Tag: Wayang Kulit

Tok Dalang Cina

~ The Koboi Project

Eyo Hock Seng is a Kelantanese Wayang Kulit Dalang who has been practicing his craft for over 40 years. Today he is one of eight or nine wayang kulit Dalangs who are performing today. Not only is he a Chinese master of this Malay
art form, but he might also even be credited for keeping the form alive in Kelantan for 30 years during which the PAS State government had banned Wayang Kulit in Kelantan. He tells of how he was one of eighteen Dalangs in the State
when they all called to a meeting with the late Tok Guru Nik Aziz (Menteri Besar of Kelantan from 1990 to 2013 and Spiritual Leader of PAS until his death in 2015) in 1999. As Hock Seng recalls, when they were asked to perform
for Tok Guru, they did so with all the traditional ritual accouterments, including spells and glutinous rice offerings. The result of which is that Wayang Kuilt was banned, due to its unIslamic elements (Animist, Hindu/Buddhist).

In fact the Kelantan state government officially banned cultural performances like Mak Yong and Wayang Kulit under
the Entertainment\ and Entertainment Premises Enactment 1998. The Dalangs had to migrate to other states in order to continue their art and many gave up altogether. Eyo Hock Seng was the only one permitted to continue the practice as he was not a Muslim but he was restricted to presenting his Wayang in the Chinese and Siamese districts. During this time Eyo Hock Seng grew in stature as a performer and gained an international reputation. It was only in 2019 that the ban was lifted, with the proviso that there were no unIslamic elements of worship in the performances. Hock Seng laments that there were not many of the old Dalangs left who could return to the practice after the passage
of twenty years, as many had given up altogether and had sold their puppets and musical instruments during the ban.

The following questions relating to this episode in the history of Kelantanese Wayang Kulit inform my own Pokok Pauh Janggi performance (see notes) –
1. To what extent can Malay culture be isolated from its pre-Islamic roots?
2. To what extent can the elements of pre-Islamic Malay culture be accepted within contemporary Malay Islam?
3. To what extent does contemporary Malay culture remain contigious with the wider spirit of the Archipelago?
4. To what extent can a contemporary citizen of Malay lands be assimilated to Malayness without being a Muslim?
5. Can only non-Malay/Non-Muslims perform and preserve Malay traditions that are presently considered unIslamic?

The first three questions pertain to the essence of Malay culture. The fourth and fifth question reflect on the significance of non-Malay/ non-Muslims performing, identifying with and preserving Malay cultural forms, Thes last questions index the prospect of an integrative, integral even, Malaysian identity.

https://worldofbuzz.com/un-official-wants-kelantan-to-lift-ban-against-traditional-art-like-mak-yong-wayang-kulit/

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2019/09/25/kelantan-lifts-mak-yong-ban-after-two-decades-but-insists-performances-must/1794202

Bangunlah Ketam Gergasi!

~ The Koboi Project

After invoking the spirit of the Pokok Pauh Janggi puppet the performance (see performance notes) proceeds as follows. Koboi hands the Giant Crab puppet to Sang Nabil Utama who raises it and shows it to the audience, moving the legs. Koboi utters –

Al-salam ‘aleikum!
Hei sahabat-ku Mambang Tali Harus,
Yang berulang ka pusat tasek Pauh Janggi,
Sampeikan-lah pesan-ku ini,
Bangunkan Jambalang Ketam Gergasi!

Peace be upon you!
Hey my friend the Spirit of the currents (water),
Who tos-and-fros to the pusat tasek Pauh Janggi,
Realize this request of mine,
Raise the Giant Crab!

Sang Nabil Utama turns crab around to show color and pierces it into the banana stem.

Hidulaplah Pokok Pauh Janggi!

~ The Koboi Project

At the height of the performance (see performance notes) the Koboi invokes the spirit of the Pokok Pauh Janggi. He raises the puppet , waves it about, showing only back, and saying-

Hei Toh Mambang Puteh, Toh Mambang Hitam
Yang diam di bulan dan matahari
Melempahkan sakalian ‘alam asal-nya pawang,
Menyampeikan sakalian hajat-ku,
Melakukan sagala kahandak-ku,
Hidulaplah Pokok Pauh Janggi!

