Preservation, Development, and Utilization of Wayang Era

Millenium

Kasidi Hadi Prayitno

Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta

Keywords: Shadow puppet, education for puppet master, dalang.

Abstract: This paper seeks to present various matters relating to the traditional performing arts of pure shadow puppets.

The focus of the discussion is the preservation, development and utilization of puppet performance in the

millennium era. There is no doubt that the existence of puppet art belonging to the theater of art has been

around since the 9th century in Indonesia. The triumph of wayang as a traditional art initially appeared in the

palace environment, especially Yogyakarta and Surakarta. Then it flourished outside the palace and became

a popular art in rural communities. Until finally the formal education of art emerged by the state such as the

conservatory (SMKI) at the upper secondary level, and higher education in art in Indonesia. The presence of

art education institutions formally encouraged puppet shows to develop in accordance with the performance

of puppet artists. The era of the most dominant new order regime utilizes puppets as a means of introducing

development programs that are carried out by the government, so that new forms of wayang and new puppet

plays are born. Apparently the utilization was expanding not only in the wayang art circle but also in the

infotainment world, advertising, spatial decoration and so on. Even puppets are sometimes used as political

means in the framework of legislative campaigns in the areas of live and developing puppet arts.

1 INTRODUTION

Based on the main theme of this paper, it is actually a

work that is not light for the owner of the wayang

culture, how not, when the inheritance that belongs to

a community group or even a person suddenly sticks

out in an extraordinary domain or even global

territory, then the happens is a feeling of pride,

happiness, and worry. Proud because the national

culture inherited from the ancestors received

tremendous attention from all over the world, happily

the universe of puppets became rapidly developing,

and at the same time worried because there must be

an effort to maintain the existence of the quality of

puppet culture with various problems. This step is

very important so that the puppet culture still exists in

the world.

Here are two interesting things within the

boundaries of the desired theme relating to the focus

of writing, namely about the protection of puppets

and the content of their values from a legal and

physical perspective.

Starting from the two problems, it will be known

that the purpose is more oriented to the existence of

puppet culture in the present. The description is as

follows.

2 MASTER PUPPET

2.1 Legality

The existence of puppets in Indonesia has been

proven by the long history of wayang in Indonesia,

since the 9th century until the millennium has never

been lost from the country of Indonesia, especially

Java. The participation and support of all puppet

culture fans, puppet organizations, institutions, and

the government has made wayang able to live and

survive to this day. Various activities related to

puppet activities carried out by puppet organizations

in Indonesia that had existed, at least since 1969-1970

was marked by the establishment of community

organizations that deal with puppets namely Ganasidi

before finally becoming Pepadi, then followed by

Senawangi in 1974. Reach National performance and

presence exist in every province in Indonesia. Such

strong support from the Indonesian people, the

government and professional puppet organizations, is

the main capital for the existence of wayang in terms

of conservation, development and utilization.

Senawangi and Pepadi as puppet organizations

continue to work hard tirelessly and selflessly

314

Prayitno, K.

Preservation, Development, and Utilization of Wayang Era Millenium.

DOI: 10.5220/0008764103140321

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities (ICONARTIES 2019), pages 314-321

ISBN: 978-989-758-450-3

strengthen their performance so that finally puppets

gained world recognition through the UNESCO

world organization on November 7, 2007, namely

wayang as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible

Heritage of Humanity, thus the legality of puppets

this is no doubt. In order to strengthen cooperation at

the Asian level, the APA stands for Asian Puppetry

Association based in the Philippines, while for the

world level UNIMA stands for Union Internationale

de la Marionette, which is located in Paris, France.

These world puppet organizations have cooperation

and coordination in the activities of the puppet

universe.

2.2 Research and Education

Senawangi pioneered research and research

collaboration with universities such as Gadjah Mada

University, ISI Yogyakarta, Surakarta, and others, all

of which were carried out to develop puppets through

scientific channels, for example in 2000 together with

the Faculty of Philosophy, Gadjah Mada University

conducted puppet research from point of view

philosophy, which just happened there was an

archipelago philosophy development program. One

important result is the opening of a program of puppet

philosophy courses at S1, S2 and S3 levels. Followed

also with the publishing of puppet philosophy books.

