Gunungan

Javanese gunungan

Gunungan ( Indonesian "mountain", "mountainous"), also kayon, kayonan, kakayonan (from kayu , "wood"), is a character in the narrative theater forms wayang in Indonesia , the shadow play called wayang kulit in Java , Bali and Lombok is needed. The symmetrical figure made of translucent parchment , lancet-shaped in Java and rounded at the top in Bali, appears first on the screen at the beginning of the performance, disappears last at the end, marks changes in scene in between and can serve as a prop. It symbolizes the world mountain (in the Indian cultural area Meru ), the world tree and the unity of the world as a whole and magically enables the gods and ancestors to be present in the wayang figures during the game . In almost disappeared Picture Drama role Beber wayang is the gunungan painted between the pictorial narrative.

Origin of the Wayang Kulit

Painting of an East Javanese gunungan with wide Garuda wings.

Wayang means a puppet figure or other figure in a theatrical performance in the general Javanese language . The game itself is called wayangan , accordingly the figure in krama , the Javanese standard language ringgit (actually “head”, “portrait”) and ringgitan the game. A suffix is ​​used to differentiate between the theater forms: Wayang kulit ( kulit , “skin”, “shell”, “shell”) denotes the shadow play, which is further divided according to the origin of the themes into wayang kulit purwa , the episodes from the ancient Indian Sanskrit epics Contains Ramayana and Mahabharata , and wayang kulit gedog with stories from the later Hindu-Javanese period from the 13th century to the beginning of the 16th century. In wayang gedog is the hero Prince Panji, who appears together with Damarwulan and a number of other heroes in historical dramas ( lakon ), which mainly take place in the time of the Hindu Empire Majapahit (14th to early 16th centuries). Panji is also the main character of some dance styles, especially the mask dance topeng , and the pictorial role drama wayang bèbèr, which became rare in the 19th century and has now almost disappeared . The puppet shows with the same repertoire also include wayang klitik (flat colored wooden puppets) and wayang golèk (three-dimensional, larger wooden puppets).

In the first centuries AD, traders and colonists from southern India came to Southeast Asia by sea. The island of Sumatra , Java and the Malay Peninsula in the far west were probably the country referred to in ancient Indian texts as Suvarnadvipa ("Golden Island"), where Buddhist and Hindu teachings and the Indian caste system took hold. The process of Indianization took place from its beginnings in the 4th century BC. Until the full development of Indian culture in the 6th century AD. It is likely that it was not the traders who spread their religion on the islands to such a large extent, but the local rulers of their own accord requested Indian missionaries in order to gain knowledge of the more highly developed state structures in India to strengthen their power in addition to the culture.

The shadow play wayang kulit occurs in Indonesia only in areas where Hinduism was widespread in the course of history or is widespread in Bali to this day. The main contents of wayang kulit are adaptations from the great Indian epics. In India, the tradition of shadow play can be traced back to ancient Indian times, according to the interpretation of literary sources. To this day, numerous forms of shadow play are cultivated in India, the figures of which differ greatly from one another. The spectrum ranges from medium-sized, immobile figures made of thick, opaque animal skin, as in the Tholpavakuthu of Kerala and Ravanacharya by Odisha, to small, semi-translucent figures in the Chamadyache bahulya of Maharashtra to translucent, life-size and movable figures in the Tholu bommalata of Andhra Pradesh . The transparency, color scheme, the fine openings of the wayang kulit figures, their arrangement on the screen and certain preparatory rituals have counterparts in Indian traditions. All in all, this speaks for the (south) Indian roots of the Indonesian shadow play. In addition to this widespread view, some Dutch and Indonesian researchers emphasized the autochthonous origin of the wayang kulit in the Indonesian ancestral cult and even believed that it could spread from here to India. This met with just as little general approval as the theory that immigrants from China brought the Chinese shadow play with them in the 14th century , because written evidence of the wayang kulit (in the old Javanese epic poem Arjunawiwaha, written 1019-1042) had been around since the beginning of the 11th century, So at the time of a Hindu kingdom under Airlangga on Java. In the Middle Ages, the staging of the Indian epics in shadow play played a key role in spreading Indian beliefs, as did the Panaji stories later in the conversion to Islam.

