War scenes to pacify the money snatching spirit of Kleton

The stage is set up with all the good characters on the right and the evil characters to the left (when you are looking from the dalang's perspective). The kayon (leaf shaped puppet, represents the tree of life) is in the middle at the beginning of the performance and is used to separate acts/scenes and also to create abstract effects for which they don't have a puppet or prop such as wind or water. Here there are two one where the characters on the left begin and one on the right closest to the middle. When the dalang is going to start he will take one and move jam it into the bamboo (fresh). Puppets have rods made of buffalo horn and the one in the middle (it has a specific name) is pretty tapered and slices right into the bamboo allowing the puppet to stay in a position without the dalang holding it yet its arms are still free to be moved. Also, this black also leaf shaped object you see in the pictures is the light source not a puppet.



Here you see Bima on the right with upward curved hair. He is the most powerful warrior of the Pandavas (good), but is also known for his kindness. Bima is one of the larger puppets. I am not sure who the other characters are, but one of my goals is to be able to differentiate the main characters in my time here.

I believe this is Arjuno's son heading off to the battle field. This is one of the few props type puppets that are used in wayang. This one is a chariot with horses. There is also a horse, an army and sometimes animals, arrows or when really breaking from tradition a tree or bug. But generally speaking from the conversations I have had with various dalangs is that they do not use many props and that the imagination must be used to understand the settings.

An hour SW from Solo in Klaten, which is made of up about 15 villages we attend an all night wayang kulit performance of the war episode from the Mahabharata. When we arrive we are met by the coordinator of the event in Klaten, a gamelan musician who has dedicated his life to promoting the arts of Klaten. We are escorted to the wayang and he explains to us as we walk by a small bamboo grove that has been cut down that this bamboo is where people believe the spirit resides and is even the site of black magic to the spirit.
This area was severely affected by the 2006 earthquake. It is still recovering and many times artists will come together and do these shows for free because the village does not have the funds to pay them.
We are asked to sit with the gamelan musicians in what we would call backstage, but in wayang kulit it seems more like theater in the round since people watch from every angle. Hundreds were there already. It is close to nine o'clock. We shake hands with the dalang, a man in his late eighties and sit amongst the instruments. Sitting on the floor all night was really nerve wracking for me, I brought a pillow to sit on or sleep with not sure if I could stay up the whole night. I vowed to stay awake and called upon all my inner Buddhas to be able to stand the pains of sitting on the floor for so many hours while fighting exhaustion. The show begins. Dialogues. The Mahabharata is basically about two families, the Pandavas and the Kourovas, that are in a feud for many years. After years of arguing and such they decide that nothing will be settled and that they must go to war. The performance is just about the portion of the story of the war and throughout there are details that one is expected to know aside from the obvious about characters and their histories since this episode is at the end of the Mahabharata epic. All wayang is performed in Javanese, not Indonesian, therefore it does one no good to study Indonesian if you are going to be studying wayang because it is a completely different language. This performance was very special and unique in that this ritualistic purpose to pacify a money snatching spirit is not common in Java because wayang has adapted to suit Islamic ideas and has become more a form of entertainment thereby losing its ritualistic and spiritual qualities that stem from Javanese mythology and beliefs. As the story develops the main characters', brothers of each family, sons are killed off. Each time one of the sons of the Pandavas, the good family, is going to die, a large incense is lit and placed beneath the screen for the scene of the killing. Smoke rising up the screen. They do this three times. They also throw flower petals into the screen covering the bamboo base of the screen. They also do this twice throwing flowers three consecutive times each instance. Kitsie who has seen many performances has never seen either of these ritualistic acts.
I can't go into the details of the story but essentially they go out to the battlefield and the sons get killed. The Pandava and Kourova's sons are now all dead. And the brothers go into battle with each other. In the end the Kourovas (100 brothers, they don't go through all of them getting killed) are all slain. Leaving the victorious 5 Pandava brothers with their grandchildren.
There are no intermissions or breaks during wayang. Their are various acts that are indicated by the kayon being placed in the middle of the screen. The dalang controls the gamelan music by beating on a box that contains puppets signaling the drummer to speed up or slow down who in turn directs the rest of the musicians which can number up to 30. For eight or nine hours the dalang will be performing, musicians playing and the audience captivated. Well maybe some are. The atmosphere of a wayang kulit performance, I think especially because they last so long, is very casual. People have conversations. The musicians converse, eat and smoke cigarettes. Food and tea is in constant flow. Fruits, sweet bread, sake rice, other treats and of course a meal of rice and meat in a stew with yummy rice crackers are served and shared throughout the night. The best was the sake rice presented in a banana leaf wrapped like a beautiful gift box. Indonesians make their own type of fermented rice drink that tastes like sake. People in the audience come and go as they please and behind them is a full market selling food, drinks, cigarettes, toys probably anything you might find at their regular market. I didn't get up and have a look even on the other side of the screen because it would mean having to step over musicians and instruments during the show and it seemed rude and no one else moved except to trade positions with another musician. Kitsie and her husband are both musicians as is my friend/guide Furquon and they all played for a while. In fact 2 funny stories. First, Kitsie's husband is an amazing well known gamelan musician and apparently the musician sitting next to him got tired turned to him and said "I'll give you two cigarettes if you play this for a while". He took the cigarettes and started playing what is like a large wooden xylophone. I'll have to find out the names to all of these instruments. They thought this was hilarious. Maybe its really funny in Javanese. Then during the entertainment/comedic interlude of the performance which since it was being performed by an older dalang and for a ritualistic purpose we thought would be very short and not too lively. He began by poking fun at the organizer of the event and then proceeded to say hello to the 2 former colonialists which would be Kitsie and myself. The clown characters are talking now. He explains to us what they are doing and that once a year they do this performance for that "pile of sticks over there". He then suggests that one of us play the drums and the other one sing. They occasionally invite random people who can't sing to sing during this time. But I was too embarrassed to sing (next time I'll just do a Michael Jackson song if I'm asked), but Kitsie did play the drums and one clown says to the other "aren't you ashamed you called her a former colonialist?". Many of the villagers on the other side of the screen had to come look at who they were talking about and poked their heads around to see.
Many older dalangs have been known to pass away at the screen. The dalang performing tonight did not last the whole performance. At around 3am near the end he passed the performance on to his son who continued. He looked so sad and tired. Older dalangs usually do not do such long performances because they are so difficult and as one gets older their voices aren't as strong and clear, but he did an amazing job considering how old he is.
It was an amazing experience and I didn't fall asleep. I was definitely the most fidgety person in the whole place. I think I adjusted myself every 3 minutes and I was really trying to breathe through my poses, but its just torturous. What I really need is one of those bleacher seat things that people fold up and you have a back rest. Can someone send me one from the next baseball game you go to? Thanks.