Wayang beber
Wayang beber , also wayang bèbèr ( Javanese , from wayang, “doll” and beber , “roll up”, “spread out”) is a form of dramatic narrative on the Indonesian island of Java , in which a demonstrator ( Indonesian dalang ) painted on scrolls Shows scenes and tells them with music. The performances include stories from the narrative cycle about the mythical Prince Panji, which was created during the later Hindu- Javanese kingdoms (13th century to early 16th century). The Panji stories belong to the more recent narrative tradition of wayang gedog .
Wayang beber is an art form belonging to the Indonesian theatrical style wayang , which is highly valued by the population, but was considered to have practically disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century and only in the 1960s by research in the two villages of Gedompol and Gelaran on the south coast East Java was rediscovered. The picture narration by Gedompol, presumably made at the end of the 17th century, consists of six roles, each with four scenes in chronological order and with a continuous plot. In Gelaran there are seven picture scrolls with four scenes each from the first half of the 18th century, the narrative cohesion of which has not been clearly passed down.
Origin and research history
Wayang refers to a puppet figure or another character in a drama in the Javanese language. An attached qualifier explains the style and content of the theatrical performance. The best known is the shadow play wayang kulit ( kulit , "skin", "shell", "shell"), which is classified according to the origin of its themes. Wayang kulit purwa , abbreviated wayang purwa , the "ancient wayang", contains episodes from the ancient Indian Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharata as well as the Arjuna Sasrabahu, the story of the Ramayana , written by Tantular in the 14th century at the court of the Rajas of Majapahit known King Arjuna contains.
The romantic story of Prince Panji does not go back to Indian influence, but originated in Java. The corresponding shadow play is called wayang kulit gedog . The legends of wayang gedog include Panji and other heroes, especially Damar Wulan , the main character in a knight novel from the Majapahit period. Gedog is a word of the Kawi language, a forerunner of today's Javanese language, and means "horse", corresponding to the New Javanese kudho . According to the Javanese prince Noto Soeroto (1888-1951) of the Sultanate of Yogyakarta, it stands for the blow that sounds like a pounding horse's hoof that the captain ( dalang ) generates during shadow play when he hits the box ( kotak with his cempala (small turned wooden stick) ) knocks with the pawns to emphasize his presentation.
In addition to the wayang beber , Panji is also the main character in some dance styles, especially in the masked dance wayang topeng and in the puppet shows wayang klitik (flat colored wooden dolls) and wayang golek (three-dimensional larger wooden dolls). The wayang golek's extensive repertoire includes dramas ( lakon ) by the Indian wayang purwa , several Arjuna, Panji and Damar Wulan stories as well as the Muslim Serat Menak material, which is otherwise performed in the shadow play Serat Menak Sasak .
There is no clarity about the age of the Javanese wayang beber , it is about as old or older than the wayank kulit . Perhaps both originally belonged to animistic rituals and ancestor worship. The chronicles from the palaces ( kraton ) of Yogyakarta and Surakarta can be interpreted as follows: The introduction of the wayang beber is set around the year 1223. At that time, drawings were scratched on palm leaf strips ( lontar ). Prabu Panji Suryawisesa, the ruler of the East Javanese kingdom of Jenggala, told Indian stories about the drawings at his court. The king showed individual pictures one after the other and his lecture was accompanied by a gamelan . A later king of Jenggala named Prabu Surya Amiluhur relocated his empire to West Java in the 13th century, where he founded the Kingdom of Pajajaran. To enlarge the pictures, he had a paper made from the mashed bark of the paper mulberry tree ( Broussonetia papyrifera ), which in Javanese is called dlancang gedog or dlancang Ponogoro ( Panaraga ) after the only place where the paper was made (Indonesian "bark paper": kertas daluwang ) . The geographical indication "West Java" is doubtful because Ponogoro is in the eastern half of the island. During the reign of King Prabu Batana of Majapahit around 1316 the technique of the performance was improved with wooden scrolls, the pictures were carefully decorated and gilded. Now the name wayang beber came up for this demonstration.
The Majapahit king Brawijaya I is attributed the spread of the wayang beber in the form that has been handed down to this day, in which the color scheme was decisive for differentiating the characters (kings, heroes, subordinates). The rolls were rolled up on wooden sticks and these were placed firmly on a base. The king is said to have instructed one of his sons to find new wayang bebers . Three new picture scrolls for different stories were created in this way. When Majapahit was in decline in the 15th century, the scrolls came to Demak on the north coast, where the Sultanate of Demak became the first Muslim domain in Java at the end of the 15th century. A Muslim Javanese, Sunan Kalijaga, who is revered today as one of the nine holy wali ( Walo Songo ), used the wayang performances to spread his Sufi Islam. As a concession to the Islamic ban on images , the figures (both in wayang kulit and wayang beber ) lost their lifelike appearance and were given the frozen bird's head faces that still prevail today. Other sources tell far less than the palace chronicles.
The most important foreign sources about the Majapahit Empire at the beginning of the 15th century are the Chinese Muslims Ma Huan and Fei Hsin, who visited Java in the wake of Admiral Zheng He during a ship expedition in 1416. In her report it says that there are certain people who draw people, birds, animals and insects on paper. The paper is a 90 centimeter wide roll that is stretched between two wooden sticks and rolled over scene by scene from one end to the other, while a demonstrator sitting on the floor behind it makes loud explanations in the local language. The audience sit around him on the floor and break out into shouting or laughter depending on what he is saying. This description still applies, apart from the fact that the audience today only sits in front of the picture scroll. In photographs from around 1902, they were still sitting in a circle around the dalang .
