Nabila Salsabilah from Surakarta, Central Java, presents a Wayang Kancil "Si Kuthuk" puppet performance in the Wayang Bocah Festival at the Culture Park in Surabaya, East Java, on Saturday (22/4). The puppet festival was held to search for potential future puppeteers.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS -- Wayang, traditional puppet theater, is not only presented with beauty, skill, rituals, through cultural performances or only as a hobby, but also with deep contemplation to reveal essential aspects of life to achieve inner enlightenment.
Unfortunately, in Indonesia puppet shows are only regarded as merely an art form. The phenomenon of the increasingly marginalized cultural richness of wayang was acknowledged by a professor of philosophy at Parahyangan University in Bandung, Bambang Sugiharto.
"Modernity is more spectacular, more visually appealing and pragmatic. When we all come to the big question of identity, we just begin to think back about what our real wealth is," he said during a national seminar on wayang philosophy called "Knitting Indonesian Qualities in the Perspective of Puppet Philosophy" at Graha STR in Jakarta on Monday. The seminar was held as part of the Lustrum X and 50th Anniversary of the Faculty of Philosophy of Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta.
Developed countries
Nevertheless, it is quite surprising that in developed countries there has been a movement to re-explore their local cultural treasures. In Ireland, for example, people are again digging up Celtic cultural wealth, while in Denmark, the people are again learning about Vikings. In developed countries, there are movements about logos, science, art and mysticism. In contrast, in Indonesia, the people have just begun to move from mythology to science and philosophy.
"We just know who we are after we communicate with many parties. The rejection to what is different is primitive and will not bring us anywhere. This is a relational era," Bambang said.
In terms of the cultural heritage of wayang, there are some people who are defensive. They don’t want to be influenced by other cultures. However, there are also some who are open-minded. They do not mind if wayang philosophy enriches the philosophy of the world.
Prof. Joko Siswanto, the chairman of the Faculty of Philosophy at Gadjah Mada University (UGM), said that wayang was open to various cultural influences and able to cope with it. All of that is thanks to the power of hamot, hamong, hamemangkat, which is the ability to receive outside influences, filter them and transform them in order to strengthen wayang culture.
This quality is needed in the present time, especially in response to the emergence of the radicalism and fundamentalism movement.
"The danger of fundamentalism is to close the way of thinking; it blinds the mind and does not dare to respond to reality. In fact, the more we understand the other, the more we will understand the cultural wealth and the more we can contribute to the global world," Bambang said.
Efforts to explore wayang philosophy have been carried out by National Secretariat of Indonesian Puppeteering (Sena Wangi), alongside the Faculty of Philosophy at UGM, since the 1990s. "Until this year, the joint research has succeeded in presenting the philosophy of wayang,which seeks to explore metaphysics, epistemology and axiology of wayang," said Sena Wangi chairman, Sri Teddy Rusdy.
In principle, wayang is not just a performance, but also order and guidance. Wayang is referred to as wayanganing ngaurip or picture about life. In 2011, UGM launched courses about the philosophy of wayang for S-1 (fresh graduate), S-2 (magister) and S-3 (doctoral) programs, which are not available on other campuses.