Even through education programs carried out by

the government, they cannot be underestimated,

namely by establishing school institutions to open

puppetry and puppetry education programs from the

middle school level such as the ISMS in Yogyakarta,

Surakarta, Surabaya, Banyumas, and so on, to get to

higher education levels for example at ISI Surakarta,

Yogyakarta, Denpasar, and ISBI. Not to forget the

community of puppet fans were interested in doing

puppetry and puppet activities, for example by setting

up puppetry studios, from cities and rural areas.

Such is the glimpse of the existence of the puppet

and of puppeteer universe in Indonesia. As a cultural

asset, it has become one of the national identities and

with the recognition of Indonesian wayang as a world

heritage by the UNESCO culture this puppet is no

longer solely Indonesian, but belongs to the world.

That is why it is a shared obligation of the government

and the people of Indonesia to preserve and develop

the wayang culture now and in the future.

2.3 Physical

Puppet culture can take a role in the formation of

human character because of one of its functions and

uses for character education. Wayang performances

always present a comprehensive range of characters

about humans in a comprehensive manner, so as to

provide life vocabulary. The aesthetic concept that

developed in the universe of wayang is known as the

aesthetic concept of spectacle, order, and guidance, as

follows.

2.3.1 Spectacle Concept in Puppets

The spectacle viewed etymologically comes from

Sanskrit from the tonic root meaning to see. Then

formed by the principle of confirming the Javanese

language by means of complete reduplication from

tons to watching, which means that it is still the same,

namely seeing, then given affixes in the form of

suffixes, which is difference, so that the word

spectacle means something that can be seen.

When humans do seeing activities, many things

can be perceived through the sense of sight. Of course

certain objects that are caught by eye sight are also

diverse, some are good and some are bad, some make

admiration, on the contrary there are dull, disgusting,

and so on. The word spectacle above means

something that does provide inner experience and

aesthetic experience of the quality of objects attached

to the object. It has been proven for centuries that

puppets convey packed moral values in amazing of

performing arts, with all the facilities and equipment

becoming increasingly complete and increasing in

quality to reach the form of puppet performance until

now. Zoetmulder (1983) describes how great the

literary work of Kakawin Arjunawiwaha by Mpu

Kanwa in the era of King Airlangga has called

wayang performances, namely in the XI century in

one of the 59th stanza, it was mentioned that there

was a spectacle of wayang as follows.

Hanonton ringgit manangis asekel muda hidepan

huwuswruh towin jan walulang inukir molah

mangucap hatur ring wang tresneng wisaya malah

tan wihikana tatwan jan maya sahan-kahaning

bahwa siluman.

“People see puppets crying sadly, even though

they know that what they see is only animal skins

are carved and moved and speak, people are exposed

to magiceven forget that it's all just a mere illusion, so

that the items are invisible and pseudo”

Based on the verse above, it appears that the age

of the puppet performance has been so long, at least

since the XI century AD. The media or tools used are

animal skins, usually buffalo or cow skins which are

carved or gazed then disungging (given color), and

finally given stalks or stick arm control rods and

hoods. The contents of the wayang story are able to

evoke the pleasure and happiness of the audience, so

that it is very possible the function of the puppet show

has put forward aesthetic values (Soetarno, 2005).

Preservation, Development, and Utilization of Wayang Era Millenium

315

There are two important things in the main sense

of this spectacle term, first is the spectacle in the form

of physical, namely various aesthetic means of

shadow puppets that can be seen with the eye.

Consisting of gamelan music instruments, stage

setting of wayang puppets, puppeteers, keprak,

swarawati or pesinden female singer, wiraswara or

penggerong ‘male singer’ and gamelan players. The

second is in the form of non-physical, namely various

elements of beauty, most of which can only be heard

in the form of descriptions carried out by the

puppeteers, such as wayang dialogues, sulukan

dalang ‘singing by dalang’, gending ‘arracement

music gamelan’ accompaniment of puppets, and story

of puppet play. The two important things are detailed

as follows.

2.3.2 Gamelan

Gamelan is a set of percussion instruments called

gamelan consisting of tones or slendro and pelog

tunes. Among other things, gender, gender penerus

successor, slenthem, gambang, rebab, kendang stem,

kendand ketipung, kendang batangan drum, siter,

flute, saron, demung, peking, bonang barung, bonang

penerus or successor, kenong, kempyang, gong, gong

siyem, kempul, and kecer.

