Wayang Educational Package

Persembahan Agung para Raja

(Indonesian) 

For centuries, the people of Indonesia have revered and nurtured the art of wayang kulit, the shadow puppet theater. In 2003 the significance of this art form was recognized by UNESCO when it declared wayang a “masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity.” UNESCO has included wayang kulit in the organization’s Intangible Heritage List and its proposed action plan calls for stronger support of puppeteers (dhalang) and increased documentation.

In support of this goal, Lontar has produced a shadow theater educational package for use by educators at the university level to teach students the art, wisdom, and cultural knowledge found in the wayang tradition.

There are three major performance styles of wayang kulit performed today: “classic” (klasik), “contemporary-interpretive” (garapan), and “condensed” (padat). Over the past several years Lontar has documented each of these performance styles twice and, from the large amount of footage obtained, has produced six films with subtitles in Indonesian and English. Lontar has also published six complete performance transcripts in three languages—Javanese, Indonesian and English—and a volume of musical notation.

The Package presents two famous wayang episodes, one with a leadership theme, Rama’s Crown (Makutharama), and one which explores the conflict between different belief systems, The Grand Offering of the Kings (Sesaji Raja Suya).

By Purbo Asmoro (author); Sunardi (translator)

Short Description:

This book contains Indonesian translations of the three Javanese performance transcripts found in Sesaji Raja Suya, in classical, contemporary-interpretive, and condensed styles.

About the Author:

Purbo Asmoro is an instructor in the Pedalangan Department at the Institute of Indonesian Arts in Surakarta for over twenty years. In 1989 he was created and debuted an innovative system of story-telling, applied to traditional seven-hour wayang performances, which he further developed the style over the subsequent decade. After studying gamelan performance practice intensely for over a decade.

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