Hey White Ghost, Black Ghost
Who dwell in the moon and the sun
Bestow all ‘the world of the magician,’
Deliver all my desires,
Do all my bidding,
Come alive Pauh Janggi Tree!

Koboi turns the puppet around to show color, sets it in the banana stem.

Membuang Badi Rusa

~ The Koboi Project

Having covered his head with the black cloth, Koboi presented the new deerskin puppets, unpigmented side facing the audience. He then put them down and performed a ritual (see performance notes) to dispel malicious entities (Badi) from the deer hide. He uttered a spell,

O Si Lanang, Si Lambaun,
Si Ketor, Si Becheh, orang yang berampat,
Ambil kembali bahagian-kau dari rusa ini!

O Lanang, the Lambaun,
The Ketor, the Becheh, the four of you,
Take back your part of this deer!

Koboi then took cuttings of deer hide (waste from the fabrication of the puppets) from the muslin cloth and, one by one, gave the signs of deer to the audience, calling them out by name —

Mata, telinga, mulut, hidong,kaki, tangan, bulu, hati, jantong, limpa, tandok.
Eye, ear, mouth, nose, leg, hand (foreleg?), fur, liver, heart, spleen, horn.

He put each fragment on the banana leaf. When all eleven signs had been presented and thier material signifiers deposited on the leaf, Koboi folded the leaf, deposited it in the earth-filled basket, and uttered,

O Mentala Guru
Asa (menaruh harapan) sabulan, dua sabulan,
Tiga sabulan, ampat sabulan,
Lima sabulan, anam sabulan,
Tujoh sabulan, malam di-angkau,
Siang di-aku.
Sa’ekor aku bawa balik,
Sa’ekor aku tinggalkan!

O Mentala (Batara) Guru
Hoping (desiring, hunting) for a month, two months,
Three months, four months,
Five months, six months,
Seven months, the night is yours,
The day is mine.
One deer I take,
One I leave behind!

Finally, he sprinkled water and flowers onto the basket.

It began to drizz;e (gerimis) over the performance area at around this moment. Later we learnt from observers that it had only rained in the Kapallorek Artspace area and not the surrounding area. This was particu;arly notable as there had been a drought over the previous weeks.

Spells adapted from notes in Walter William Skeat‘s Malay Magic.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/47873/47873-h/47873-h.htm


Membuka Panggung

~ The Koboi Project

Having called (memanggil) the spirits, Koboi performed a ritual consecration of the stage (upacara membuka panggung) by raising the plate up and towards the audience and uttering,

Hei Jin Tanah, Hantu Tinggi,
Hoi Jembalang Wayang ! Dato’ jangan membisakan,
Aku tahu asal ‘kau jadi : Dato jangan membe’ngkakkan :
Bintang Timor asal ‘kau mula jadi. 
Biar sagala makhluk suka permainan kita,
Berkat Dato’ Batara Guru Menyaksikannya.

Hei Jin Tanah, Hantu Tinggi,
Hoi Jembalang Wayang ! Dato’ do not cause us harm (poison),
I know of how you came to be : Dato do not cause us hurt (swelling),
You originate in the star Eastern Star (Venus, Lucifer, zuhratun, the bringer of light, the Assyrian Belit or Isytar?).
May all creatures enjoy our play,
The blessing of Dato’ Batara Guru (Sanskrit Bhattaraka, noble lord, first Guru, Dakshinamurti, Shiva) bearing witness.

The offering was placed close towards front of the performance area.

Adapted from notes in Walter William Skeat‘s Malay Magic.

https://alkitab.sabda.org/dictionary.php?word=Bintang%20Timur

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batara_Guru

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/47873/47873-h/47873-h.htm

Jambalang Wayang

~ The Koboi Project



Among the spirits propitiated in the Pokok Pauh Janggi performance were the Jambalang Wayang (spirits of the stage). An offering consisting of nasi pulut kuning (glutinous rice), daun sireh (betel leaf), and a soft-boiled egg was presented on an old ceramic plate. At the start of the performance, the egg was broken open, the offering was brought to the panggung on a tray and placed to the rear of the performance area, between the two cushions. Koboi lit a red candle and placed in the glutinous rice offering (nasi pulut kuning) while crying out,

Aku minta’ ampun juga kapada sagala Jambalang Wayang!
I ask forgiveness from the spirits of the Wayang!