2.3.3 Puppet Stage of Wayang

Puppet stage of wayang, which is in the form of a

puppet that is stuck on a 'banana tree' gedebok which

is arranged in such a way from several banana stems

approximately 7-8 meters long and spread out on the

center or screen, on the right and left of the screen.

The puppets are removed from the box then stored

'plugged in a row' to form a stage of puppet.

The development that take place, the embodiment

of the puppet stage layout has changed towards the

modern, so that it seems glamorous, luxurious,

sparkly. The number of gamelan instruments is

increasing, the female singers are sparkling and

beautiful, the big screen with golden prada puppets,

coupled with extraordinary lighting, and so on.

Furthermore, along with the demands and

development of the era, puppet art experienced

changes and developments in terms of forms,

performances of techniques, and other supports.

Therefore, from the word spectacle, it evolved to

mean spectacle, to be entertainment orientation in the

1990-2000 era, and even almost 3 decades, this

element of entertainment became very dominant. The

influence of the era and advances in technology play

an important role in the change of puppet art towards

mere entertainment.

Soetarno (2004) said that the performance of

puppets in the era of the 2000s had led to the

dominance of entertainment, almost most of the

puppeteers today are more inclined to the tastes of

society, namely emphasizing the elements of gobyok,

dan rame ‘crowded boisterous’, humor, pornography,

choice of popular songs, acrobatic sabet ‘puppet

moving’, etc. (Soetarno, 2004). As a result, there was

an unhealthy competition looking for new

breakthroughs to be able to exist in the community,

without considering the aesthetic elements of ethical

values in puppet art.

Many factors influence the journey of wayang art

since ancient times to its present form. If reviewed

backward, puppet shows contain an understanding as

a tontontan ‘spectacle’ that displays the essence of

moral values in depth that can be used as a guide to

life. Another term commonly known is puppet ethics,

so it is not strange that in the universe puppet

philosophy is found mainly is Javanese philosophy.

Therefore performance of wayang tontontan

understanding is more precisely directed at the

essence of moral values, and puppets are able to

maintain their existence throughout the long ages to

its very vital function, namely puppets are able to

provide references and life guidelines for the

community in the form of moral values presented in

the art work called adi luhung ‘high value’. Puppets

which are full of moral values are understood by the

supporting community in their efforts to develop

personalities, establish relationships with others, their

relationship with nature and the environment, and

more importantly the relationship with the Creator to

lead to the ultimate beauty in the form of perfection

of life ( Ciptoprawiro, 2000). Achieving the level of

perfection of life in the wayang philosophy is

commonly referred to as manunggaling-Gusti ‘the

joint God and human’, which he calls a means of

combining the poet with his work (Zoetmulder,

1991). Referring to this statement, for mastermind

artists who still attach importance to spirituality and

morality, performance of puppet art is the essence of

the silulungan ‘the way joint with God’ of perfection

towards eternal oneness.

2.4 The Concept of Order or Ethic in

Puppet Performances

The existence of works of art basically does not have

rules that are universal in nature, which means that

their irregularities are universal because the rules are

given by nature in such a way to geniuses as Kant said

(Sumaryono, 1999), that pure art is the art of genius,

so thus its existence cannot be explained by the

scientific method. For example, in karawitan

‘gamelan music’ the term gembyang and gembyung

are found which logically clearly show the inequality

in playing certain ricikan ‘one of the name music

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gamelan’ or gamelan music songs, but in terms of

aesthetic taste is more appropriate and tastes musical

and harmonious. From that understanding arises from

the view that art including puppets with all its aspects

is the power to be able to carry out certain actions

guided by special knowledge carried out with

adequate mastery of skills so as to be able to produce

something on the basis of aesthetic principles in their

fields (Bagus, 2002). The beauty of the order is

actually formed on the basis of the interplay between

the environment and humans in it, thus giving bring

up to experience. The point is the experience of art or

obtain aesthetic experience. When that experience

reaches the level of form whose existence without

being forced is actually the essence of that beauty.

