Indonesian culture, like Indonesia itself, is
a fascinating blend of indigenous, Malay, Hindu, Buddhist, and
Islamic elements. Indonesia is a country of great diversity and
its national motto is "Unity in Diversity." This diversity
is also found in all aspects of culture: language, housing, cuisine,
dance and music, artistic expression, etc as each has many local
variants.
However, Indonesia is also noted for several distinct
and national cultural expressions. These include the Wayang shadow
puppet theatre, the gamelan orchestra, Balinese and Javanese dances,
batik cloth making traditions, and rice based and spicy cuisine.
Indonesia, like much of Southeast Asia, has adopted and adapted
the great Hindu epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and
uses these stories as the basis of many dance, musical, and puppetry
performances.
Wayang (puppet plays)
Wayang is one of the oldest and best developed story telling traditions
in Indonesia. The word means shadow or ghost and is used to refer
to dramatic performances using live actors or puppets. The most
common type of Wayang is that which uses shadow puppets and is
called Wayang Kulit. These puppets are two dimensional creations,
carved from buffalo or goatskin parchment into exaggerated human
shapes. These puppets have moveable limbs and are manipulated
by sticks attached to the limbs. Each puppet is a distinct type
and the various types: the hero, the villain, the lovely girl,
etc, are well known. These plays are performed in villages and
towns on special occasions such as a wedding, a public holiday,
celebration of birth or circumcision or, in Bali, for funeral
cremations. The puppets are manipulated behind a large white screen
which is lit with an oil or electric lamp from behind, causing
the puppets to cast shadows on the screen. They are manipulated
by a puppet master, called a Dalang who also speaks for the puppets,
sings, and taps out signals to the accompanying orchestra. He
must be able to imitate many voices, from that of a princess to
a noble hero.
Many stories are performed in these shadow plays
but most of them derive from the two great Indian epics of the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Brought to Indonesia and the rest
of Southeast Asia by Indian merchants, these stories have been
popular since their introduction in the 1st century A.D. Over
the centuries, these stories have been changed and modified until
they have become an intimate part of Indonesian heritage and have
particular Indonesian attributes. Rather than referring to Indian
kings and deities, they often refer to Indonesian royalty and
deities. The Ramayana refers to the cycle of stories about King
Rama, the ideal king and the series of trials and tribulations
he and his family underwent to demonstrate the ideals and ethics
that make him the perfect king. Stories of his marriage to Sita
(Indonesian Sinta), their banishment to the forest, Sinta's abduction
by the demon Ravanna (Indonesian Rahwana), her eventual rescue
by Rama with the aid of the monkey god Hanuman, and their reinstatement
as rulers, are some of the most popular and most frequently performed.
The second epic, the Mahabharata, tells the stories of the fratricidal
war between two groups of kinsmen, vying for the throne. The rightful
rulers, the 5 Pandava brothers, are cheated out of the throne
by the 100 "evil" Kurava brothers, their cousins. This
struggle is resolved by a bloody war resulting in the eventual
triumph of the Pandavas. In the process, there are many stories
of nobility, evil, love, humiliation, etc. The Pandava brothers
represent justice and right and are the descendants of Hindu Gods.
In Java, the kings claimed descent from Arjuna, the central one
of these brothers and the essence of nobility. His elder brother,
Yudhisthira, is the epitome of wisdom and honesty, while his second
brother, Bimasena represents physical and moral strength. These
stories have remained popular in spite of the acceptance of Islam
as the main religion in Indonesia.
Gamelan Orchestra
The shadow plays are accompanied by the gamelan orchestra which
also plays independently in concerts marking important events.
The gamelan orchestra consists of a large array of bronze and
percussion instruments. Instruments are tuned in two ways which
are similar to the minor and major keys of Western music and a
complete orchestra contains two sets of instruments, one tuned
each way. For an excellent site with pictures of the instruments,
please click on:
www.joglosemar.co.id/gamelan.html.
If you go to the home page of this site, you can access many other
aspects of Indonesian culture.
The following site also contains good information and pictures
of gamelan music, Wayang shadow puppets, as well as Balinese dances,
the art of Batik cloth making, architecture and art:
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Indonesian/Budaya%5FBangsa/.
In addition to dealing with music and dance, this site has recipes,
costumes, and houses. It is written in both Indonesian and English
so it can be a little frustrating at times, but the information
and the pictures are great.
Batik
Batik refers to the technique of creating beautiful designs in
cloth by covering parts of the material with wax and then dying
the material. The dye, of course, clings only to the parts of
the material not covered with wax. Designs to be created are either
drawn onto the material with a hot wax pencil or stamped onto
the material with a copper stamp. The cloth is then dipped into
the different colors of dyes, and the wax removed, creating a
vast array of stunning patterns. Batik is made throughout Southeast
Asia, including Malaysia and Thailand; Indonesian Batik has particular
designs and different areas specialized in different color combinations.
A final and
excellent photographic site with lovely pictures of everyday life,
landscapes, arts and architecture is the following: culturalportraits.com