Plastic stone reliefs with figures shown in profile in the "Wayang style" - so named because they are seen as the forerunners of wayang kulit figures - appear at the end of the 13th century at the East Javanese temple ( candi ) Jago (near Malang ), in the middle of the 14th century Century at the Penataran (near Bitlar) and in the middle of the 15th century at a temple on the slope of the Penanggungan. Around this time, Islam gained importance in Java. The heads of the Javanese wayang kulit figures, which are now abstracted like a bird's head and frozen in formula, are a concession to a correspondingly interpreted Islamic ban on images . The Balinese figures, on the other hand, were never subject to Islamic influence and have most faithfully preserved the lifelike appearance of the medieval temple sculptures in East Java.

In addition to the Indian-Hindu, older notions of animistic religions and ancestral cults have been preserved in shadow play. According to general opinion, the Indonesian shadow play originated much earlier than in the 11th century in connection with ancestor worship and has probably served as a defense against evil spirits since the beginning. The Javanese themselves see the roots of the wayang well in pre-Christian times. The Indonesian ancestor cult includes the magical meaning of the buffalo, which is particularly clearly visible to the outside in the rituals of the Toraja . The gunungan and the other shadow play figures were supposed to be made from buffalo hide without scarring in Java and from cowhide in Bali. The wooden holding rods of the figures used to be made of buffalo horn and shadow play performers ( dalang ) who strictly follow their ritual rules do not eat beef.

With the Islamization the shadow play passed into the Islamic cult practice. In the month of Safar (in Java sapar ), which is considered ominous in Islam, a religious bathing festival ( mandi safar ) is held in Java (and elsewhere in the region) , during which everything harmful is washed away. In central Java the village is symbolically cleaned, a feast is taken in the evening and a shadow play is then performed. It can also be held on Maulid an-Nabī , the Prophet's birthday, and other Islamic festivals. The Islamic mystic Hamza Fansuri (end of the 16th century) from Sumatra repeated the metaphor of people as the wayang (puppet- play ), which was often used by late medieval Sufi poets and refers to the Arabic shadow play (Arabic chayāl az-zill, "fantasy of shadows") Figure, mirror or shadow) of the divine.

Wayang kulit has been shaped by three different large cultural areas and changed over time, but it has always remained a part of religious belief and the festival tradition based on a mythical background. Originally it was the personal ancestors who took possession of the shadow play figures in mythical thinking during the presentation, later they were transformed into the ruling families of the historical Majapahit, who were honored as ancestors, and which became a mythical empire. With the gunungan at the beginning of the performance, the nobles of Majapahit have since been attracted so that they can unite with the heroes of the Indian epics and embody them in the characters for the duration of the performance.

Gunungan in the Wayang Kulit

Javanese gunungan with closed portal and two large yakshas on the side. The roots of the tree protrude into the water. There are some animals cavorting in the treetop, but the demon's head ( kala ) is missing.

The gunungan , as it is called in Java, or the kayon / kayonan in Bali is in the wayang kulit a large leaf-shaped figure made of dried, firm cowhide , the outline of which is pointed in Java and more rounded in Bali. The base of the leaf is roughly straight or slightly cupped. The figure, understood by name as a world mountain or tree of life, appears except in shadow play in play with flat wooden dolls wayang klitik , in play with round plastic dolls wayang golek and on the picture scrolls wayang bèbèr . The gunungan also appears as a motif adoption on handicraft objects and as an architectural element. The main external characteristics of the gunungan are similar for all wayang forms, but differ according to region.