In the following there are no specific references to the wayang beber up to the beginning of the 19th century. After the fall of the Majapahit Empire towards the end of the 15th century, many older traditions that were cultivated at the courts were probably lost and the performers had to adapt to the culture of the Islamic rulers. This could also have affected the actors who performed epic poems ( kakawin ) in the old Javanese language in the palaces, possibly together with picture roles. There were also wandering showmen ( widu mawayang ) who, among other things, continued the tradition of Indian epics in the shadow plays in the guise of Islamic imagery. The palace chronicles state that wayang beber was played at the time of the Muslim sultanate of Mataram until 1630 . In that year, the Sultan of Mataram forbade wayang-beber performances of the magical purification ritual ruwatan, which is why only shadow plays were shown in this public ritual afterwards and scrolls were hardly seen by any other audience. This changed under Sultan Amankurat II (r. 1677-1703) when the story of Jaka Kembang Kuning was shown.
The English researcher Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) recognized the Indian origin of the Indonesian shadow play and other forms of theater. He describes the wayang beber in 1817 as a "not very common" form of representation of the heroic tales of Damar Wulan and his adversary Menak Jingga. He only found the Panji stories in the wayang topeng ; he does not mention them for the wayang beber . According to Raffles, the latter, unlike another wayang, was not musically accompanied by a gamelan . According to Raffles, the wayang beber seems to have been rare as early as the early 19th century.
From the end of the 19th century there are some not very precise and partly hearsay based remarks by Dutch scientists. In any case, according to one statement, wayang beber is said to have existed mainly in West Java, according to another on the north coast of East Java under the name of wayang karebet . The sultan of Pajang, a small sultanate on the north coast of central Java that existed from 1568 to 1586, is said to have been called Raden Karebet because a wayang karebet demonstration took place in his house when he was born . GAJ Hazeu saw the roles of Gelaran around 1902 and found that their owner valued them as a very valuable inheritance ( pusaka ) and a magical sanctuary ( pepunden ). Rudolf Arnold Kern wrote in 1909 (in De Wajang Beber Van Patjitan ) about the wayang beber Gedompol that the dalang had refused to sell it because he was not allowed to do so out of respect for his ancestors. The dalang gave Kern a family tree of nine generations. The scrolls by Gedompol would have been made around 1700 with it. A presumed chronogram in the fourth scene of the first roll gives, according to the old Javanese year 1614, a date for the wayang beber by Gedompol in the year 1690. The reading is uncertain, but the date matches the estimate of the ancestral line of the dalang and represents the identity of the wayang beber by Gedompol with the scrolls used under Amankurat II. The other wayang beber from the village of Gelaran was made during the reign of Pakubuwana II (r. 1726–1749), with whom the Sunanat Surakarta began, in 1735 or 1739, also using bark paper from Ponogoro. This paper was used until the middle of the 19th century.
According to Hazeu (1904) and Kern (1909) the wayang beber was completely forgotten in science. Jaap Kunst ( Een en anders over de Javaansche Wajang , Amsterdam 1940) only mentions in his short article about the wayang shapes that the wayang beber is a 2 to 2.5 meter long strip of tree bast paper. It was not until 1963 that Mally Kant-Achilles saw dalang Sarnen's performance of the pictorial roles of Gedompol twice and the roles of Gelaran in the following year, although there was no dalang who could have arranged a performance. The two sets of picture scrolls are given these place names in research. The village of Karang Talun in the community ( desa ) Gedompol in the administrative district ( kabupaten ) Pacitan on the south coast of East Java was the hometown of the dalang Sarnen, the only recognized dalang for wayang beber at the time . The performances of the Gedompol roles took place a few kilometers east in the village of Donorejo, which is closer to the small town of Pacitan. The second village, Gelaran, is located north of Wonosari in the Gunung Kidul administrative district, which is connected to the Yogyakarta special region in the west .
Two authors, Claire Holt ( Art in Indonesia , Ithaca / London 1976) and Clara B. Pink-Wilpert ( Das indonesische Schattentheater, Holle, Baden-Baden 1976, p. 49), mention wayang beber performances about Pacitan, which she performed in seen the 1960s. To the knowledge of Claire Holt, there was the only dalang for wayang beber in the ( kecamatan ) Punung district near Pacitan . He is said to have shown twelve scrolls (2 × 0.5 meters) with a total of 24 scenes in three hours. Pink Wilpert also knew Pacitan as the only performance location in Java. Even before this time, copies of the two roles had found their way into the art trade and museums. In 1981 a demonstration with the original roles of Gedompol took place at the Goethe-Institut in Jakarta , which was scientifically documented.
Performances with copies of old picture scrolls are now organized by the municipal cultural department in Pacitan on certain social occasions such as the city's anniversary. The wayang beber is detached from its previous use as part of a ngruwat ceremony ( ngruwat, also meruwat , “ward off calamity ”, “disenchant”, “buy away from an evil curse”).
Dissemination of picture narratives
According to tradition in Jain scripts, narratives with the presentation of images were already in use in the Indian cultural area at the time of Mahavira in the 6th century BC. Known as begging picture presenters and storytellers ( Sanskrit mankha ). In the 12th century they are mentioned as Chitra Kathak (from citra, chitra , among other things "image" and katha, kathi , "history") in the encyclopedia Manasollasa of King Somesvara. To date, picture projectionists have been preserved in folk tradition in some regions of India. These include the 19th century Paithan painting from the city of the same name in the Aurangabad district in the state of Maharashtra. The storytellers ( chitrakathi ) from Paithan do not use picture scrolls, but rather individual pictures painted on paper, which they have bundled into a series ( poti ). The same applies to the few remaining citrakathi in some villages around the town of Sawantwadi in the south of Maharashtra, which appear with a stack of pictures painted on both sides on a 30 × 40 centimeter brown paper. The presenter speaks the dialogues alternately with an actor seated next to him, accompanied by some of the musical instruments used in regional folk music. These groups also perform a puppet show and the shadow play Chamadyache bahulya . The Chitrakatha tradition is still most alive today in Rajasthan , where the caste group of the Bhopas show and explain long, painted rolls of fabric called phad ( phad bachana ). The fabric image, which contains the entire story, is stretched between two wooden sticks stuck in the floor or in front of a wall. The bhopa himself accompanies his narrative on the spit lute ravanahattha . In the east of India in West Bengal the Patua maintain a corresponding tradition when they present picture scrolls ( pat ) painted with folk motifs . The Patua call themselves chitrakar and sing an epic chant as they unfold one scroll after another or, in modern times, offer their scrolls for sale.
