Vocabulary:
- archipelago:
a group of islands. Indonesia is in the Malay archipelago of Southeast
Asia. It includes Sumatra, Java, Bali, South and East Borneo, Sulawesi,
Timor, West New Guinea, the Moluccas and many adjacent smaller islands.
- dalang:
puppeteer and narrator of wayang theater.
- dharma:
the basic principle of divine law in Hinduism and Buddhism; a code of
proper conduct conforming to one's duty and nature
- gamelan:
Indonesian percussive gong chime orchestra. For an extended description
see: What
is gamelan music? Listen to the sounds of the Pusaka
Sunda, a gamelan degung ensemble from San Jose, California. You
can find lots of gamelan CD's with sample tracks at Amazon.com.
To find out more about what gamelan music is, visit the website for
Gamelan Sekar Jaya, the Bay
Area orchestra.
- golek:
wayang golek is a single puppet. Each puppet is associated with a different
type which can be determined by its actions, costume
and musical accompaniment.
- garuda:
a mythical bird. The lamp used to cast shadows of the puppets onto the
screen is in the form of a garuda.
- karma:
in Hinduism and Buddhism karma is the force generated by a person's
actions. Karma can have a positive or negative influence on the future
and cycle of rebirth.
- Khmer:
the official language of Cambodia. (Also the name of the aboriginal
people of Cambodia.)
- moksha:
The idea of release from the cycle of birth and rebirth.
- Pali:
an Indo-Aryan language used as the liturgical and scholarly language
of Theravada Buddhism
- Sanskrit:
Sanskrit was one of the written languages in early South East Asia used
for sacred texts, ruling texts/written text of the upper class.
- topeng:
Indonesian mask dance
- trunk narrative
(galur, pakem):
The original or commonly known outline of a popular story such as the
Valmiki (Indian) Ramayana. Indonesian variations on the trunk narrative
of the Ramayana are tolk in the wayang theatre. Sometimes the puppeteer
may invent a new story using characters from the trunk story. These
new stories are called branch narratives
(caragin) or invented
stories (karangan). If
a caragin becomes popular with performers, it can eventually become
an accepted part of the trunk story (galur).
- Theravada Buddhism:
a conservative branch of Buddhism found chiefly in Southeast Asia.
- types:
major classifications
of characters found in wayang theatre. They can be: refined
(alus) like Rama and Sita; semi-refined
(lenyep/ladak) lesser attractive characters like the Golden
Deer; strong (gagah/pungawa) like
Hanuman; emotionally uncontrolled (ankara murka/buta)
like Ravana; or clowns (punakawan) who
the puppeteer might introduce to comment on the action.
- varna:
the four orders of society in the Hindu caste system. They are the Brahmins,
the priests or spiritual class; the Kshatriya, the nobility or ruling
class; the Vaishya, the merchants and farmers; and the Shudras or servants.
- wayang
is a traditional form of entertainment in Southeast Asia using shadow
puppets. The word wayang originally meant the raised platform
where a helmsman on a ship sat while steering. In Indonesia, it later
meant shadow play. Prior to each performance the audience brings up
offerings and the the puppeteer, the dalang, invokes spirits
to bless his effort and to assure harmony and benefit for the audience
from the performance. Then the dalang sits on a raised platform within
a village square behind a sheet which is placed over a vertical frame.
A lamp is placed near the dalang that shines on leather (wayang kulit)
or wooden (wayang golek) puppets. The audience sits on the ground
level on the other side of the screen to view and listen to the performance.
There is a wooden box in front of the dalang
filled with painted puppets of characters, gods, and demons from which
he chooses the characters that will appear in his performance. There
are puppet weapons, buildings, horses, elephants, and carriages. Incense
burns during the performances to remind people that this can still
be considered a religious ceremony. The dalang is given food, clothes,
and other gifts as payment following the performance. The dalang is
usually trained by his father, and the performance is based on particular
oral or written traditions. A skilled dalang is able to impersonate
all the characters of his story by changing his voice. Music accompaniment
is provided by a gamelan
orchestra. The musicians are all very familiar with the individual
myths or tales that the dalang is likely to include. They are directed
by the dalang's hand movements and other cues. The dalang knows the
story intimately. The dalang always maintains the integrity of the
epic plot but he also has abundant opportunity to improvise and to
insert comments about current events in his traditional narration. |