shape

Within the leaf motif there are several figures and floral elements that stand out from the ground through very finely laid out perforations and color schemes. In the case of the approximately 75 centimeter high Javanese gunungan , the central theme in the lower area is usually a roofed portal, a temple gate in the shape of a pavilion with columns on each side. On its roof, a tree trunk grows upwards as a central axis, from which curved branches and twigs fill the lateral areas. In Bali and Lombok the entire design is symmetrical, whereas in Java there are slight deviations from symmetry and different details. A frontal and symmetrical representation as in the gunungan is otherwise reserved only for the highest figures of gods, while all other figures of the shadow play are shown in profile. Various animals such as tigers ( macan ), wild cattle ( bantèng ), monkeys and birds sit in the branches of the world tree . Some large animals face each other in fighting stances, the birds disappear between the fine branches. In some gunungan , a couple of humans and the elephant-headed god of fortune Ganesha appear. In the upper center a two-eyed demon head (Sanskrit kala , also bhoma ) looks out of the trunk at the viewer. Kala , as the head is called in Central Java, corresponds to the banaspati in East Java and the monster heads that stare at the visitor with their mouths wide open above the entrance portal of Balinese temples and keep away evil influences. Kala (Sanskrit, time personified) is the all-devouring demon or god of death, who arose from the seed of Shiva . With his wide-open eyes and terrifying teeth, he is one of the sinister figures together with rakshasas (demonic giants) and bhutas (demonic spirits). From other walls on Balinese temples, the related, terrifying motif of the one-eyed karang bintulu ("flowery one-eye") looks down.

A lotus flower at the top is a symbol of enlightenment, which is why some people see a mystical diagram ( yantra ) in the gunungan . With other gunungan , the round figure at this point is reminiscent of a sun disk with a halo and consequently symbolizes the Indian sun god Surya , which fits the interpretation as a sky tree. The fine branches and leaves, which fill the entire surface of the tree crown and densely surround the figures distributed in it, look like a primeval forest. This results in another possible interpretation of the gunungan as a symbolic retreat for a rite of passage in which a person dies in his previous phase of life in order to be reborn in a new phase of life. According to mythical notions, during this period man is particularly threatened by malevolent powers that have to be overcome and that are perhaps represented in the gunungan. An analogy for this is offered by the three-part sequence ( lacon ) of the Panji performance, which prepares the audience for the conflict in the first scene when Princess Sekar Taji disappears. This conflict is resolved in the second scene with fights from which Panji emerges victorious in order to marry the princess in the third scene.

Bird wings protrude over both sides of the projecting portal roof, which belong to the head of a Garuda depicted above and symbolize fire. As an ornament in batik painting, corresponding semicircular bird wings are called lar . Occasionally a snake, the mythical Naga, winds around the trunk of the World Tree . At the bottom, yakshas , spirits of the underworld, guard the portal on both sides. All demons and gods come from Indian mythology. Such a gunungan can also be used in the wayang golek .

The kayonan , which is completely symmetrical in Bali, has an approximately elliptical shape and is about 55 centimeters high. Animals are rarely shown, mostly the entire area between the wavy branches of the tree of the world is filled with floral patterns. Round mountain peaks or snakes can be seen in the lower area. The division shows the three worlds: The tree stands with its roots in the underworld, grows through the world of people and reaches the heaven of the gods.

Compared to the figurines of the wayang kulit equipped with movable arms , which have pivot points on the shoulder, elbow and often also on the wrists, the immovable plate of the gunungan is a specialty. However, the gunungan is not the only immovable plate. The rampogan plate (also rampokan or rampok macan ) is known, on which a group of soldiers attacks and kills a tiger. It describes an originally religious cleansing ritual that had sunk to a popular spectacle by the time it disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century. Another solid plate is Batara Guru , the divine teacher and a form of Shiva sitting on a bull.

function

Performance from the stage with the dalang and musicians. Three gunungan serve as props. Yogyakarta in Central Java

The shadow play features a banana trunk lying on the ground (in Java gedebog , in Bali gedebong ) into which the figures (in Java wayang , in Bali ringgit ) are inserted during the performance, a canvas stretched over it ( kelir ), one from above hanging lamp (in Java blencong , in Bali damar ) a box (in Java kotak , in Bali koprak ) with the figures on the left of the dalang , the lid of the box on the right of the dalang and four gamelan musicians behind the dalang , the various gendèr (metallophones ) play. The audience takes a seat on the floor in front of the screen, where they see the shadows of the figures, men are also allowed to look directly at the figures on the side of the dalang .