In Iran during the Qajar era , storytellers (Persian pardadari , "curtain holder" ) wandered around with large pictures ( parda ) that were 3.5 × 1.5 meters in size and painted with oil on canvas . The pardadari sang the story about the tragic battle of Karbala while pointing to each scene in the pictures. The Iranian parda for the picture scroll is synonymous with par or phad in northern India.
In China there were already in the Tang Dynasty (618–907) the narrative chants Bianwen and in cave temples the murals Bianxiang , which depicted episodes from the same Buddhist legends on which the chants were based, and were thus probably a form of pictorial narration. A narrative picture scroll in Japan, which will be rolled up scene, the resulting in the 10th century Emakimono .
A general relationship also exists for medieval European Bänkelgesang which in Italy cantastorie and Spain cantastoria said. Unusual was the picture roll known today as The Sioux War Panorama by the American painter John Stevens, who in the 1860s and 1870s showed a 60 meter long and almost two meter wide canvas in event rooms, which was clamped in a frame with two horizontal rollers and was rewound from the lower to the upper roll by means of a gearbox and a hand crank. He had implemented the Sioux uprising of 1862 in pictures in 36 scenes . Two oil lamps lit the scene. Stevens stood on one side and told the story, a man on the other side turned the picture scroll and a music group accompanied the spectacle.
Performance practice
The description of the pictures and the course of the performance is essentially based on performances that Mally Kant-Achilles saw: twice the Gedompol roles in Donorejo 1963 and once the Gelaran roles in the village of the same name near Wonosari 1964. The Gedompol roles include the dramatic narrative ( lakon ) entitled lakon Jaka Kembang Kuning and the Gelaran roles essentially the play lakon Kyahi Remeng Mangunjaya . Both are variants of the Panji material and the only two surviving picture scrolls from Java. Individual old scrolls or copies of them are in some museums. The performances in Gedompol were designed by Dalang Sarnen, who gave the same performance again in Jakarta in 1981. The owner of the roles in Gelaran was not a trained dalang and could only roughly explain the scenes. This set had not been fully demonstrated in decades.
The wayang beber Gedompol consists of six roles, whereby the fourth scene of the sixth role may not be shown. That leaves 23 scenes. In Gelaran the wayang beber consists of seven picture scrolls, the first two of which are just as carefully painted as the scrolls by Gedompol. No researcher has seen an eighth roll in the open state; it is set aside as pepundèn (“holy”, object of religious worship). Rolls three through seven of Gelaran are unfinished; only individual outlines of the background can be seen that have not been filled in.
technical structure
The principle of the horizontally moving picture roll is simpler and, in contrast to the vertical picture transport of John Stevens rolls, does not require a solid frame, but is only suitable for small picture formats because the paper cannot be stretched particularly tight. The wooden box ( kotak ) in which the picture rolls ( gulung ) are stored serves as the basis . The Gedompol wayang beber is about 1.25 meters long, about 30 centimeters high and 14 centimeters so narrow that there is only room for two rolls side by side. The rods on which the picture rolls are wound measure around 90 centimeters, the completely unrolled paper webs a little over 2 meters in length and 70 centimeters in width. The box is closed with a removable lid. At one end there is an approximately 20 centimeter compartment for offerings. In accordance with its importance, the Gedompol box was protected with a white cloth ( kain mori , "white cloth" as the basic material for batik, also kain suci , "holy, consecrated cloth"). Peacock feathers lay on top of the Gelaran box as a (magical) protection against insect damage , because they supposedly attract the insects and thus keep them away from the box and its contents.
The paper web is glued to the one centimeter thick rods at both ends so that they protrude ten centimeters on each side. The bars are inserted vertically into recesses on both sides of the box. The paper of the paper mulberry tree, despite its thickness somewhat translucent, therefore, the tight-fitting behind the spanned image role dalang about recognize the translucent motives. Since the distance between the holding rods is fixed, the four scenes on each scroll have the same width. The paper is painted with glue paints without a primer. For performance, the box is usually on the floor, the dalang sitting behind the screen role and the audience take place on the floor in front of it.
Performance history
When Gedompol performed the wayang beber roles in 1963, seven people were employed: in addition to the dalang Sarnen, four musicians and two assistants were involved in the construction. The preparatory sacrificial acts were comparatively simple. The dalang lit the benzoin ( menyan ) in a bowl as a sacrificial fire and spoke a little softly to himself. On the table (chairs were lined up for the European guests and the picture scroll box was on a table) a white cloth was spread out in front of the box, on which there was an offering ( sajen ) a banana leaf folded into a pyramid and a flat container with handwritten leaves . This is the holy ( pusaka ) handbook ( pakem ) of the dalang , which contains instructions for performance and perhaps a textual basis. According to a description from 1909 and photographs from that time, the offerings were much more extensive and consisted of cooked rice dishes, sweets, a roasted chicken and flower blossoms in water.
