Punokawan!, Made in Indonesia

Some People Know that Indonesian Wayang puppet show was influenced by India's epic story. But please don't forget, that indonesian people are very creative to respond that culture by adjust those India's epic story with Indonesian's self culture.

about Punokawan!

http://www.museumwayang.com

right to left: Semar, Gareng, Petruk, Bagong.

They are character of Wayang puppet that constructed in process of acculturation that influenced majorly by Javanese. Each of those character are have various behavior which symbolyzed by each design and as an idea, principal, or ways of life that sould be inspired traditional people in Javanese especially.

Characreistic[1]:

• Semar character that has white crest hair represents a story behind the calm attitude of genius, mental sharpness, rich life experience and knowledge. Also simple, quiet, humble, sincere, not hypocritical, it's never too sad and never laughed so merrily. His mental state is very mature, calm water like a sweep.
• Gareng’s prominent features are physical disabilities. His squinted eyes is a sense of awareness, throbbing hands as a sense of thoroughness and limped legs is a sense of prudence.
• Petruk is a symbol of the will, desire, intention described in his hands. hia hand that pointing forward, choose what does he want, hand grasped behind what has been gotten and kept it.
• Bagong with his two hands five fingers widely opened, meaning that he is always willing to work hard.

"The adjustment of this philosophy concept also talks about the Javanese’s view of philosophy toward the position of gods in Javanese puppets world. Gods in Javanese puppets world are no longer a figure that free from mistakes, but as the same as other creatures of god, which sometimes can do mistakes. The existence of Punakawan (four figures in Javanese puppet consist of Semar, Gareng,Petruk, Bagong) in Javanese puppet intendedly created by Indonesia’s culture experts (especially Javanese’s culture experts) to strengthen the concept of philosophy that in this world, none of creatures that purely good, or purely evil. Every creature contains good and evil side[2].

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[1] http://www.javaisbeautiful.com/our-blog/semar-and-punokawan-deep-philosophy-in-javanese-wayang-characters.html

[2]http://www.javaindonesia.org/art-culture/wayang-javanese-puppet-show/

Mahabharata: the Pandawa's saga

Gatotkaca, the Flying Knight of Pringgadani, son of Bimasena

The central story of the epic deals with the conflict between two branches of a family descended from the suprem Gods of Hinduism. One branch of the family, the Korawa, usurps the throne from the rightful heirs, the Pandawa.

The Dalang

The puppets are stored in line, in a banana tree trunk, behind the screen and in front of the puppeter. The puppeter is called the dalang.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.

Not everyone can be a dalang. A Dalang is a most extraordinary man. First of all, he is a public entertainer. To amuse a great number of people is not an easy matter. He must be physically strong and healthy, otherwise he would not be able to stand the strain. Just imagine, he is seated cross-legged for nine successive hours. He cannot even have a wink of sleep.

The music during the performance: The Gamelan

The traditional gamelan orchestra accompanies the dalang, who manipulates the puppets from behind on the same side of the screen, providing a nearly continuous music appropriate to each scene. Though the dalang never looks back at them, and nearly never says a world to the players, each of them seems to know precisely what to do.

The Performance

"The evening of the Wayang performance has at last arrived.

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.

Wayang Kulit

Wayang kulit (Leather Puppets / Shadow Puppets) are performing art which is more than half a millennium. Its appearance has its own story, related to the influx of Javanese Islam. One member of the Wali Songo created it by adopting Wayang Beber which thrives on Hindu-Buddhist heyday. The adoption was done because the wayang kulit already attached to the Java so become an appropriate medium for da'wah in order to spread Islam, while Islam forbids visual art forms. As a result, wayang kulit created where people can only see the shadow.

Wayang, Puppet Theatre of Indonesia

Wayang, Puppet Theatre of Indonesia

© Tim Mowrer / Mekin Photography

“A rich mixture of local Indonesian myths, Persian tales, and Indian epic stories constitutes the core of Wayang puppetry in Indonesia. Accompanied by a gong orchestra (gamelan), exquisitely crafted shadow puppets are operated by master puppeteers (dalang). The continuation of the cultural expression depends on artists trained in at least the three fields of storytelling, playing music, and puppet-making. However, the changing economic structure of Indonesia has led to a decreased interest in and demand for wayang performances, which jeopardizes artists’ livelihood and the transmission of their art. Furthermore, wayang is pressed to serve popular tastes that sometimes do not appreciate its traditional refined way of weaving humour into serious social and political commentaries. In this milieu, in November 2003, UNESCO

Introduction

Hey! You must be wondering what is that thing above? That was one of many traditional alphabet in Indonesia. It wrote as "Sugeng Rawuh", means Selamat Datang a.k.a Welcome!

Alright then, we are a group of students from International Affair at Brawijaya University. This is our project as a non-state actor in diplomacy class.This blog provides Indonesia cultures and its relation to education for our people. We try to share the idea and the value that can be adopted in the universal life, especially for youth and its generation. We believe that our culture and heritage can see things differently, from identity to humanity, etc. Just like one of our first president said,

"This country, the Republic of Indonesia, does not belong to any group, nor to any religion, nor to any ethnic group, nor to any group with customs and traditions, but the property of all of us from Sabang to Merauke!" -Soekarno.

So get ready and be amazed guys! Sampai jumpa! *wink-wink* (;