For the dalang , this structure with a banana trunk (earth) and canvas (sky) symbolizes the entire cosmos. If the dalang the figures holds their staffs and moves across the screen, acting in his hands divine forces with which he directs the action. The lamp is a symbol of the sun and at the same time the eye of the dalang . The gunungan creates a magical connection between the earthly and the beyond. Playing with puppets, as well as playing with masks ( wayang topeng in Indonesia ), is a form of theater in which the actor stands at a physical distance between himself and the acting characters, who are removed from real life by the stylization. When the dalang speaks the introductory words, the gunungan acts as a kind of mask behind which he hides himself. The invisible power of the dalang remains in the background.

A traditional shadow play performance begins after dark. The first of the three phases, in which the characters are introduced and the conflict is initiated, lasts until midnight. The battles and intrigues of the second phase drag on for about three hours. The third phase of reconciliation and friendship ends at dawn. In general, the centrally positioned gunungan (kayonan) also marks the breaks between important scenic sections during the game and can be used as a prop for mountains, rocks, other obstacles, royal throne, waves of a lake, cloud or - turned on the red back - for fire. As a pause indicator, the gunungan is set up at an angle, as the opening and closing figures straight. It leans to the left before midnight and to the right after midnight, following the passage of time. If there are two gunungan on Lombok Island , they will both be moved from the edge to the center to indicate the change of scene.

Java

In Java some dalang make sacrifices ( sajen ) in the form of food to appease the demons before the start of the game . After the prelude to the gamelan, the dalang addresses a supplication to the spirit world and takes his place. His two helpers have already taken their places to the side of him and some characters are arranged within easy reach on the edges of the screen: the gods and heroes on the right side as seen from the dalang and the demons on the left. The dalang now asks the gods to be allowed to place the gunungan in the middle of the screen. He does this and taps the figure box five times to wake the shadow puppets. With another request for permission to remove the gunungan , he takes the figure, rotates it three times on the screen and sticks it into the banana trunk on the right edge. The actual game action can begin and it is over with the last planting of the gunungan .

Bali

Api ("fire"), a demon in Bali who, as a counter figure, is most similar to the kayonan .

In the south of Bali, the dalang sacrifices on the stage behind the screen and mumbles a sacred verse ( mantra ). Then he hits the figure box three times, asks the wind god ( Vayu ) to play a part in the game, lifts the lid of the box and places it on his right. He takes the kayonan , moves it a little across the screen and pegs it in the middle. Next, the dalang attaches the large figure of Siwamurti (an angry manifestation of Shiva ) to the right, healing edge and the similar angry figure Wisnumurti (manifestation of Vishnu ) to the left, ominous edge . According to their helpful or harmful character, the figures used in the game are plugged in on both sides of the kayonan , with their faces turned away from the kayonan . Once the figures have shown their presence, they disappear from the canvas and are attached to the side. The remaining kayonan performs a faster and faster dance to attract the gods and demons so that they can take possession of the characters. Drowned out by the music, the dalang mumbles more mantras and finally positions the kayonan on the right side. Before the demonstration begins, he places the figures on the lid of the box as required, and hands the others to his two helpers. If the performance comes to an end after the last fight scene, the kayonan appears . If the dalang in his capacity as priest ( Dalang Mangku ) finally produces holy water ( tirtha ) in order to sprinkle the figures with it to protect them from evil influences, then behind the kayonan there is still the figure of Cintya. Tirtha is indispensable for ordinations in Balinese Hinduism ( agama Hindu Bali ).

The kayonan is directly related to the figure of Cintya, who is also called Sanghyang Tunggal ("Most Holy Unity"). Cintya is less the personified supreme god than the highest divine principle that includes all other deities. The shadow play figure of the Cintya is a naked human figure standing with bent arms, hands and legs together in a dance pose. The character never appears alone on the screen, but always together with the kayonan .

A Balinese figure that looks similar to the kayonan is called api ("fire"). Api has the shape of a pointed leaf with a terrifying face at the bottom, from which symmetrical radial lines go up. The figure of pohon kepuh ("tree of hell") is a counterpart to kayonan in every respect . The pohon kepuh is an asymmetrical, misshapen, tree-like structure with a witch sitting in the top. It serves as a prop for a cemetery with open graves that can be seen along with magical malicious spirits and skulls next to the trunk of the tree. The figure only occurs in the south of Bali and is used for King Kaurava's journey into hell (in Bali Korawa) in the last book of the Mahabharata .