Pak Dogol and Wak Long 2

~ The Koboi Project

1. Sejauh manakah budaya Melayu boleh diasingkan daripada akar-umbi pra Islamnya?
2. Sejauh manakah unsur-unsur budaya Melayu pra Islam boleh diterima oleh Islam Melayu sezaman?
3. Sejauh manakah budaya Melayu sezaman berkesinambungan dengan semangat Nusantara yang mengandunginya?
4. Sejauh manakah seseorang warga tanah Melayu sezaman boleh masuk Melayu tanpa masuk Islam?
5. Hanya orang bukan Melayu/Bukan Islam kah, yang mampu mengamal dan memelihara tradisi Melayu yang kini dianggap menentang hukum Islam?

Inilah hanya lima diantara banyak soalan yang tersirat didalam persembahan Pokok Pauh Janggi dan perbincangangan yang mengelilinginya. Soalan satu hingga tiga adalah berkenaan dengan isi atau pati budaya Melayu. Soalan keempat mempertikaikan peranaan saya sendiri sebagai orang bukan Melayu yang menerima dan mempersembahkan budaya ini.

1. To what extent can Malay culture be isolated from its pre-Islamic roots?
2. To what extent can the elements of pre Islamic Malay culture be accepted within contemporary Malay Islam?
3. To what extent does contemporary Malay culture remain contigious with the wider spirit of the Archipelago?
4. To what extent can a contemporary citizen of Malay lands be assimilated to Malayness without being a Muslim?
5. Can only non-Malay/Non-Muslims perform and preserve Malay traditions that are presently considered unIslamic?

These are just five of the many questions implicit in the Pokok Pauh Janggi performance and the discussion surrounding it. Questions one to three are about the content or essence of Malay culture. The fourth and fifth questions reflects on my own role as a non-Malay performing and identifying with these forms. In reflecting on the first three questions, albeit at a tangent, I suggest that Pak Dogol and Wak Long are pesonifications of the indigenous spirit (semangat) in the face of the Hindu/Buddhist ethos of Wayang Kulit. Hindu deities like Dewa Sinar Matahari (Surya), Dewa Sinar Bulan (Chandra), Siti Andang Dewi, (Lakshmi) and Dewa Berembun (Vishnu) are present in the narrative but have no puppets. Bentara Guru (Shiva) and Bentara Narada are the only two Hindu gods that appear as puppets. The highest god of the Wayang Kulit heaven (kayangan) is, however, Dewa Sang Yang Tunggal, who is not a Hindu deity but is, instead, derived from the Javanese Wayang Kulit tradition. Dewa Sang Yang Tunggal also does not have a distinct puppet but his earthly manifestation, Pak Dogol, does. As does Wak Long, who is said to have been created out of Pak Dogol’s spirit combined with dirt from his body. (See Wayang Kulit Kelantan: A Study of Characterization and Puppets)

Arguably, Pak Dogol and Wak Long are intermediaries, interlocutors, and interpreters, in the integration of Animistic and Hindu/Buddhist elements into the syncretic Islamic culture that characterizes the Malay Archipelago. According to Barbara S. Wright, one dalang held that the originator of the shadow play was the Angel Azizin, who first became Nenek Haji Mula, then became Dewa Sang Yang Tunggal who finally descended from heaven (kayangan) to the world (dunia) bearing the Wayang Kulit in the form of Pak Dogol. According to another dalang, Haji Mula gave the shadow play to the Prophet Mohammad, who gave it to Sang Yang Tunggal, who gave it to Betara Guru,.who gave it to Dewa Narada, who gave it to Wak Long. In yet another more involved version, “Haji Mula preceded Adam in Gods creation and when he was asked to bow down to Adam he refused. Allah refused to let him live under his sky and thus he fell into the sea and lay on a rock in the sea for forty years, unable to wash the dirt from his body. From the resulting bodily dirt he created a companion for himself, Wak Long, of course. Eventually, Allah relented and sent Haji Mula down to earth in Kelantan as the ugly Pak Dogol. He simultaneously descended as Semar in Jawa and in Epong inThailand (This is the Kelantan Malay undrestanding, not necessarily consonant with views in Jawa or Thailand). Allah gave Haji Mula a mission – to forcefully remind the forgetful about his grace. These origin myths of Wayang Kulit Kelantan, attest to the assimilative and proselytizing roles that Pak Dogol and Wak Long have played within the Islamic culture of the Malay Peninsula.