After the end of sacrifices takes dalang the rollers out of the box, inserted the two rods of the first roller in the mounts provided at the box and puts the cover back on. The first of the four scenes ( jagong ) of a role can now be seen. Meanwhile the music ensemble ( gamelan ) begins to play. The music is supposed to bring the pictures to life and accompanies practically the entire performance. The total duration of the lecture in 1963 was about 1.5 hours. The duration of the 23 scenes shown was very different: the first scene of the first role took up 25 minutes, the two following scenes ten minutes each and several scenes were shot again after just one minute. The dalang copes with the change of roles in such a manner that at the end of the last scene of a role he takes the next role and while he rolls up the old role he rolls up the new one at the same time. At the end of the performance, the dalang says goodbye with an honoring farewell gesture ( sembah ) by putting both palms together in front of the upper body. This greeting corresponds to the namaste in India and the wai in Thailand. The dalang asks the audience to excuse his inadequacy and puts the roles back in the box. It is of religious importance that the sponsor of a performance then invites all participants and guests to a meal ( selamatan ). Selamatan is actually a memorial meal in honor of the dead (from selamat , "healthy", "safe", "spared from misfortune").
music
The orchestral formation gamelan , which is widespread in Southeast Asia and is presumably of Javanese origin, generally consists of several melody-forming beat idiophones and drums, supplemented by a few string instruments or flutes. Gamelan have been used in religious ceremonies and dances since pre-Islamic times. For wayang kulit purwa , a gamelan sléndro is always used in Java , which is tuned to the five-step scale sléndro . In contrast to this, the wayang kulit gedog uses a gamelan pélog tuned to seven pitches . Although the Panji stories of the wayang beber belong to the gedog repertoire, a gamelan sléndro is also used here .
The musical instruments of the gamelan from Gedompol have remained the same for at least the last 100 years. The only instrument that produces a sustained melody is the two-stringed bow- struck spit lute rebab (related to the oriental spit lute rabāb, which occurs under similar names ). The body is usually roughly heart-shaped, but the village-made instrument played in 1963 was round. The tempo is set by the two-headed barrel drum kendang . The kendang has an asymmetrically curved body, is hit with both hands and rests horizontally or at an angle on a wooden frame. The medium-sized design generally used for shadow plays and dance accompaniment is the kendang ciblon , which produces bright-sounding beats in two pitches. The players of the strings and drums, the two leading musical instruments, respond to instructions from the dalang , who either makes eye contact with them or hits the figure box with his wooden cone cempala to give a signal.
The gong suwukan is a flat, hanging hump gong that is significantly smaller than the gong ageng and takes the place of the larger gong in the shadow play ensemble . In a larger gamelan , the gong ageng marks the conclusion of the major musical periods and the gong suwukan marks the minor periods in between. The gong suwukan, which closes the periods in the wayang beber, is joined by three other smaller gongs. All four gongs, gong suwukan, the smaller kempul and the very small pair of gongs kemong and engkuk hang together on a wooden frame and are operated by a musician. The fourth musician plays the large kettle gong kenong , which lies horizontally on two crossed strings over a square frame made of floral wood carvings. Several kenong are placed at right angles in front of the musician; when it was performed in 1981, four or five of these kettle gongs formed a set. The instrument, known as kenong in 1963 , is a metallophone made of five iron sound bars, each with a small percussion boss in the middle, which are horizontally attached to strings over a wooden frame. A bamboo tube under each plate serves as a resonator. Without the small humps , such a kenong corresponds to a Javanese slenthem (also gendèr panembung ), which belongs to the gendèr group.
The rebab essentially follows the melody line of the singing voice with rich melodic ornamentation. Within the periods delimited by the gong suwukan , strikes of the three smaller gongs divide the time into equal intervals. Each of their beats is divided by kenong beats at double the speed . This constant sequence of strokes merges into an even closer sequence of strokes in some places, but is otherwise maintained over the entire playing time. The result is a cyclical, musical sequence similar to that which is typical for the music of the gamelan in general.
The beginning of the first and a few further scenes is a spoken recitation called janturan , in which the dalang introduces the action in a flowery language. It is common - also with shadow play - for the accompanying orchestra to play in the background with reduced volume during the janturan . Each scene begins with a musical introduction, after which the dalang speaks the dialogues ( pocapan or gineman ) of the characters shown. When the conversations are over and the events take their course, the dalang leaves his participating role and becomes the external narrator for a short time. The transition is made with the words: "semana kocapa ..." ("now it should be told ..."). He describes the events in a shortened form ( cerita , "story"), while the musicians are already intoning the opening music for the following scene.
If the dalang wants to point out a change in the situation of the dramatic action ( lakon ), he falls from the spoken lecture into a song-like chant ( suluk ). The suluk chants, which are interposed several times, can be classified into three types. The first and third suluk types introduce the individual scenes accompanied by the entire orchestra, while in the second suluk type the singing is only accompanied by the rebab . Every suluk chant is made up of short, melodic phrases; the first type has eight, the second type four, and the third type six. A certain Javanese mode cannot be heard.
Image content
iconography
The stylized, bird-head-like faces of the people depicted resemble the figures of the Javanese wayang kulit and wayang klitik . As there, the faces serve to identify and assign certain types. The types particularly correspond to those of wayang kulit gedog , which is based on the same Panji repertoire. The body positions, on the other hand, deviate from the elongated shadow play figures, because the people painted in the pictures are often seated or shown with their legs strongly kinked during rapid movements. The three fundamentally distinguishable types are the halus type ("noble", "fine", "cultivated"), the kasar type ("coarse", "vulgar", "uneducated", a dirty word) and the lucu type ("fun" , "Funny", "grotestk").
The face of the halus type has a nose drawn far forward, which forms a straight line from the forehead to the tip. Although the elegant face is shown in full profile, the second eye is often slightly smaller (two-eyed). The eyes are almond-shaped with a straight lower edge and a flat arch as the upper edge. The pupil sits as a circle or a segment of a circle in the anterior gusset of the eye. Eyes, noses and beards, which are often only recognizable as a narrow continuation of the corners of the mouth, are the main distinguishing features. The chin appears only as a gentle curve that extends to a thin neck that is far back. From the straight line of the shoulders, from which the neck suddenly protrudes, the body is shown frontally. Arms and legs appear long and thin like a spider. They often bend at an acute angle at the elbows. Like the head, the feet are shown from the side and always point in the same direction. This typology applies to all distinguished figures, regardless of whether they belong to the good guys around Panji or to the bad party around Panji's opponent, the cruel King Klana (Kelana Tunjung Seta).