Lombok

Modern gunungan in wayang kulit Sasak , with which the story Serat Menak Sasak is played.

On the predominantly Muslim neighboring island of Lombok, the wayang Sasak has its own narrative tradition, at the center of which is the Hamzanama cycle of legends from medieval Persia, known in Lombok as Serat Menak Sasak . The stories are musically accompanied by the gamelan wayang Sasak . From the 16th century a rather conservative Islam spread to Lombok, and the shadow play contributed to its popularization. Since the last decades of the 20th century, shadow play and other artistic expressions have been under pressure to adapt to a strict Islamic reform movement.

It is unusual that in the wayang kulit Sasak two gunungan are used, the size of which corresponds roughly to the Balinese figure, but ends in a point like in Java. The world tree is formed by two snakes placed next to one another, the rear ends of which protrude upwards and represent the starting points for the branches, while the heads below look symmetrically in an arc to both sides. Sometimes the heads of demons can be seen between the branches. The two gunungan , which also occur when the wayang golek stories from the Menak cycle of legends ( Serat Menak ) are staged in Java , are due to the Islamic view, according to which the world is strictly divided into the God-led world of good and bad Shaytan's world is divided. According to Günter Spitzing (1981) , a gunungan that encompasses the entire world, as in Hinduism, is inconceivable. A gunungan on the left and on the right together embody the whole of the world in the wayang Sasak .

According to this description, the dalang initially puts the figures on the outermost edges of the screen in a row in the banana trunk, according to the Islamic faith the orthodox figures on his right and the unbelieving figures on his left. On the left the dalang places the first gunungan at a slight angle . In the middle of the screen he marks the beginning of the performance with a dwarf-like funny figure named Lurah Sabatan , who has an oversized kris in her belt. A second funny character is added shortly before they both disappear to make way for the second gunungan , who is dancing across the screen with two other characters hidden behind him. A moving gunungan is always musically accompanied by a long bamboo flute ( suling ). The dancing gunungan comes to rest in the center of the picture, the two figures are visible to the side of the gunungan and identify themselves as Amir Hamzah, the well-traveled hero of Serat Menak , who converted all conquered countries to Islam, and his favorite wife Putri Muninggar. This group of three remains on the screen for a while until the noble couple disappears and the gunungan is planted to the right of the dalang on the edge. The screen remains framed by both gunungan during the performance .

In other performances that David Harnish (2003) saw, only one gunungan appears. The orchestra, consisting of the bamboo flute suling , the cylindrical drum Kendang , a Gong and several metallophonic , plays at the start three times by pauses separated the opener Rank Sang ( "provocative", "exciting") before the dalang the oil lamp ( Labakan mostly, now a electric light bulb). The lamp - symbol of the sun - follows the pieces of music representing fire, air and water. The dalang now wakes up the figures by lifting the lid of the box. The figure that is first placed in the middle is the gunungan , to whom Amir Hamzah (also called Jayengrana) and Muninggar are immediately joined on both sides with a view of the world mountain. In cosmic symbolism, the gunungan embodies the creation of the world with all plants and animals, the hero pair surrounding him represents Adam and Hawa (Eve). After the dalang has spoken a few religious formulas, he lets all three figures disappear to the edge in a flight movement while the orchestra intones the piece Janggal (“to go”). The dalang has thus performed the divine act of creation in the world. After a few general preliminary remarks, he puts the gunungan back in its middle position and describes the following plot of the game, which will soon be heading towards the central conflict.

Gunungan in the Wayang Beber

Wayang bèbèr in the Mangkunegaran Palace in Surakarta . Typical fight scene, gunungan a little to the right of center.

