Kelantan, Malaysia-a doll with running hair and a grin with sharp teeth came in sight while background singers guilded, raised and throw. Illya Sumanto spread her arms wide, causing the beautiful ghost pontianak to glide over the screen and surfs a banana.
“To play Wayang, you need large movements, but traditional women [in Southeast Asia] they were expected to be small, gracefully moving, “Sumanto said Hyperallergic.
It was Sumanto’s first Shadow Puppet version in November, for hundreds of people in Chiang Mai, Thailand. But she had received her education in Kelantan, a deep conservative state in Northern Malaysia.
Traditional Malaysian Shadow Doll Game of the Kelantan region in the country, known as WAyang Kulit KelantanIs a dying art, partly because it is suppressed by the local Muslim government. Traditionally, the performance tells the story of the Ramayana, an epic poem that serves as a fundamental text of Hinduism.
For years the art form was simply banned in Kelantan, and even today it can only be performed on two sites approved by the government, far away from the original practice of wandering puppet players who perform in public spaces among communities.
Today in Kelantan, only the oldest generation remains familiar with Wayang Kulit. A middle -aged woman who sells the local delicacy Nasi kerabu – Marinated chicken with blue rice – told Hyperallergic In December she looked at one Shadow Puppet version and was not impressed.
“My husband said it was not authentic, but we no longer know where we can find the authentic,” she said. “I am actually ashamed that I don’t know much about Wayang Kulit, because it is our cultural heritage.”
Muhammad Dain Othman, known as Pak Dain (“Uncle Dain”), the last living master, or DalangFrom Wayang Kulit Kelantan, said that he does not blame the government for the disappearance of art – he blames society, which he claims to be broadly supporting the religious forbidden.
“Middle -aged people agree with the government, and the young generation is very busy with modern technology, so what’s left?” He told Hyperallergic During an interview in his cultural center in Kelantan. A pious Muslim himself, he is annoyed by religious criticism.
“I only tell the story, I don’t demand that people follow the beliefs,” Dain continued.
Dain said he feels a huge responsibility to keep Wayang Kulit, but does not quite know how. He has built a museum where he is surrounded by grainy portraits of dead puppet players, including one of his students, who, according to him, almost finished his training when he died.
He is struggling to find the right balance between the traditional roots of storing Wayang Kulit and adjusting them to remain relevant in modern times. To rely on the younger generation, Pak Dain shows Star Wars” Predator, And the Marvel films. He also broken with another long -term tradition by teaching women, such as Sumanto.
Wayang Kulit originated on the Indonesian island of Java and various versions of the art form exist in Maritime Southeast Asia. The legend says it was first brought to Kelantan by a woman, a Thai-Chinese seafarer trader who picked it up in Java before he was written in Northern Malaysia. Nevertheless, there has never been an officially recognized woman -master of Wayang Kulit Kelantan. There have been some in Indonesia, although female Dalangs there say they are still struggling with discrimination.
“Society is still looking down on female puppet players – we are considered less attractive and less able to perform, because female puppet players are [believed to be] Limited by their voice, strength, agility and skills and are considered less energy or endurance, ”said Sri Harti Kenik Asmorowati, a Dalang in Indonesia, said Hyperallergic.
But Asmorowati said being a woman can also be an advantage, because it brings something fresh and unique for a traditional art that many people lose interest in, adding that she often focuses on female characters and perspectives.
Pak Dain still comes to terms with the concept of a woman Dalang. He harps the difficulty of a woman who pronounced a male character during a performance.
“I have no experience watching a woman Dalang, so I can’t say it, but I think it’s a bit strange. But why don’t you try?” He told Sumanto.
To the Kelantan countryside as someone who grew up in the capital Kuala Lumpur, Sumanto initially felt “like an outsider,” she said during a conversation with Hyperallergic At a vibrant food festival in Chiang Mai.
‘I was wondering:’ I am -to -allocate [the culture]? “But Pak Dain told me:” This is also yours, Illya “”.
Random friends and acquaintances occasionally approached the table and added their own questions and observations to the mix. Artistic juices always flow, Sumanto has again devised the scenario as an improvisation ski or a short story. At one point she got up and danced a turn while she explained a traditional Malaysian dance called the ‘Joget Lambak’.
“I think he thinks I’m just doing this for fun,” Sumanto said. But as a teacher in the field of performing arts at one of the most prestigious international schools in Chiang Mai, Sumanto takes seriously. “I have fun, but I mean it.”
There are structural complications that Sumanto and Pak Dain should navigate for her to become a Dalang. The teacher of a student cannot be on his evaluation board, including Dalangs, Master Musicians and Veteran Public members. Because Pak Dain is the teacher of Sumanto, they have to bring in shadow puppet masters from another school to evaluate her – another bow to the rules.
But there are more rigid barriers. Time. Mortality. Pak Dain is in the 1970s and is well aware of his place as the last living Dalang. He tried to reduce cigarettes by not smoking in the evening, but as a miserable intermittent faster, still smokes heavily in the morning and afternoon.
Sumanto’s first wayang kulit performance in Chiang Mai focused on ghost stories, which are usually shared in different countries in Southeast Asia and often revolve around female demons. But she turned the script and first racked these spirits as incorrectly and then as heroes.
The Wayang Women group included a Thai-Nigerian student of Sumanto’s traditional Thai instruments, a Dutch-Indonesian singer, a Malaysian DJ and sound mixer and a musician-based musician named Tigra Rose.
A classically trained pianist, Rose also has mastered a number of traditional Indonesian instruments. Days before she flew to Chiang Mai before the show, she met SerendiPitous an Indonesian Dalang in East Java.
“No coincidences, right?” Said Rose. De Dalang taught her a traditional form of poetic singing, which she later included in the performance in Thailand.
“I think that women who support women is always a very empowerment and inspiring feeling,” she said about working with the all-wife’s cast.
“It is also about sharing knowledge, wisdom, stories and experiences, learning from each other and learning that at the end of the day we are all confronted with similar struggles: patriarchy, erasing women’s voices in certain spaces, the work of preserving cultural heritage, while we still allow it to evolve,” Rose continued. “Everything is connected and intertwined.”
Although he did not consider the ghost story performance as a traditional example of Wayang Kulit Kelantan, Pak Dain was still supported for the more experimental version of Sumanto. Similarly, Sumanto emphasized how much she had learned from her teacher.
“I gave him my dolls and asked:” Can you show me? “” Sumanto said. “He just improvised a story about my characters, and the way he was every embodied was so impressive.”
For her next version, she plans to keep things more orthodox and to repeat the Ramayana from the perspective of the female characters that are normally banished to the edges.
“I play what I have learned, but I add my own layers and stories,” Sumanto said. ‘I don’t want to wait until I’m done [training] – I want to create while I am learning. ”