The kasar type differs in its half-profile face, in which both eyes are roughly the same size, round and wide open. As with the halus type, the nose is long, but slightly wider and the slightly curved line of the bridge of the nose ends between the eyes. The shoulders are broad, the arms strong and partly muscular, the fingers of the relatively small hands are also rather thick. The body is rounded and is shown frontally or slightly from the side. Often a spherical belly hangs over the hip scarf (generally kain , "fabric", "cloth"). Muscular legs with feet pointing to one side look out from below.
The third lucu type includes the servants ( panakawan ) of fine masters. Their comical shape roughly corresponds to the lifelike appearance of the relief figures on medieval East Javanese temples before the influence of Islam. The oldest known representation of the panakawan type comes from the end of the 13th century and is located at the temple ( candi ) Jago (near Malang ). In the middle of the 12th century panakawan figures were first mentioned in writing at wayang kulit performances in the work Kakawin Ghatotkacasraya by the Javanese poet Mpu Panuluh. They have not gone through the depersonalization and standardization and therefore appear in a variety of designs with various physical abnormalities, mostly as dwarfs or giants. The feet are not always turned in the same directional side view, but can also be turned halfway forward. The heads have little general characteristics, except that the faces are shown in half profile, large and round. The noses are bulbous or shriveled, the eyes are round, some half-closed or protruding large.
Most of the male figures show an unclothed, almost white upper body. In everyday life, the nobles wear a hip scarf ( kain bokongan ) that reaches down to their knees and which can end in a train hanging far back with a fluffy border. In combat, they exchange this for a short hip scarf ( kain katongan ), under which they wear tight pants ( celana ) that reach below the knees . The noble women are clothed with a cloth wrapped over the breast ( kembenan ), which reaches to the knees, while the female panakawan are bare bones under a scant breast cloth ( kemben ). The male kasar types wear hip scarves, the ends of which are sometimes pulled through under the legs. The male servants usually show their upper body unclothed, many of them wearing nothing but a pubic bandage ( cawet ). Almost all male and female figures are equipped with jewelry in the form of necklaces ( kalung ) with a flowery brooch, hoops on the wrists ( gelan ), ear studs and upper arm bracelets . With princes, a curved "snake chain " ( kalung ulur-ulur ) hangs down over the chest, which ends in a Garuda head or the head of the dragon Naga Ardawalika.
The attributes of the figures or objects in their vicinity include: A tall container ( kacu ) that appears in courtly scenes, tapering towards the top , was possibly used to store long cigars; in the context of individual scenes, this can also be interpreted as a holy water vessel or a container for betel The latter would be a status symbol ( ampilan ) in the hands of ladies-in- waiting for a prominent position in ceremonies. The honor umbrella (Javanese songsong , Indonesian payung ) is a sign of dignity at court . It is held by a privileged court official ( panongsong ) over the worthy person, whose exact rank can be read from the color of the umbrella.
Men of the standing carry a ceremonial dagger ( kris ) in their belt in all the pictures . The kris is so sacred that, according to the most famous story, an entire empire falls apart when the king loses his magical kris to an evil demon. To the happy end, the king receives the even more powerful kris Pasopati from an old man , named after the name of this man, who is considered the country's first Muslim. The lance ( tombak ), which serves as a princely sign of dignity ( upacara ), is also venerated . Throne seats appear on several roles, behind which stands a large bird creature that resembles the mythical Garuda bird or a peacock.
Other birds, which are mostly clearly recognizable in the pictures, are flying in the sky or sitting in the treetops. Two soul birds fly over the heads of two dead heroes, always as a pair with the soul ( jiwatma , Sanskrit "soul", "self") accompanying the soul into the afterlife. Four-footed mythical creatures, remotely similar to horses, appear in some scenes, otherwise mammals are rare. A small type of cat is the spotted musang ( musang or luwak ), which like the mongoose has a bushy tail. Both types appear multiple times on the roles of Gelaran. They belong to the nocturnal animals, the luwak can be tamed well and then live in the environment of humans.
While one can only speculate about a possibly earlier, magical meaning of these animals, certain motifs appear in the wayang beber that also function as magical repellants elsewhere. This includes the tumpal triangle motif , which is very old in Indonesia , whose shape of a narrow, isosceles triangle is mostly hidden behind wavy lines depicting tendrils and leaves. The tumpal is often found on batik fabrics and on handicraft items. The demon head kala is difficult to recognize because it has become an ornament like flower petals or a rosette.
The central motif in the background of many scenes is the gunungan , with which the gods and ancestors are summoned as a shadow play figure in the wayang kulit at the beginning of the performance. In the outer shape of a wringin leaf (the sacred Bodhi tree, Ficus religiosa ), the gunungan embodies the world mountain and at the same time represents the tree of life with its central axis . The gunungan is united with the other figures in the crown of the tree of life and a covered portal below Demons, a kala head, the mythical snake Naga, the god of luck Ganesha , smaller animals and birds. The gunungan is more stylized on the Gedompol roles , while it is more prominent on the Gelaran scrolls.
narrative
The hero Panji is a character from the 14th / 15th centuries. Century and is staged in numerous variants in several wayang styles. Most of the figures depicted at temples during the Majapahit period belong to the Panji stories. When the island of Bali was conquered in 1364 , they also spread to Bali, where malat became the most popular Panji tale. The far-reaching political and cultural influence of the Majapahit Empire brought the Panji material to Siam and the Khmer Empire . On the Malay Peninsula , for example, the story of Hikayat Panji Kuda Semirang is known. Javanese Panji stories have titles like: Panji Asmarabangun, Panji Ande-Ande Lumut, Panji Jayakusuma, Panji Jayengtilem, Panji Ngronakung and Panji Waseng Sari - always after the main character .
