Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The Cultural Art Forms of Indonesia WAYANG KULIT

Written in bahasa by Prof. Dr. R.M. Soedarsono


Up till now cultural observers still argue about the origin of the Wayang Kulit performance which is very popular in the javanese community. Apparently it is necessary to observe several very different opinion, i.e. the opinion of R. Pischel, Goerge Jacob, and W.H. Rassers.


Kalasinema is a new presentation of Wayang (Javanese Shadow Puppets) Performance for Video Audience. This presentation was performed by Ki Purbo asmoro.
Source: bramkushardjanto youtube


 
Pischel said that the wayang kulit performace came from India, with the reason that besides the stories that are performed at a wayang kulit show are always part of the Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, there is a leather puppet theater show called CHAYANTAKA.

Jacob had another reason about the performance of the javanese community which is very popular among all classes of the community. He said that the show came from China. His reason was that there is a shadow performance in China telling stories about kings in the past, and the much older influence of foreign culture towards Indonesia came from the South China region.

The last opinion came from a Dutch scholar, Rassers. With the reason that various technical outfit could not be found in the leather puppet show of India, he guessed that the wayang kulit performance originally came from Java. This performance was the development of a ceremony to worship the soul of the forefathers (Holt. 1967)

The Wayang Kulit performance which is a tradition of the community in Java and Bali which has socialized a great deal, appears also to have developed in the circles of the community in Lombok. Different from the stories that highly color the wayang kulit perpormance in Java and Bali which generally use the epic of Mahabharata and Ramayana, the wayang kulit in Lombok always shows plays that have its source in the Menak stories. The play of the Menak stories always picture the heroism of a prominent figure in an Arabic country before the development of the Islam religion.


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