KELANTAN, MALAYSIA — A puppet with flowing hair and a sharp-toothed grin got here hovering into view as background singers shrieked, cackled, and whooped. Illya Sumanto unfold her arms extensive, making the attractive ghost Pontianak glide throughout the display screen, browsing on a banana.
“To play Wayang, you need big movements, but traditionally, women [in Southeast Asia] were expected to be small, moving gracefully,” Sumanto informed Hyperallergic.
It was Sumanto’s first shadow puppet efficiency in November, in entrance of lots of of individuals in Chiang Mai, Thailand. However she had acquired her coaching in Kelantan, a deeply conservative state in northern Malaysia.
Conventional Malaysian shadow puppetry of the nation’s Kelantan area, generally known as wayang kulit Kelantan, is a dying artwork, partially as a result of it’s been suppressed by the native Muslim authorities. Historically, the efficiency tells the story of the Ramayana, an epic poem that serves as a foundational textual content of Hinduism.
For years, the artwork kind was banned outright in Kelantan, and even in the present day, it could solely be carried out at two government-approved websites, a far cry from its authentic observe of roaming puppeteers performing in public areas amongst communities.
Sumanto prepares for her efficiency in Chiang Mai in November.
As we speak in Kelantan, solely the oldest technology stays accustomed to wayang kulit. One middle-aged girl who sells the native delicacy nasi kerabu — marinated hen with blue rice — informed Hyperallergic in December that she watched one shadow puppet efficiency and was unimpressed.
“My husband said it was not authentic, but we don’t know anymore where to find the authentic one,” she stated. “Actually, I’m ashamed that I don’t know much about wayang kulit, because it’s our cultural heritage.”
Muhammad Dain Othman, generally known as Pak Dain (“Uncle Dain”), the final dwelling grasp, or dalang, of wayang kulit, stated he doesn’t blame the federal government for the artwork’s disappearance — he blames society, which he claims broadly helps the spiritual prohibitions.
“Middle-aged people agree with the government, and the young generation is very busy with modern technology, so what’s left?” he informed Hyperallergic throughout an interview at his cultural middle in Kelantan. A religious Muslim himself, he’s exasperated by the spiritual criticisms.
“I only tell the story, I don’t demand people follow the beliefs,” Dain continued.
Dain stated he feels an amazing accountability to protect wayang kulit, however doesn’t fairly know the way. He’s constructed a museum the place he sits surrounded by grainy portraits of useless puppeteers, together with considered one of his apprentices, who he says was almost finished together with his coaching when he died.
Pak Dain in his studio and group middle in Kelantan, Malaysia, in December 2024
He struggles to strike the precise stability between preserving wayang kulit’s conventional roots and adapting it to stay related within the trendy age. To attraction to the youthful technology, Pak Dain places on reveals about Star Wars, Predator, and the Marvel films. He has additionally damaged with one other long-standing custom by educating girls, resembling Sumanto.
Wayang kulit originated within the Indonesian island of Java, and totally different variations of the artwork kind exist throughout maritime Southeast Asia. Legend says it was first delivered to Kelantan by a girl, a Thai-Chinese language seafaring dealer who picked it up in Java earlier than being shipwrecked in northern Malaysia. Regardless of this, there’s by no means been an formally acknowledged girl grasp of wayang kulit Kelantan. There have been some in Indonesia, though feminine dalangs there say they nonetheless grapple with discrimination.
“Society still looks down on female puppeteers — we’re considered less attractive and less capable of performing, because female puppeteers are [believed to be] constrained by their voice, power, dexterity and skills and are considered to have less energy or stamina,” Sri Harti Kenik Asmorowati, a dalang in Indonesia, informed Hyperallergic.
However Asmorowati stated being a girl can be a bonus as a result of it brings one thing contemporary and distinctive to a standard artwork many are dropping curiosity in, including that she typically focuses on feminine characters and views.