For the narration of the scrolls by Gedompol, the title is after the main character (lakon) Panji Jaka Kembang Kuning . Panji's princess is Sekar Taji and the villain is the demon king Klana from another country. The princess learns that Klana wants to marry her and flees from the palace ( kraton ) of Kediri to avoid it . The good King Brawijaya has all the nobles of his kingdom called in to look for the missing princess. Whoever finds her will be allowed to ask for her hand. Klana also appears at the meeting and finds out about the deal. Panji goes on a search with two faithful and comes to the market square of the city of Paluhamba, where the princess happens to be. He recognizes her, whereupon she passes out and has to be taken to a house for care. The news of their recovery quickly reaches the palace. Panji sends gifts to the king from messengers to confirm his wish to marry. Klana also has gifts delivered through his sister Tigaron and demands the princess for himself. The gifts from Tigarons are not accepted in the palace, and an exchange of words soon turns into a violent argument. Tigaron is wounded and rushes to her brother. Klana appears in person at the palace of Kediri and insists on his request. To avoid war, the king orders a duel. The winner may receive Sekar Taji as his wife. Kebo Lorodan, a fighter from Klana's ranks, and one of Panji's loyal followers, Tawang Alun, compete against each other, with Tawang Alun being hit in the head and seriously injured. Shortly afterwards, Panji takes up the fight and kills Kebo Lorodan. With that, Panji has fulfilled both duties as a candidate for marriage.
The princess has returned to the palace. Klana decides to dress up as her brother Ganda Ripa in order to meet her in the evening in the pleasure garden of the palace. When he enters the garden in the evening, Sekar Taji recognizes him and turns away with horror. Her real brother rushes over and chases Klana away. The two fight their way to the large open space ( alun-alun ) on the palace grounds, where the decisive battle ensues . The recovered Tawang Alun, who previously received the magical kris Pasopati from the king with the order to kill Klana , manages to be fatally hit in the neck with the kris Klana. Many fighters are killed on both sides in the battle. The victorious move to the Klanas army camp and take the spoils of war and the women of the Klanas into their possession. After everyone has returned to the palace, the king declares Panji to be his daughter's bridegroom, the wedding begins and peace reigns.
Part of Gelaran's picture scrolls are based on the narrative (lacon) Remeng Mangunjaya . Because there has not been a sufficiently qualified dalang responsible for the roles since the 20th century , their content assignment is no longer clearly handed down. The scenes are not directly related between some roles. A performance manual ( pakem ) is no longer available in Gelaran, which is why the original sequence of scenes can only be retraced experimentally by reviewing previous descriptions of performances and preserved text fragments. The two warring groups are in Gelaran Panji, called Remeng Mangunjaya, with his people and the evil Klana Jaka and his entourage. Prince Remeng Mangunjaya of Jenggala tries to win Princess Candrakirana of Kediri as a bride.
Individual scenes
Gedompol, 1st role, 4th scene: In search of Sekar Taji, Panji comes to the market square of Paluhamba with his two faithful ( panakawan ) Tawang Alun and Nala Drema. Tawang Alun appears as a drummer, which attracts Princess Sekar Taji. Panji recognizes the princess in the crowd, whereupon she faints. Panji stands in the middle, Tawang Alun drumming on the right and Nala Drema on his left with her hand in front of his mouth, which is a sign of uncertainty. The drum is called terbang in the accompanying Javanese text . Terbang , Indonesian rebana , is the name of a deep-bellied but much smaller frame drum in Islamic music culture today. The heads in the background belong to market visitors. Opposite them on the right is a group of women. In contrast to all other women, Sekar Taji turns her face away in order not to be recognized. The drummer and Nala Drema crouch on a pedestal, Panji stands on the floor in front of the pedestal. The group of three is dominated by an umbrella-like treetop with small birds in it. A triangular green field opens up over the head of Nala Drema, to which the market-goers look up. There are three heads on the left and one on the right, presumably not spectators of a cockfight , as it appears when looking at it more quickly, but rather look at a courting rooster and a hen. Several people appear to the right of the treetop, their heads turned to the right. In their center they have rolled up a white cloth that is attached to rods at the ends. It is obviously a wayang beber that can be seen from the rear as the dalang is facing. The vertical green stripe that separates Panji from the group of women represents a veil embroidered with gold flowers, which ensures that Panji only gets a vague view of his wife before the wedding.
Independent of the main event, but possibly related to the courting rooster, is an erotic scene in the upper right corner. A half-naked, crouching woman who stokes an oven in order to bake pancakes is mated from behind by a man in a black and white pointed hat. The man has a yellowish shoulder bag slung over his shoulder and seems to be a fisherman who wants to sell his catch at the market. The chronogram ( sengkala ) with the Javanese year 1614 (1690 AD) is integrated into this scene .
Gedompol, 5th role, 2nd scene: Klana has entered the pleasure garden of Princess Sekar Taji disguised as Ganda Ripa. Sekar Taji is seated in the middle on a throne in the shape of Garuda , whose wings surround her in a circle and over which a flowered ceiling hanging down to the floor is placed. She notices from the smell that it is not her brother who is kneeling to her right, turns away from him with disgust and pulls her kris , which she is holding in her right hand. The disguise can be recognized by one detail: Klana has kept his mustache, while the real Ganda Ripa does not have a beard. To the right behind Klana, two servants sit deep in conversation with their noses on each other. The right servant holds a triangular sign of dignity ( kacu mas , from kacu , “cloth”, and the Javanese title mas , a vessel with a lid) in front of his upper body, which distinguishes him as a court servant in a raised position. Two servants kneel to the left of Sekar Taji.