The pictorial role drama wayang bèbèr was considered practically extinct at the beginning of the 20th century and was only rediscovered by research in two Javanese villages in the 1960s. It consists of several, slightly more than two meters long and 70 centimeters high, painted strips of paper that are rolled over on two vertically positioned sticks so that four scenes are visible to the audience sitting on the floor. Certain preparatory acts of sacrifice are required in order to be able to show the image roles that are considered sacral. The roles contain scenes from the Hindu-Javanese cycle of legends about the legendary Prince Panji, on which the dalang gives explanatory comments. The acting figures, which are formally similar to the Javanese wayang kulit , are surrounded by architectural elements and floral ornaments. The action takes place in a room, in a garden or in the forest. Some of the motifs embedded in the area-filling design of the scenes have a magical protective function in addition to their decorative effect. These include the triangle motif ( tumpal ), which often appears on batik fabrics , the demon's head ( kala ) and the gunungan .

The tree shape of the gunungan can be clearly seen in the role models from the central Javanese village of Gelaran, but it is more stylized in the images of the village of Gedompol. The root area of ​​the tree belongs to the element water, sometimes aerial roots can also be seen that secure the trunk. The roofed portal belonging to an Indonesian temple ( candi ) is usually framed by wings and is closed by a door. In some scenes the gununggan are only partially shown because they are overlaid by other motifs or cut off from the outer edge. The trunk is usually visible as a central axis. Branches that are becoming shorter branch off from it upwards, between which leaves, flowers and sometimes fruits can be seen. In the middle of the trunk, as in the wayang kulit in Java, there is usually a demon's head, usually with one eye ( karang bintulu ), as in Bali , more rarely with two eyes ( kala ).

Independent sun motifs appear on two of Gelaran's scrolls, which may be related to the tree through a mythical story. According to this, there is a sun being who has four feet or, like a bird, two feet and is once described as a golden swan, sits on a tree in the forest and is eaten by a giant every day. This interpretation brings the entire animal world in the treetop into a mythical context: because the wayang bèbèr has no outer boundaries to the gunungan , the animals and other design elements are spread over the entire surface of the picture. This can be interpreted as if the gunungan were movable like in the shadow play and would move across the entire picture surface. The painted outline of the gunungan corresponds to the leaf of a Bodhi tree ( Ficus religiosa , in Indonesia wringin ), a tree with a magical-religious meaning because Buddha was enlightened under it . In this respect, the leaf stands for the whole tree.

Acquisitions and equivalents

Wringin Lawang ("Bodhi Tree Gate") of Trowulan Temple in East Java from the 14th century. The two central motifs of the Javanese gunungan are united in the name : the holy Bodhi tree ( wringin ) and the portal, here in the form of a split gate ( candi bentar ).

In addition to the traditional stories of Indian origin ( wayang purwa ), the shadow play also served to spread political issues with educational intent and to pursue religious missionary work. In modern Indonesian plays, with an ecological awareness, the gunungan can be used as a symbol of fertility and the wholeness of nature.

A snake at the foot of the world tree is the infinite world serpent, in India Ananta-Shesha , in Java Anantabhoga, which is connected with Vishnu in cosmogonic narratives . In the Hindu ideas in Java and Bali, the snake is also associated with the rainbow, just as the Dayak underworld snake in Borneo is related to the rainbow, which forms a bridge into the sky. There are images of the underworld snake among the Dayak that resemble those on the gunungan . In the wayang theater forms, Anantabhoga, the serpent god living in the seventh underworld, is usually represented in human form.

In addition to the Buddhist stupa , the mythological hybrid creature Makara and the lotus flower, the gunungan is one of the main ornamental motifs that appear on traditional houses in many regions in Indonesia and Malaysia. The gunungan , stylized to the outline of a mountain, is considered a status symbol and is preferably carved in wood above house entrances or forms openings in shutters. Under Islamic influence, the Hindu demon head on the gunungan was replaced by floral ornaments in architecture . The gunungan motif is a symbol of the earth and femininity according to the similar but inverted motif of the water buffalo horns , which form the tip of the cantilevered gable in many traditional house types ( rumah adat ), including the Batak in Sumatra . This rooftop unites a dualistic cosmos by simultaneously standing for the celestial bodies sun, moon and stars and masculinity.

The gunungan is also one of the motifs that decorate ritual objects. One example is the bronze attachment of a processional stick from the East Javanese period (around 930–1377), which was carried forward during ceremonies. The main motif consists of a spoked wheel (also throwing disc, chakra ), one of Vishnu's attributes and known in Buddhism as the “wheel of teaching” ( dharmachakra ), which grows out of a lotus flower. In the upper center is a gunungan- shaped mountain range that encloses a one-eyed demon head.

