However, universities and the internet have democratized the art form, allowing shadow play to reach a growing contemporary audience. In recent years, due in part to industrialization, urbanization, and increasing access to television, indigenous forms of shadow play are rare. Shadow play serves a vital cultural role throughout Southeast Asia, China, Nepal, India, Turkey, Armenia, and Greece, acting as a medium for entertainment, social, and religious gathering. Javanese wayang kulit is one manifestation of shadow puppetry’s rich and layered history. Photo by P Manuada Mersana Sury, Wikimedia Commons A dhalang has the ability to reach thousands of people with a performance.” When there is a political campaign, the politicians will ask the dhalangs to spread their campaign messages to the people of Java. While performing wayang kulit, he teaches what is good and bad manners, lessons about how to live a good life, and spreads political messages from the local government. “When he is not performing, he acts as a spiritual advisor and healer. “The dhalang is very highly respected by the community-a very important man,” says Midiyanto, a Javanese dhalang and gamelan instructor at UC Berkeley. Many puppeteers even harness the art form’s popularity to spread political messages. The dhalang plays a multifaceted role as a leader in wayang kulit and Javanese society. Wayang kulit suggests that practical, everyday decisions shape an individual’s overall character and determine whether heroic characteristics like Bima’s ultimately prevail. ![]() The characters’ shadows become an active meditation for the audience. In the Javanese conception of soul, psychological forces of courage, purity, and will are embodied in characters that play a part in the grand epic that is each human life. The dhalang’s absolute control over the puppet, the ability to see their puppet’s inner qualities, and their command over the gamelan parallels God’s power over men.Ĭombined, these elements form a symbolic framework, expressing a worldview in which the heroes, villains, and great wars of mythology aren’t to be thought of as living outside of ourselves, but as an intimate performance of forces within each of us. Musical changes reflect his personality and emotions. Photo © The Trustees of the British MuseumĪ gamelan, a traditional orchestra made up of bronze gongs and other percussion instruments, provides the soundtrack to Bima’s movements. This shadow represents his outward behavior in the world. The audience sees Bima’s shadow on the screen. For instance, Bima from the Hindu epic The Mahabharata, is often crafted with a painted black face indicating humility, inner calm, and self-control.ĭuring a performance, the dhalang sees the puppet itself behind the screen and, by extension, the character’s painted inner qualities. According to anthropologist Clifford Geertz, the puppeteer, or d h alang, intentionally designs and colors leather shadow puppets to symbolize the character’s inner qualities. In the ancient Javanese tradition of wayang kulit, the medium of shadow puppetry is nothing short of a metaphor for the human soul. Studying the art form reveals a dynamic tradition that deepens the magic that continues to enchant artists and audiences around the globe. Since then, the influence of shadow puppetry has spanned millennia to find a place in modern video, film, and theater. Mentions of shadow puppetry appear in Chinese and Indian texts 200 years prior to the Christian era. ![]() Worldwide, ancient cultures discovered the potential of harnessed light and shadow to breathe life into some of humanity’s great epics. ![]() They dance, vibrate, and bend in submission to a source of light. Shadows give form to what is illuminated, revealing the textures and edges of what is visible. While I am accustomed to what is clearly visible, the colors of my everyday surroundings, I often fail to contemplate the shadows left behind.
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