The process of interaction forms a balance and order,

then naturally aesthetic quality will emerge, which is

when the relations of the elements become organized.

Therefor that experience is basically a concrete form

of beauty or art in its early development.

The success of works of art is able to record the

events of natural exploration, universal exploration,

reading experience of other works, improvisation,

and the audience or audience (Teeuw, 1984). The

experience was expressed in works of art, so by itself

gave birth to pleasure and happiness for humans. The

concept of order in the puppet is the world of

expression of truth that is subject to cosmic law, so as

to be able to set boundaries for own experience,

purpose, and will. Niels Mulder (2001) calls it a unity

of existence in wayang at the same time all is an

unavoidable progress for humans without exception.

This is a whole that must be organized and

coordinated. Puppet is no longer an art form that

presents the order of the results of pouring aesthetic

experiences by humans in this matter are artists, but it

is like wewayangane ngaurip ‘ is seen as a shadow of

human life’ (EWI Team, 1999A). Based on the

description above, it appears that the order intended

is orderliness and maintenance of order in puppet art,

not limited to the physical form of structuring

physically but also includes the depth of the content

and meaning of the aesthetic order in the puppets.

2.5 The Concept of Order in Puppet

Performances

The existence of senior works on the rules does not

have universal rules, the definition of universal rules

of conflict given by nature to the forms for the

geniuses that Kant conveyed (Sumaryono, 1999),

how his seniors are senior geniuses, so that however,

not can be accepted by the scientific method. For

example, in karawitan, the term gembyang and

gembyung was found which clearly explained the

inequality in playing certain ricikan gamelan music,

but in terms of aesthetic taste more appropriate and

comfortable musical and harmonious taste. That

understanding emerged One view of seniors

including puppets with all aspects of power to be able

to help certain actions guided by special knowledge

carried out with mastery of skills that are qualified to

produce knowledge about the legal fields (Bagus,

2002). The beauty of the order is really formed from

the basis of interconnectedness between the

environment and humans in it, resulting in

experience. The point is continuous experience or

acquired aesthetic experience. When that experience

reaches the level of the form it takes without being

forced is actually the essence of that beauty. The

process of interaction forms balance and order, so that

naturally aesthetic qualities will emerge, namely the

compilation of relations that cannot be regulated.

Therefor the experience is basically a concrete form

of beauty or art in the early development.

The success of works of art is able to record the

events of natural exploration, universal exploration,

reading experience of other works, improvisation,

and the audience or audience (Teeuw, 1984). The

experience was expressed in works of art, so by itself

gave birth to pleasure and happiness for humans. The

concept of order in the puppet is the world of

expression of truth that is subject to cosmic law, so as

to be able to set boundaries for own experience,

purpose, and will. Niels Mulder (2001) calls it a unity

of existence in wayang at the same time all is an

unavoidable progress for humans without exception.

This is a whole that must be organized and

coordinated. Puppet is no longer an art form that

presents the order of the results of pouring aesthetic

experiences by humans in this matter are artists, but it

is like wewayangan is seen as a shadow of human life

(EWI Team, 1999A). Based on the description above,

it appears that the order intended is orderliness and

maintenance of order in puppet art, not limited to the

physical form of structuring physically but also

includes the depth of the content and meaning of the

aesthetic order in the puppets.

As an illustration of various matters related to

physical forms, for example the arrangement of a set

of puppet gamelan, the composition is arranged in

such a way that one instrument with the other can be

harmonized to produce maximum sound and maintain

harmonious harmony. For example, the sound

arrangement of tabuh siji instruments such as saron,

demung, peking, kenong, kempul, gong, and kendang,

is placed not far apart, the reason for some types of

instruments is to produce loud sounds, so that the

rampak ‘compatible’ that music must be grouped

according to their character. Especially in the

arrangement of gamelan puppet accompaniment, if

this is not done it will cause noise in the presentation

Preservation, Development, and Utilization of Wayang Era Millenium

317

of the gending, sometimes it is difficult to regulate the

gamelan rhythm stability. The players of gamelan

musicians taking into account the organology of the

instrument and the composition of such instruments,

the gamelan players must be in cross-legged sitting

positions, as well as the puppeteers, also have to sit

cross-legged, this is the essence of the rules or rules

that apply in puppet or puppetry. For the audience, in

the old days they sat relaxed, so that they could freely

see and listen to the stories performed by the dalang

‘puppiteer’. Especially if the performance was held in

the palace, surely similar things would still happen,

especially those that happened in the palace. The

order found in the universe of puppets like that is

often referred to by the public as a pakem ‘standard’,

even though now in terms of the real meaning has

undergone a shift.