… and what of the fourth and fifth questions? … Well, that is a story for another post or two!

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313848278_Wayang_Kulit_Kelantan_A_Study_of_Chara cterization_and_Puppets

https://www-jstor-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/stable/1178141?seq=6

Wayang Kulit Kelantan in 1956

~ The Koboi Project

Some aspects of my Pokok Pauh Janggi performance were gleaned from this early cinematic record of Kelantanese Wayang Kulit from 1956.

  1. The puppets are painted only on one side – the side viewed by the Tok Dalang, so that he might be inspired during the performance.
  2. There is a blessing of the panggung (puja) with kemenyan (benzoin resin), food offerings and incantations (mantra).
  3. The puja involves a food offering consisting of telur rebus, nasi pulut kuning, daun sireh and a lighted candle on a ceramic plate.
  4. Bomoh and Dalang sit together during the upacara membuka panggung.
  5. The bomoh covers his head by draping his head cloth (destar) over himself at the climax of the ritual.

Wayang Lemah

~ The Koboi Project

The panggung (theatre/stage) for the Pokok Pauh Janggi performance was denoted by a tikar sengkuang (seashore pandan mat) and 2 cushions to mark the positions of the ersatz Dalang (puppet master) and the Pawang (shaman). The traditional Wayang Kulit batang pisang (banana stem) constituted the ibu pertiwi (mother earth) of the panggung and at each end of this ‘ground’ was inserted a bamboo rod, stating the vertical plane and marking the left and right boundaries of the proscenium. Wayang Kulit normally takes place in the dark so the shadows of the puppets can be starkly delineated on the kelir (screen), which is the ultimate site or interface of the performance. The Pokok Pauh Janggi performance was not, however, the presentation of a shadow play but, rather, the sharing of the sacred or magical upacara (rites) of Malay Wayang Kulit. The performance took place just before dusk, while there was still enough light for the buang badi rusa (dispelling of the mischief of the deer) and the invocation of the jambalang wayang (spirit of the puppets) could be observed by the audience. There could of course be no screen, and this led to practical problems with regard to support for the puppets and focusing the space of the performance.

To help delineate the proscenium and to order the space of the ritual, some devices were borrowed from the Balinese Wayang Lemah which also traditionally takes place in daylight without the mediation of a screen. In the presentation of Wayang Lemah, an intertwined cord of three threads known as the tukelan is tied across the vertical posts of the proscenium. The taught, straight tukelan signifies akasa (sky) and dharma (righteousness). At either end of the tukelan is strung an Uang Kepeng (pierced Chinese coin) that was the medium of exchange in the traditional Balinese economy, and which is said to symbolize balance between the Bhuana Agung (macrocosm) and Bhuana Alit (microcosm). While the incorporation of these elements of Wayang Lemah constitutes a deviation from the Kelantan tradition, it was apropos to the mechanics, optics, and metaphysics of the daylight performance of Pokok Pauh Janggi and, most importantly, it brought a broader Nusantara perspective to the proceedings.

“The Philosophical Meaning of Elements of the Balinese Lemah Leather Puppet Performance” written by I Putu Ardiyasa

Thanks to my friend and Vancouver based Tok Dalang Mark Parlett for guiding me towards the realization of this important aspect of the Pokok Pauh Janggi performance.

Pokok Pauh Janggi performance and installation by Niranjan Rajah runs from 5th Aug – 30th Sept 2023.

Wayang Kulit Puppets 2

~ The Koboi Project

The puppets were made by Greta Burley from deer hide using a laser cutter. It was decided that the Pokok Pauh Janggi should be 27.5″ in height, (69cm) and the Ketam Gergasi would be scaled proportionately based on the original photograph. A key issue in determining the size of the puppets was the dimension of the largest art portfolio that would conform to the 62in dimension limit for checked baggage on international flights. Greta first I cut a small shape out of the deer hide to determine the nature and extent of the cut. She found a setting that worked fairly well although the laser did burn some of the material around the edges. Colour was applied using leather dyes.

Pokok Pauh Janggi exhibition by Niranjan Rajah runs from 5th Aug – 30th Sept 2023.

https://www.facebook.com/gretaburleydesign