Pak Dain continues to be coming to phrases with the idea of a girl dalang. He harps on the issue of a girl voicing a male character throughout a efficiency.
“I don’t have any experience watching a woman dalang, so I can’t say, but I think it’s a little weird. But why don’t you try?,” he stated he informed Sumanto.
A crowd watches Sumanto and her all-woman staff carry out in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in November.
Coming to rural Kelantan as anyone who grew up within the capital Kuala Lumpur, Sumanto initially “felt like an outsider,” she stated throughout a dialog with Hyperallergic at a bustling meals pageant in Chiang Mai.
“I asked myself, ‘Am I appropriating [the culture]?’ But Pak Dain told me: ‘This is yours too, Illya’”.
Random pals and acquaintances sometimes approached the desk, including their very own questions and observations into the combination. Inventive juices at all times flowing, Sumanto reimagined the situation as an improv skit or a brief story. At one level, she stood up and danced a twist whereas explaining a standard Malay dance referred to as the “Joget Lambak.”
“I think he thinks I’m doing this just for fun,” Sumanto stated. However as a performing arts trainer at considered one of Chiang Mai’s most prestigious worldwide faculties, Sumanto takes play severely. “I’m having fun, but I’m serious.”
Dain’s nephew demonstrates the method of creating new puppets on the studio and group middle in Kelantan in December.
There are structural issues that Sumanto and Pak Dain should navigate for her to develop into a dalang. An apprentice’s trainer can’t sit on their analysis board, which should embody dalangs, grasp musicians, and veteran viewers members. As Pak Dain is Sumanto’s trainer, they’d want to herald shadow puppet masters from a special faculty to guage her — one other bending of the principles.
However there are extra inflexible obstacles. Time. Mortality. Pak Dain is in his 70s and keenly conscious of his place because the final dwelling dalang. He’s tried to chop down on cigarettes by not smoking within the evenings, however like a misguided intermittent quicker, nonetheless smokes closely within the morning and afternoon.
Sumanto’s first wayang kulit efficiency in Chiang Mai centered on ghost tales, that are usually shared throughout totally different nations in Southeast Asia and sometimes revolve round feminine demons. However she flipped the script, recasting these ghosts first as misunderstood after which as heroes.
The Wayang Ladies troupe included a Thai-Nigerian pupil of Sumanto’s taking part in conventional Thai devices, a Dutch-Indonesian singer, a Malaysian DJ and sound mixer, and a Balinese musician named Tigra Rose.
A classically educated pianist, Rose has additionally mastered a variety of conventional Indonesian devices. Days earlier than she flew to Chiang Mai for the present, she serendipitously met an Indonesian dalang in east Java.
“No coincidences, right?” Rose stated. The dalang taught her a standard type of poetic singing, which she later included into the efficiency in Thailand.
Sumanto performs with conventional puppets at a small music pageant in northern Thailand in November.
“I think women supporting women is always a very empowering and inspiring feeling,” she stated of working with the all-woman solid.
“It’s also about sharing the knowledge, wisdom, stories and experiences, learning from each other and learning that at the end of the day we’re all facing similar struggles: patriarchy, the erasure of women’s voices in certain spaces, the work of preserving cultural heritage while still allowing it to evolve,” Rose continued. “Everything is connected and intertwined.”
Although he didn’t contemplate the ghost story efficiency to be a standard instance of wayang kulit Kelantan, Pak Dain was nonetheless supportive of Sumanto’s extra experimental take. Likewise, Sumanto emphasised how a lot she had realized from her trainer.
“I gave him my puppets and asked, ‘Can you show me?’” Sumanto stated. “He just improvised a story around my characters, and the way he embodied each one was so impressive.”
For her subsequent efficiency, she plans to maintain issues extra orthodox, retelling the Ramayana from the attitude of the feminine characters who’re usually relegated to the fringes.
“I play what I’m taught, but I add my own layers and stories,” Sumanto stated. “I don’t want to wait until I’ve finished [training] — I want to create while I’m learning.”
