The Development of Wayang From Time to Time

Indonesia is a country which is rich in culture. One of the famous Indonesian cultures is wayang. Performing arts of wayang is a heritage of Javanese religious ceremonies, and also the heritage of animism and dynamism. Wayang illustrates the epic story of the gods in the shadow puppets and a traditional gamelan orchestra will accompany the story. Wayang comes in all sizes, ranging from 25 cm to 75 cm. In a shadow puppet play, the puppets are moved behind a cotton or linen screen by a Dalang, or a "Puppeteers". The Dalang tells the story, interprets characters and voices for each character, producing sound effects with speech and movement. The Balinese and Javanese have combined the Hindu stories with Buddhist and Muslim ideas mixed with their own folklore. Each area has a slightly different approach, though most share the same root traditions. Wayang is the original cultural puppets of Indonesia which was existed before the arrival of Hindu nation and it has shape and role which developed from time to time.

First, in Jenggala’s era, wayang creation activities were growing. Since the King of Sri Lembuami Jenggala luhur death, the government held by his son, Raden Panji Rawisrengga and titled Sri Suryawisesa. During his rule, Sri Suryawisesa was diligent to complete the shape of wayang. At that time wayang has a complicated shape because it was drawn on lontar leaves. Then the pictures of wayang from palm leaves was copied and created on the paper while maintaining the shape on palm leaves which created by their ancestors. His puppets creation results was collected and saved in a beautiful box. With the picture of wayang that painted on the paper, it was always performed in every important ceremony that was being held in keraton and Sri Suryawisesa him self act as the puppeteer. The purpose was to entertain the people who lived around the keraton. Since Sri Suryawisesa completed the shape of wayang, it becomes popular and spread widely including in religious communities such as in moslem community.

Then, the followers of Islam religion thought that the gamelan and wayang was forbidden because it has existed before the arrival of Hindu nation. Then walisongo and the followers of Islam, who like the wayang arts, succeeded in creating a new shape of wayang which was called wayang purwa. It was made from a thin cowhide and has an oblique face. The size of the hand is made longer than the size of human hands. This puppet from buffalo leather was given a white background which was made from a combination of glue and bone flour, while the clothes were painted with ink. Although the performances based on Ramayana and Mahabharata story which come from Hindu nation, wayang was used as dakwah media in Islam religion. And it also displayed in religious events for deliverig the message of religion by walisongo. It has been successfully done by walisongo, and since that time wayang began to developed become the different functions.

 In 1731, Sultan Amangkurat created wayang in another shape that is “wayang wong”. This puppet was different because wayang wong is a puppet portrayed by human. It was using the devices or clothing that was made ​​similar with wayang in jenggala’s era and walisongo periods. The story also told about Ramayana and Mahabrata and the players from the wayang wong are active in the dialogue. In this section, wayang is used as an educational media because of the story and the character contains of humanity values. Sultan Amangkurat assumes that philosophy contained in the wayang stories can be useful to educate the public at the time.

In brief, the wayang is an art which are evolved over time. Wayang follows its mission and functions as a means of delivering of entertainment in Jenggala’s era, dakwah media during walisongo periods, and in 1731, Sultan Amangkurat used wayang as educational media. Moreover, wayang can be a media that is used depends on the function, and it will always be an Indonesian culture that will be developed in the future.