the University of Malaya is in Indonesia this week for the inaugural Bali Puppetry Festival and Seminar at the House of Masks and Puppets in Tegal Bingin on the outskirts of Ubud.
The festival has drawn together puppeteers and theater scholars from across the region, including attendees from China, Indonesia Iran, Japan and the Philippines, all of whom have assembled to discuss puppet theatre, its history, current status and its role in the future.
Performances, of course, are also on the agenda to showcase the great diversity in national puppet traditions and stories.
Hadi Sunyoto, the patron of the festival and the founder of the House of Masks and Puppets Museum, said the festival developed out of the museum's collection. 'Indonesia needs to put more attention on puppets, because interest in traditional puppetry seems to be slowing down.'
Many old puppet troupes have disbanded and few replacements have emerged, Sunyoto said. 'We worry about that and want to do something to stimulate new interest in the art form.'
However, there have been more puppetry events in Indonesia this year in comparison to previous years, Sunyoto said. 'Hopefully, puppetry will re-flourish. This festival is our contribution.'
While hundreds of people flocked to the festival to witness some of the finest exhibitions of puppetry of the region, the rise of mass media has reduced people's interest.
'Puppetry is good entertainment with a message,' Sunyoto said. 'Young people spend too much time on computers. Why not look at puppetry? We can keep traditional values, but with a modern edge. You can't stand still, so we try to combine traditional techniques in a contemporary way.'
For generations, Sunyoto said, puppetry has been an important form of entertainment and source of information across the archipelago ' something that has not changed, despite the emergence of the Internet and smartphones.
'Traditionally Indonesians like puppetry, because they could watch the theater all night long,' Suryoto said. 'The messages are easy to get through to the people. Some religions also use puppetry to carry messages. I hope we can bring more young people to develop an interest in puppetry, as they are the future.'
Some children at the festival were keen puppeteers, such as Galih, a 12-year-old dalang (or puppet master) and his team of musicians from Surakarta (Solo), Central Java.
While in Indonesia, wayang kulit may be under siege due to shifting tastes and technology, puppetry traditions in other nations might collapse due to religious or political pressures.
For example, Ghulam said that puppets are being destroyed and performances banned in Malaysia. 'One factor is religion, which says you can't make images of humans, so in Malaysia many puppets have been destroyed. The traditional wayang kulit, known as kelantang are declining very fast because the stories are Hindu from the Mahabharata. Performances have rituals and that is controversial because these are pre-Islamic, so puppeteers are giving up or retiring and no one is following in their footsteps ' there are attempts to form new shadow puppet plays, but these are not very successful.'
Economic factors are also in play, the professor added: Dalang simply can't make ends meet, so they are forced to abandon their art and take other work. 'It's a global problem.'
Despite the grim situation, Ghulam looks to Bali and other areas of Indonesia as a safe repository for wayang, because puppetry here has been indelibly linked to local religions, most specifically Hinduism, which is the soul of so many puppet performances.
'Puppetry here in Indonesia is full of history. Here, the roots of puppetry date back to ancient times ' to the animist period,' Ghulam said. 'Some puppet performances are still used for healing, because of that connection to shamanism, which is a very important factor.'
Ghulam said that Balinese Hindus also depend on puppet performances for many rituals, such as funerals, wedding and teeth-filing ceremonies.
'In these shows there is no audience. The audience is the invisible beings. These traditions come from mystical elements, when shadows reflect off the light,' said Ghulam.
It is these factors that make Bali an ideal home for the puppet festival and as a launching place for a puppetry renaissance. The House of Masks and Puppets' vast collection, its library and its dedication to preserving the ancient art may be key to puppetry into the future.
'This festival is our first attempt,' Ghulam said. 'We expect to generate interest in puppet performances that leads to future action in preservation and conservation efforts. The collection here is very good and we can build on it.'
' Photos by J.B. Djwan
