KI SUDIRMAN RONGGO DARSONO: (JP/Godeliva D. Sari)

Ki Sudirman Ronggo Darsono comes from a long line of dalangs, or puppet masters, on both sides of his family.

His uncle on his mother's side was the late dalang Darman Gondo Darsono (died 1994), who was famous as a master of sabet, which literally means "to hit with a whipping motion".

In Javanese wayang kulit (shadow puppetry), sabet refers to the skillful manipulation of the puppets, especially in the battle scenes.

As a child, Sudirman would help his uncle Darman as an assistant. He would sit beside the box of puppets and prepare them for his uncle as he worked through the night.

Born in 1963, the youngest of eight siblings, to a dalang family in Sekaralas, a village in Ngawi Regency, Sudirman was only two years old when the anti-communist purges swept through Java, killing off a great number of folk artists.

Then the New Order regime introduced the so-called Green Revolution in agriculture, which got rid of the old ways of rice production. With the radical changes in rice culture, the myths, legends and rituals that were part of it also died out.

As Sudirman grew up, fewer people chose to have a wayang kulit performance to celebrate weddings, circumcisions or a good harvest. Though Sudirman's family was safe from the anti-communist purges, as time passed, jobs became scarcer.

"When I finished junior high school, I enrolled in a government school for dalangs in Solo, but after a while there I realized that I could learn more from my family than the school had to offer me," he told The Jakarta Post recently.

Sudirman chose to immerse himself more deeply in the tradition and continued with his dalang apprenticeship.

However, to become a good dalang, skill and experience alone are not enough; one is also required to master Javanese esoteric knowledge gained from practicing traditional asceticism associated to the indigenous Javanese belief system called kejawen or kebatinan.

"Kejawen methods are a life-long discipline. I still regularly fast, stay awake all night, meditate in water and visit the graves of venerated dalangs and Islamic wali, the holy men credited with bringing Islam to Java," he said.

"During the Javanese holy and auspicious month of Sura, the first month of the year in the Javanese calendar, I make an effort to visit different holy places and meditate there. I often stay up all night at my father's grave.

"The kris dagger I wear in performances was a gift from the dalang Ganda Suraji from Pekalongan; he is one of my teachers in Javanese kebatinan and the art of kebal (invincibility)."

Other places visited by kejawen practitioners who are dalangs are the grave of the wali Sunan Bayat in Klaten, or the grave of the man believed to be the founder of modern Javanese wayang kulit, dalang Sapanyana, in Purwadadi.

Alongside the famous wali Sunan Kalijaga, dalang Sapanyana is credited for developing shadow puppets to spread Islam. During the spreading of Islam in Java, the puppets were stylized so as not to be in conflict with the Islamic ban on depicting the human body. At the same time, the elongation of the puppets made it possible to project their images to a much larger audience than before.

After junior high school, Sudirman studied under his uncle Darman as an assistant and under his older brother as a kendang player for more than 14 years. During that time, he would sometimes perform as a dalang in their place or as an opening act.

In 1992, Sudirman got his first job performing as the main act, and since then the frequency of jobs has steadily increased.

To enhance his skills, Sudirman also studied the Javanese martial art of pencak silat and obtained the title of pendekar (master) in the Setia Hati Terate style that originates in the Madiun area, in 2001.

Nowadays, one of his trademark scenes uses tenaga dalam (inner power) to effortlessly thrust the buffalo horn stick of a puppet in the heat of battle, right through a banana trunk so that it gets stuck; he needs an assistant to tap it loose from beneath the stage to release it.

Living in a traditional wooden home in Sragen, Central Java, with his wife and two daughters, Sudirman now spends most of his spare time making shadow puppets and receiving guests, mainly other dalangs who want to learn more of the art of sabet.

Teachers from the school of gamelan music in Solo often consult with him and the institute often invites him to teach the art of sabet. He is also one of the best puppet makers around, and he owns the largest wayang kulit in the country, a giant that stands two meters high, which he made himself.

"I spend my money on making wayang. I have been compiling a collection for 10 years but it still isn't complete."

Making a puppet is a long process. After chiseling out the fine filigree, a buffalo hide must be matured for eight years to rid it of fat before painting. If there is any fat in the hide, "the fat will seep out, and the paint will peel", said Sudirman, who makes white paint from grinding burned bones and black paint from kerosene soot.

"An art school rector told me that to get a doctoral degree in Javanese literature, you must study in Holland. Nowadays people prefer to study Arabic rather than Javanese, and prefer the TV sinetron dramas to wayang. My role as a dalang is to keep people in touch with their heritage," he said.

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