The entire scene is framed by five pointed gunungans in the background . With the two free-standing gunungans on the right, the demon head ( kala ) characteristic of the Tree of Life World Mountain motif can be seen, with the others this middle area of the treetop is covered. Five gunungan in one scene is an unusually large number. The tender princess who is so roughly harassed in her private area needs a particularly large number of magical protective symbols , to which, in addition to the gunungan , the large triangular tumpal at the top of the picture, the kris in her hand, a covered sacrificial place (roof gable to the left of the small gunungan above the servant's head) and include an ardawalika . The "dragon bird figure " ardawalika is one of the imperial insignia ( ampilan ) worn by dignitaries in the presence of the prince and during processions. The ardawalika is a decorative motif fused with the background on the upper right corner of a horizontal red bar in the tree above the long-nosed servants. The rectangle is interpreted as a ceremonial tray.
Gedompol, 5th role, 3rd scene: When the Klanas sneak into Sekar Taji's garden, the previous duels have grown into a war between the armies of the Klanas and King Brawijaya. In the decisive battle on the alun-alun in front of the palace in Kediri, Tawang Alun stabs the magical kris Pasopati in the neck of his opponent Klana. Panji's fighters advance from the left. The two identical heads in the upper left belong to Panji (with a black jacket) and Crown Prince Ganda Ripa (with a serrated shawl), who are waiting for their combat mission. To the right behind Klana comes out the massive Nala Drema with a red cap, who fights far on the opposing side and is about to cut off the head of an enemy. Further to the right, the fighting clan have turned and are already on the run. Many die in battle or are captured. Only five fighters in the middle row on the left can be seen with their sabers stretched out, the rest fighting with a kris. Both armies use round shields as a protective weapon.
Gedompol, 6th role, 3rd scene: Princess Sekar Taji sits in the room of Princess Sekar Taji in the palace of Kediri after her wedding and receives from the religious advisor mbok Kili Suci rules of conduct for the further course of life ( mbok or embok , "mother", Salutation for older women). Sekar Taji has wrapped a bright batik cloth around himself and is sitting on a cane mat. Kili Suci, who sits on the left behind her, is a dukun (miracle healer, fortune teller, endowed with magical powers) and speaks to the princess, as can be seen from her hand movements. She wears a black blouse, a white headscarf and a golden ardawalika on the back of her head. Either her brother Ganda Ripa or her husband Panji sits symmetrically across from the princess. Two ladies-in- waiting with round, silver lidded vessels ( sumbul , symbol of dignity) can be seen directly below the princess . They wear gold neck rings that end in snake heads (only one is visible) and wooden pegs in their ears. One of the other court ladies on the left edge of the picture holds a walking stick ( teken ) and the other a kacu mas (pointed cone-shaped mark of dignity) in her hand. In the middle, half hidden, another lady is holding a light box. With the same attributes as the two ladies-in-waiting on the left, two male servants sit on the right.
The division into female and male halves of the picture is done by a gunungan that extends over the entire height of the picture . The tree of life has no trunk below, but is composed of two tree tops one above the other. The basic color of the smaller tree below is red, that of the upper one is green. Both are filled with plant motifs in a clearly designed arrangement. The rectangular red field in the background at the top of the lower tree is a ceremonial tray with a gold object on each side. The top of the upper tree opens into a large kala figure of the Balinese karang bintulu type (one-eyed demon head as a stone relief on temples, in the painting the eye is surrounded by flower petals). Another gunungan can be seen on the left edge of the picture and cut off on the right edge.
Gelaran, 1st role, 3rd scene: The scene takes place in the palace of a nobleman in Pasirapan. The main character on the left is Radèn Gunung Sari, the brother-in-law of Panji Sepuh (aka Remeng Mangunjaya, son of the king). The two figures on the right are the servants Tratag and Gimeng, both advisors ( emban ) Gunung saris. He says goodbye to his advisers because he wants to ride his horse kyahi Udan Mimis to Ngurawan. Kyahi is an honorable salutation for an older man and udan mimis means "rain droplets". (In the 4th role, 1st scene, when Gunung Sari is halfway to Ngurawan, the horse is covered with dots of rain droplets.) Ngurawan is, next to Kediri and Jenggala, a small kingdom that belongs to the Panji group. In Ngurawan, Gunung Sari, presumably from Kediri, wants to ask for the hand of Princess Kumuda Ningrat. Gunung Sari wears skin-tight trousers with a floral pattern; Upper body, arms and neck are powdered with gold dust. His trousers are considered combat clothing, and he probably wears them because difficulties are to be expected on the trip. With his left hand he holds the reins of the horse, whose bridle and saddle are lavishly decorated. The counselors' faces show that they are of high rank. The three small round figures behind Gunung Sari's horse are his servants ( panakawan ).
In the center of the scene is the motif of the gunungan with a pointed tree, which - although it has thick roots - stands in a kind of flower pot. In a similar representation in the 1st role, 1st scene, which takes place in the audience hall of the palace of Jenggala, lotus blossoms sprout from the same flower vessel on stems from a wavy surface of water. The tree grows slightly diagonally upwards and touches the right of the two white gate pillars, which represents the entrance ( candi bentar, "split gate") to a Balinese temple. The entire symbolism of a gunungan is united here. The bird wings protruding from the side of the candi bentar are a motif that often occurs as lar in batik and depicts the wings of the mythical bird Garuda.
Gelaran, 6th role, 4th scene: Queen Kancana Wulan (also Condra Kirana) eagerly waits for her beloved Panji Sepuh to beat the rest of the contestants who hold out for her hand in a match ( sayembara ). The competition includes crossing a rope stretched over a ravine. Panji Sepuh on the left has already crossed the rope and thus secured the right to the queen. His opponent is Jaya Puspita, the central figure on the right, who is supposed to win on behalf of the evil king Klana Jaka, but he does not succeed. From above, the supporters of both parties watch the action: on the left Queen Kancana Wulan, King Lembu Amijaya and family members, on the right Brahmana Konda (court priest and advisor to the king), King Klana Jaka of the Maguwa Empire and relatives.