The order in the concept of puppet thinking is an

ethical dimension as a reflection of the pattern of

behavior for citizens in living together, thus creating

a society that is harmonious, peaceful, prosperous and

happy. Umar Kayam (2001) calls it a residual culture

that is oriented towards court culture. Also expressly

stated in the Pedalangan Ngayogyakarta book

Volume I, this ethical dimension is included in the

manners section which consists of tatakrama Jawi

‘Javanese manners’, and tatakrama basa ‘language

manners’ (Mudjanattistomo, et al. 1977). For

supporters of Javanese culture, the space is not neutral

and homogeneous. People must be present, behave,

speak words in different spaces and times according

to social status even hierarchically as an attitude of

narima ing pandum ‘think what is their destiny’. This

means that people must know their place of fate and

be thankful to God, there is a satisfaction in fulfilling

their fate in the realization that everything has been

outlined for themselves (Mulder, 1984). The Javanese

Tatakrama ‘politeness’ is known to consist of three

very important ones, which are referred to as unggah-

ungguh ‘politeness’, empan-papan ‘look at the

situation and place’, and angon tinon ‘look at the

time’ Unggah-ungguh is often followed by the term

udanegara ‘to known of rules’, concerning behavior

and speech of the language used in dealing with

others, in greeting and behaving to others in order to

maintain mutual respect in Javanese kurmat-

kinurmatan ‘respect each other’ and mad-sinamadan

‘taking care of other’ and tolerance in the relations of

fellow human beings. The board is a behavior that is

adapted to a place that has a social structure, for

example being in a palace or at the house of the

courtiers who have differences in carrying

themselves. Including for example how to walk, sit,

and use language. Angon tinon involves behavior that

is adjusted to the circumstances around it. In

connection with the language manners in the universe

the wayang is described as follows.

The concept of order in the performance of puppet

shows can be seen from the use of puppetry or puppet

language. Language is a basic means for conveying

self-expression, both through narration and dialogue

between puppet characters. The delivery of this

language is done in the form of prose, for example,

descriptions of scenes, characters, atmosphere and so

on, besides that it is also done in the form of poetry,

for example puppet songs, sulukan, sindenan, and

gerongan. In terms of from its linguistic

characteristics, the language used is New Javanese,

which is sometimes added by Old Javanese or even

Sanskrit (Kasidi, 2009).

To give an overview of the concept of wayang

structure in the use of the New Javanese language, it

is necessary to explain about the problems related to

the variety of puppet languages that have unda-usuk,

or levels of language. These two things are varied by

puppeteers in wayang performances. For example,

the use of krama and ngoko languages which in fact

have relations with the disclosure of descriptions,

dialogues, and actions is always adjusted to the high

and low tone of the gamelan music instruments and

puppet characters. Also found is the form of

bagongan ‘special palace language’ language, which

is a special language used for certain characters. For

example, manira and special pekenira Prabu

Duryudana and Patih Sengkuni, ulun ‘first person

pronouns’ and kita ‘second person pronoun’ are for

deities. The presence of the New Javanese language

is basically a variation of language based on usage on

the basis of topics that are the focus of conversation,

conversation relationships, interlocutors, and the

medium of conversation (Kridalaksana, 1993).

There are two kinds of languages found in

wayang performances, namely official or formal

languages and a variety of informal or informal

languages. The variety of formal languages is used in

a dialogue between respected puppet figures and

lower-ranking puppet figures or younger puppet

figures, such as scenes in the palace. The variety of

informal languages is a language that is used as an

dialogue between puppets that is equal, for example

the language used among the soldiers. Informal

variety can also be called a casual variety, this is

found in the wayang performance, the atmosphere of

the scene is really relaxed, for example in the scene

of limbukan or because of it.

