Pak Tristuti (pak is short for bapak, a term like Mr. used for older respected persons) is a living piece of Indonesian history. I have had the honor of meeting him, spending time in his home and speaking with him about wayang kulit, his art and his life.
Pak Tristuti is a dalang in his seventies now who during a time of political instability during the dictatorship of Sukarno in Indonesia was imprisoned and exiled to a prison island for 14 years. When freed he was oppressed and not allowed to work in pretty much any area for another 20 years. It wasn't until 1999 that he resumed being a dalang.
He told us today that he was very respected in the 60s as a young dalang by Sukarno himself. Having been invited numerous times to perform for him. His last name Suryosaputro bestowed upon him as a blessing.
In 1965 he was taken from his home in the middle of the night without reason and without trial, imprisoned. First in numerous prisons finally to be exiled to a prison island. Most claim that he was imprisoned for being a communist, but he was never a part of the communist party and he believes that because he was so admired that he had many enemies, people who were jealous and in the political turmoil at the time anyone's word was enough to imprison another.
He was and continues to be admired for changing the world of wayang as well as for being a talented wayang script writer and dalang. Before Pak Tristuti dalangs did not use scripts, they memorized and adapted stories as they saw fit. But unfortunately as he told me the world of wayang has left him behind. His generation almost gone now is no longer desired in the world of wayang kulit. His plays are still being performed.
While in exile he converted to Christianity and is now trying to develop a Christian wayang. He has created a kayon that represents the story of creation, but does not have the means to have his special puppets created. He wants his puppets to have their own aesthetic language, movements and music that differentiates it from the tradition. He hopes I will help him since I don't know too much about wayang I can probably create something that isn't imitating it. I hope I can help him. I feel so strongly for this man. His story so similar to that of many Cuban artists of the same time period, oppressed, imprisoned and tortured for being artists. He is now with little work, old and without means to support himself or his art. Other dalangs come to him for scripts and pay him cents to then turn around and make a few thousand performing his works.
He asked me to help him and that I could do this by buying his Christian kayon and taking it to the states and hopefully creating wayang with it. I decided I would also buy his script for a lot more than people give him here and have it translated. I hope to do him honor and create a piece that does his work justice. I feel so ill equipped to take this on, but I feel it is part of my purpose here.
I have been so moved.
9 comments:
Hey-
Just wondering, is there any corporate sponsorship involved in any of the wayang performances? Are there any larger scale or annual performances that take place where other forms of sponsorship is involved? In general how are labor and production costs accounted for?
Great to hear about your opportunity to meet this amazing man! Ask him lots of questions and document everything--I'm sure you'll learn even more when you come back home and reflect on your notes...
Love you!
These are great questions. I will ask them. I think there are festivals that do have sponsorship, but mostly they are paid for my individuals or villages. I will get more detailed information. I also wanted to know if its feasible to copyright their work, maybe people won't bother using it then.
Love you too!
wow...it's amazing really... that you met Pak Tristuti and also that you can possibly help him and understand him in a way that maybe others can't. Did you talk to him about Cuba and the similarities about the oppression of artists? What did he say? Is there still a dictatorship in Indonesia?
So is this man the one who you are shadowing? How exciting that you get to learn all of his long history. It is really sad that he was tortured for being a great artist.
Oops, I see that this is not the dalang you will be shadowing :). (It looks like you might have another week before he is back from Tokyo.)
It's an even richer learning experience to talk intimately with different dalangs so that you can learn from each individual. How was the all night performance, your first one!
What would you compare wayang in their culture to something in ours, maybe Opera? Is their main entertainment the media (TV, movies, mainstream music) like us, or do they go to live performances (i.e wayang, gamelan) regularly (unlike Americans)? And finally, why puppets? Do they have more live puppet performances rather than actors on stage (e.g. theatrical plays)?
PON A TU PAPA CON UNOS PESOS PARA ESE SR SUHARTO TODO LO QUE QUERIA ERA DINERO LA FAMILIA AHORA SON RIQUISIMOS ALGUNA IGLESIA EN USA QUE QUIERA SPONSOR LOS PUPPETS CRISTIANOS TU PAPA
I did talk to him briefly about the similarities between artists in Cuba and Indonesia being oppressed and he related Suharto and Sukarno to Fidel. He only made a brief comment about it and also mentioned how during those times Indonesia received a lot of support from Cuba during the 2 dictatorships of Suharto and then Sukarno.
Indonesia had their first democratic elections in 1998/99. And next year they will be holding elections again. Many fear that a more fundamentalist Islamic government will hold majority power and in such a case the arts, especially those with Hindu beliefs and figurative imagery will be oppressed.
Indonesians are just as inundated with media as we are. They watch movies, play video games, watch Indonesian idol and now are not as interested in things like wayang and gamelan, but they are part of their culture and for wayang will get pretty good audiences. Gamelan is broadcasted on the radio monthly too, so it is supported by the media, but I heard that sometimes dalangs can tell stories on the radio but they have to pay the radio (this seems so odd to me that the company doesn't pay them, going back to the idea about corporate sponsorship which I don't think really exists for these arts). Many of the younger dalangs are making their performances with more entertainment value to attract a wider audience. But so far, I haven't seen this done. Supposedly the dalang I will be working with Mas Purbo is one of these very entertaining dalangs. Another one Mas Slamet Gundono who many times doesn't do a conventional show is an entertainer as well. He was performing the same night I went to the all night performance so I heard about it. He does these "Ed Sullivan" Javanese variety show with dancing, singing, improvisation and he is supposedly really funny.
I have to think if it has something I could compare it to in our culture. It is so much more complex than any type of Western performances I don't think it can really have any comparison.
Damn, Mel. You are meeting some incredible people. The photos you posted of his art are breathtaking. I'm so excited for you. Your time there is really important.
Hi, My name is Daniel McGuire and I translated a performance of Pak Tris called "Kilatbuwana". Tris was a friend and teacher of mine in the 1980's-90's and I truly regret not seeing him the year before he died. Nice to hear about your meeting. I wonder how his family is doing? Kinanthi, his daughter, must be in her twenties now.
Feel free to write me if you want a copy of my translation.
Yours
DAN MCGUIRE dandmcguire at gmail.com
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