The gunungan of the shadow play is the two-dimensional equivalent of the Indonesian temple structure ( candi ), which is considered the symbol of the world mountain Meru. That is why the Balinese temple shrine, which rises high into the sky with its stepped roof, is called meru . Most of the graves of the holy men venerated in Indonesian Islam , especially the nine holy Wali ( Wali Songo ), are located on mountain peaks. Even in pre-Islamic beliefs, the land of kings and ancestors lies on the mountain peaks. The Dayak locate the land of the ancestral souls , the tree of life ( batang garing ) and the water of life on the mountain top . They get there through a stone gate. Together with the other characters in which the kings and venerated ancestors sit down during the game, the gunungan represents a mythical link between all these ideas.

Even without tombs, mountains have had a magical meaning in many regions of Indonesia since ancient times, which is still particularly true today for the Gunung Agung in Bali and the Bromo in East Java: Both are considered the seat of the gods. Accordingly, the mountain was used as a ruler symbol. The throne of one of the sultans of Perak in Malaysia, who came to the museum there in 1934, is painted on the back with a mountain motif ( gunong-gunong ), the roughly triangular surface of which is filled with a tree of life with curved foliage, which comes from a vase (fertility symbol ) grows out. A Malaysian wedding custom is the bersanding ceremony, in which the bride and groom take their seats on a richly decorated, mountain-like throne and experience a dance and music program performed for them as “kings for a day” ( raja sa-hari ). The very meaningful ceremony is a Hindu tradition that was carried over into Muslim marriage.

Garebeg procession in Yogyakarta with two gunungan (mountains of rice). First half of the 20th century

The mountain becomes a symbol of the care and generosity of the Sultan towards his people in a ceremony called garebeg , which takes place three times a year in Yogyakarta and Surakarta in the form of food piled up to form a mountain . The ceremony, which dates back to the time of the Majapahit empire, is intended to express the bond between the ruler and his subordinates for the good of the empire. The three garebeg are organized by the sultan 's palace ( kraton ) of the two cities and take place as processions on Islamic holidays. The largest event is Garebeg Maulud ( Maulid an-Nabī , "Birthday of the Prophet") in honor of Muhammad , the other two are Garebeg Sawal , the festival of breaking the fast at the end of Ramadan and Garebeg Besar , the Islamic festival of sacrifice . Thousands of spectators stand at the roadside when in Yogyakarta several men carry a series of platforms with mountains of food ( gunungan ) from the palace to the courtyard of the Great Mosque and other mountains of food to other places. In the smaller procession from Surakarta, only the Great Mosque is the destination. The dishes are mainly made on the basis of sticky rice . According to the shape, “male” mountains ( gunungan lanang ) are differentiated from “female” mountains ( gunungan wadon ) and some other mountain types. For the organizers, the processions are a means of maintaining the palace's traditional power.

The Turkish Karagöz theater, like the Javanese shadow play, developed under the influence of Sufi currents and also contains elements that can be traced back to a pre-Islamic, animistic period. According to one theory, the Javanese shadow play, which was brought back by Arab traders returning from Java, influenced the Arabic shadow play, which in turn became the model for the Karagöz, which was historically tangible from the beginning of the 16th century. There are several parallels between the two shadow play traditions , one of which is the gunungan , which is set up as the tree of life göstermelik at the beginning of the Turkish shadow play.

literature

• Kathy Foley: The Tree of Life in Transition: Images of Resource Management in Indonesian Theater . In: Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2/3, 1987, pp. 66-77.
• David Harnish: Worlds of Wayang Sasak: Music, Performance, and Negotiations of Religion and Modernity . In: Asian Music , Vol. 34, No. 2 (An Indonesia Issue) Spring – Summer 2003, pp. 91–120.
• Mally Kant-Achilles, Friedrich Seltmann, Rüdiger Schumacher: Wayang Beber. The rediscovered scroll drama of Central Java. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1990.
• Günter Spitzing : The Indonesian shadow play. Bali - Java - Lombok. DuMont, Cologne 1981.