The emergence of unda-usuk or the level of

language is influenced by an attitude of the user of the

language to express respect to the interlocutor

through language, in addition to behavior and action

(Poewadarminto, 1953). For example, the form of

manners was elaborated again into young krama,

kramantara, and wredha krama. Then ngoko is

divided into ngoko lugu, antya basa, and basa antya,

besides that, it can still be found in bentuk madya ‘the

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middle form’ which also consists of madya krama,

kramantara, and madya ngoko. The social status of

language users, especially in spoken language, is the

main characteristic for understanding the concept of

ethics or order. Puppet language expresses many

words of character which in the linguistic field of Java

are referred to as Rinengga bases or beautified

languages.

2.6 The Concept of Guidance in Puppet

Performances

Kraton as the center of Javanese culture, including of

wayang art or puppetry art, has a very large role in the

development of puppet arts in Indonesia. Kraton is

brought towards traditional authority which is

referred to as cultural residual (Umar Kayam, 2001),

so that the spiritual discourse in the palace and its

environment becomes integrated in performances and

the development of wayang culture. For example, it

appears in the description of the events of janturan,

kandha lan carita, even in dialogue between puppet

characters. Therefore, the reflection of the palace

always appears in wayang performances, so that

wayang gets the title as one of adi luhung ‘the great

forms of art’.

The concept of guidance in the wayang kulit

purwa has a very broad meaning, but the basic

understanding of the description above, the actual

word contains moral values in the puppet. The

concepts of wayang moral values are often included

in the language of figures that are deliberately not

prescribed and used guidelines in the way of life by

supporters of wayang culture as well as Javanese

culture are Javanese (Soetarno, 2004). Wayang

culture has a multi-complex nature that depicts ethical

and moral values and reflects life's teachings, the

origin of the purpose of life, the relationship between

humans and humans, the relationship between

humans and the universe and things related to humans

with the Creator. However, not all moralists, its

meaning will not be found to answer, example about

black and white as good and bad in the human life.

Puppets provide offer choices for all their

problem solving. Franz Magnis Susena (1991) gave

his comment, that puppets discuss life problems

related to humans, life's difficulties, and ambiguities

burdened by humans. Lots of complete concepts of

moral values are displayed in the form of

performances with the presentation of puppet plays

and contents of Javanese philosophy and contents.

Look like example the value of Godhead in the play

Dewa Ruci, Arjunawiwaha, Kunjarakarna, and so on.

National values, for example in the plays Bhisma

Mahawira ‘Heroism of Bhisma’ and Kumbakarno.

These two different figures have opinions about the

defense of their homeland. The value of justice is seen

in the play Suyudana Banda ‘Shackles of Suyudana’.

In the play there are scenes of Puntadewa having to

choose for justice, they chose Sadewa who must be

turned on first from the other brothers. The value of

truth is revealed in the play of Wibisana Tundhung

‘Expulsion of Wibisana’, for the sake of the value of

truth and conscience one must leave the brothers to

join people who uphold the virtues of being

connected. The value of loyalty appears in the plays

of Sinta Obong Fire of Sinta’, Palguna-Palgunadi,

and so on.

Thus many concepts of value and varied ethical

values are conveyed in the universe of wayang

without having to change and eliminate the spirit of

the puppet as an art of show. However, it also does

not rule out the possibility that in the current era,

puppet performances have shifted towards mere

entertainment interests, making it less proportional

between spectacle, order and guidance. Starting from

the explanation above, it can be said that the

performance of the wayang shadow puppets as one of

the media to translate new ideas, in addition the artists

concerned must continue to search and innovate

without sacrificing moral values as well as an

aesthetic activity arena.

Wayang performances are performances that do

not only show stories or plays in conflict and problem

solving, but in them there are distinctive structures

that become the foundation of the dynamics in the

performance. First, puppet shows consist of three

"phases", called pathet, namely pathet nem, pathet

sanga, and pathet manyura. This sequence is not an

arbitrary sequence, but represents the standard

sequence or phase of puppet performances, which

must be adhered to and adhered to both in the

performance of all-night puppets, as well as in solid

puppet shows for example. Second, in pathet-pathet

as mentioned above, there are special scenes, which

also applied in a structure. Starting from the scene of

the scene, gapuran ‘ king is beck to palace’ paseban

jawi ‘ moving of soldiers army’ and so on until the

step on the gunungan as a sign of the end of the

puppet play. Based on the description of the structure

of the puppet performance, it can be emphasized that

the sequence of scenes in the puppet performance is

not compiled for the sake of mere aesthetic interests,

but implies the existence of a standard structure

which is also an important clue, namely that in the

puppet performance there is a view of the aesthetics

dynamics.