The gorge is filled with a body of water from which the heads of fallen princes peek out, who previously tried unsuccessfully to cross the gorge on the rope and fell. Panji Sepuh and his persecutor Jaya Puspita hold swords in their hands and have a kris stuck in their belts. With their left arm they carry a shield with them, the curved edge of which can be seen. A kind of pennant in the shape of a triangular tumpal is attached to the right end of the shields . The disqualified competitors in the water wiggle the rope to bring Panji Sepuh down, but he has already reached the rescue bank with one leg. Jaya Puspita is dressed in a black, short-sleeved jacket with a pointed battle collar, long red trousers and over them short red trousers. Panji's clothes are similar, he wears long black trousers and shorts and a sky-blue jacket with a battle collar. The short upper pants end in a wide hem. The two fat faces at Panji Sepuh belong to the Panakawen Menak Cahu and Menak Agung, who are available as fighters. Menak Cahu wears the same sign on his forearm with a tumpal as Panji and Jaya Puspita.
The gorge can be recognized by the mountain formation in the middle. Its summit reaches up to a two-tier platform from which a slender tree trunk grows, which extends over a large tumpal with a round kala motif in the middle to form a broad crown. The representatives of both parties look over a balustrade at what is happening. On the right edge of the picture, some fighters of the Klana Janka can be seen standing on top of each other, wearing hats. The two figures in front of them without headgear are Panakawan . You are right at the border of the battlefield, which is marked by a thin vertical stick. The painting is of poor quality and unfinished.
literature
- Mally Kant-Achilles, Friedrich Seltmann, Rüdiger Schumacher: Wayang Beber. The rediscovered scroll drama of Central Java. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1990
- Irva Yunita: The Preservation of Wayang Beber as Indonesian Original Art (A Case Study in Kabupaten Pacitan, East Java, Indonesia). Pp. 1-11
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Raden Mas Noto Soeroto: Over den Oorsprong van het Woord Gedog in de Wayang. In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, Vol. 65, 1911, pp. 132-134
- ↑ James R. Brandon: Theater in Southeast Asia. Harvard University Press, Harvard 1967, p. 45
- ↑ Brian E. Colless: Majapahit Revisited: External Evidence on the Geography and Ethnology of East Java in the Majapahit Period. In: Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society , Vol. 48, No. 2 (228), 1975, pp. 124-161, here p. 148
- ^ Laurie J. Sears: Rethinking Indian Influence in Javanese Shadow Theater Traditions. In: Comparative Drama , Vol. 28, No. 1 (Early and Traditional Drama) Spring 1994, pp. 90–114, here p. 109
- ^ Thomas Stamford Raffles : The History of Java . Vol. 1, John Murray, London 1830 (1817), pp. 374, 379 ( at Internet Archive )
- ↑ GA J Hazeu: A "Wayang Beber" performance in Jogjakarta . In: International Archive for Ethnography , 16, Leipzig 1904, pp. 128–135
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, pp. 22-24
- ^ Heinz Kindermann : Far Eastern Theater. Alfred Kröner, Stuttgart 1966, p. 167
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, p. 17
- ↑ Irva Yunitra, p. 7
- ↑ Manohar Laxman Varadpande: History of Indian Theater. Loka Ranga. Panorama of Indian Folk Theater. Abhinav Publications, New Delhi 1992, p. 115
- ^ Keyword Paithan Style British Museum (illustrations of Paithan paintings, 19th and 20th centuries)
- ↑ Valentina Stache-Rosen: Story-Telling in Pingulī Paintings. In: Artibus Asiae , Vol. 45, No. 4, 1984, pp. 253-286, here pp. 254f
- ↑ Beatrix Hauser: From Oral Tradition to “Folk Art”. Reevaluating Bengali Scroll Paintings. In: Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 61, 2002, pp. 105–122
- ^ Peter Chelkowski: Narrative Painting and Painting Recitation in Qajar Iran . In: Muqarnas, Vol. 6, 1989, pp. 98-111, here p. 101
- ↑ Wu Hung: What is Bianxiang? On The Relationship Between Dunhuang Art and Dunhuang Literature. In: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 52, No. 1, June 1992, pp. 111-192
- ^ John Bell: The Sioux War Panorama and American Mythic History . In: Theater Journal , Vol. 48, No. 3 (Enacting America (n) s) Oct 1996, pp. 279-299; Bertha L. Heilbron: Documentary Panorama: John Stevens and his Sioux war pictures. In: Minnesota History , March 30, 1949, pp. 14-23
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, pp. 41-43
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, pp. 44-46
- ↑ Margaret J. Kartomi: Gamelan. In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 380
- ^ Rüdiger Schumacher: The acoustic performance of the wayang bèbèr. In: Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, pp. 165-167
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, p. 158
- ^ Rüdiger Schumacher: The acoustic performance of the wayang bèbèr. In: Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, pp. 172-182
- ^ 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
- ^ Lydia Kieven: Following the Cap-Figure in Majapahit Temple Reliefs. A New Look at the Religious Function of East Javanese Temples, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2013, fn. 5 on p. 21
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, pp. 25-27
- ↑ Khoon Joy Lee: A Fragile Nation. The Indonesian Crisis. World Scientific Publishing, Singapore 1999, pp. 92f
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, pp. 28-37
- ^ Lydia Kieven: Following the Cap-Figure in Majapahit Temple Reliefs. A New Look at the Religious Function of East Javanese Temples, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. 2013, p. 27
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, p. 51f
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, pp. 108, 110f
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, pp. 57-59
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, p. 74
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, pp. 75f
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, p. 81f
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, pp. 113, 115f
- ↑ Mally Kant-Achilles, 1990, pp. 142f