Web links

Commons : Gunungan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fiorella Rispoli: To the West and India . In: East and West, Vol. 55, No. 1/4, December 2005, pp. 243-264, here p. 258
2. ↑ Urs Ramseyer: Culture and Folk Art in Bali . Atlantis, Zurich 1977, p. 35
3. ^ Fan Pen Chen: Shadow Theaters of the World. In: Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 62, No. 1, 2003, pp. 25–64, here p. 34
4. ^ Friedrich Seltmann: Java and Bali - Aftermath of Autochthonous and Indo-Javanese Elements in Muslim Java. In: Linden Museum Stuttgart (ed.): Java and Bali. Buddhas - gods - heroes - demons. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1980, p. 138
5. ↑ Norbert Hofmann: The Islamic festival calendar in Java and Sumatra with special consideration of the fasting month and fasting break festival in Jakarta and Medan . Bock + Herchen, Bad Honnef 1978, pp. 65, 67
6. ↑ Günter Spitzing, 1981, p. 141
7. ↑ Günter Spitzing, 1981, p. 36f
8. ↑ Kathy Foley, 1987, pp. 67f
9. ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, p. 34f
10. ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, p. 34; Günter Spitzing 1981, p. 171.
11. ↑ See Robert Wessing: A Tiger in the Heart: The Javanese Rampoc Macan. In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Vol. 148, 1992, pp. 287–308
12. ↑ Friedrich Seltmann: Comparative components of the shadow play forms of South India, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Bali and Java. In: Tribus. Publications of the Linden Museum, No. 23, Stuttgart 1974, pp. 23–70, here p. 29
13. ↑ Kathy Foley: My Bodies: The Performer in West . In: TDR (1988-) , Vol. 34, No. 2, Sommer 1990, pp. 62-80, here pp. 75f
14. ↑ Constantine parade Vitis: Ways of the Wayang . In: India International Center Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 2 (The Everyday The Familiar and the Bizarre) Summer 2001, pp. 59–68, here p. 60
15. ↑ Günter Spitzing, 1981, p. 150
16. ↑ Günter Spitzing, 1981, pp. 52–55
17. ↑ Günter Spitzing, 1981, p. 94
18. ↑ David Harnish (2003, p. 92)
19. ↑ Günter Spitzing, 1981, pp. 205f
20. ↑ Günter Spitzing, 1981, pp. 185f
21. ↑ David Harnish, 2003, pp. 105-107
22. ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, pp. 34-40
23. ↑ See Kathy Foley, 1987
24. ^ Jacoba Hooykaas: The Rainbow in Ancient Indonesian Religion. In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Vol. 112, 1956, pp. 291–322, here pp. 311f
25. ↑ Ismail Said: Visual composition of Malay woodcarvings in vernacular houses of Peninsular Malaysia . In: Jurnal Teknologi, Vol. 37 (B), 2002, pp. 43–52, here p. 45
26. ^ Ab. Aziz Shuaib: Application of Kelantan Traditional Aesthetic Values ​​into the Architecture of Contemporary Homes. In: Arts and Design Studios, Vol. 6, 2013, p. 17
27. ↑ Margaret J. Kartomi: Dualism in Unity: The Ceremonial Music of the Mandailing Raja tradition . In: Asian Music, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1981, pp. 74-108, here p. 76
28. ↑ Otto Karow : History and Culture of Java - an overview . In: Linden Museum Stuttgart (ed.): Java and Bali. Buddhas - gods - heroes - demons. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1980, p. 72f
29. ^ Willem Stutterheim: The Meaning of the Hindu-Javanese caṇḍi. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 51, No. 1, March 1931, pp. 1-15, here pp. 14f
30. ^ W. Linehan: Tin-Temples (Gunong-Gunong). In: Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society , Vol. 24, No. 3 (156), October 1951, pp. 99-103
31. ↑ The Garebeg Procession in Karatons . Joglosemar
32. ↑ Ofita Purwani: Whose Garebeg? The Case of Yogyakarta and Surakarta. In: Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review. Journal of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments , Vol. 259, 2014
33. ^ Fan Pen Chen: Shadow Theaters of the World. In: Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 62, No. 1, 2003, pp. 25–64, here p. 38