The dynamics of reality as illustrated in wayang

performances can be observed from the function of

kothak as the place of origin and the return of all

puppets. Kothak wayang in the puppetry world is

interpreted as a symbol of the earth or land, so that

when the puppets are no longer laid out, they must go

Preservation, Development, and Utilization of Wayang Era Millenium

319

back into kothak. This context is the same as the

definition of "bali Marang asal mulanira" or "return

to the beginning". This implies an understanding of

the dynamics of reality, that basically humans come

from the ground, and later they will return to earth to

become land. The view of the beginning of reality in

wayang performances, that everything starts from

kothak and will return to kothak again, becomes an

important starting point in discussing the dynamics of

reality. A view of the dynamics of life, namely that

everything starts from "nothing", then "exists", and

finally returns to "nothing". It has been studied in the

metaphysics section, a view like this is one of the

characteristics of the view of the dynamics of cyclical

reality, namely the view of history that begins at one

point, and will return to the same point. The context

of performances such as this shows that the starting

and ending points are "none" symbolized in the form

of "kothak", ie when all the puppets played are stored

back in the box. The dynamics of this cyclical reality,

in Javanese society, are known as "hanyakra

manggilingan", which is spinning like a wheel.

The golden age of the rise of culture and literature

in Java can be felt in the decade of 1847 which is also

called the romantic period of Javanese culture

(Pigeaud, 1967: 135). Among others, it was marked

by the massive translation of Old Sanskrit and

Javanese literary works, such as Kakawin Arjuna

Wiwaha into Serat Wiwaha Jarwa Kakawin

Bharatayuda becoming Serat Baratayuda

Yasadipuran, Kakawin Ramayana being Serat Rama

Yasadipuran and other ancient texts (Poerbatjaraka,

1958), which most of the works later became babon

‘base of’ the wayang stories to the present era. This

means that from this statement there is an

understanding that modernization, which is marked

by the existence of real changes, coincides with the

tastes and demands of the era. The foundation of this

thought also implies that in the work of art, especially

puppetry has never been separated from what people

call modern puppets. Modern is understood as a

human attitude in thinking and how to act in

accordance with the demands of the times. The

historical background that has been described is very

clear that the puppet has never been separated from

the flow of changes and demands of the era, so that

the puppet is never outdated and has proven to be able

to go through a long history of history for centuries.

The long journey of wayang and puppetry naturally

experiences ups and downs, a shift in values,

functions, meanings, and even physical form

significantly changes, and cannot be avoided as one

of the characteristics of a dynamic human culture. At

the moment the wayang performances that are known

to the public are following trends such as puppet

performances of certain mastermind styles, of which

note is a modern puppeteer, so it is natural and

reasonable, so that the element of fulfilling the senses

of vision reaches satisfaction. On the contrary it may

be dry in terms of ethical moralistic proportions.

3 CONCLUSIONS

After the presentation of the shadow puppet

performance concepts related to the capabilities of

puppet art exist in the modern and global era, some

conclusions may be given that might be the basis for

the development of puppet art and analytical thinking

for the sake of enlightenment of all parties.

Spectacle, order, and guidance are relational

concepts in wayang performances that cannot be

eliminated from one another. There should be no

dominance of one of the important elements of the

puppet performance, its existence must be

proportional. Although the reality that occurs in the

field sometimes differs ideally from a quality puppet

performance.

The aesthetic relationship in puppet shows plays

an important role that must be mastered in full by the

mastermind. Aesthetic relations are not only limited

to the concept of beauty but also a reflection of the

ethical dimension that reflects the values and nobility

of human mind.

The existence of wayang in the present era,

although there are some opinions that puppets will

become extinct, it turns out to be untrue, historically

wayang has always lived and developed following the

movements of the current breath and it has been

proven, there is no need to worry about puppets in the

millennium modern and global.

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