Indonesian Diary Entry

8/30/01

I write this on the next to the last day of language class. In another few days I move to Solo and begin life there. As I write this (3 PM) I once again hear the call to prayer at the local Masjid. I could do without the 4:30 AM version, but I do hope that wherever I live in Solo I will not be too far from a Masjid. The calls to prayer, even over a tinny loudspeaker, are extremely comforting.

A brief story from class yesterday. I’ve not heard a good expression for good-bye, so I was asking about such. Pak Tri indicated that there really wasn’t much of an all-purpose word, but the closest was Salam. This led me to compare it to Aloha, and then to Shalom. To my surprise Pak Tri came back with Shalom Alechim. I mentioned a little about those words, how they translate and their use as a name, and then hummed and sang a little of the song of the same name. After a couple of bars Pak Tri joined in. He knew the words just as well as I. “How do you possibly know the words and the tune?” His response: “I was raised Catholic.” Go figure. More mystery from the east. On 8/28 I went to the Ramayana Ballet. To set it up, here is the Introduction from the program. Prabu Janaka, the king of Mantili Kingdom has got a very beautiful princess named Dewi Shinta. A competition is conducted in order to decide who will be the right person to marry Dewi Shinta. The prince of Ayoda Kingdom, R. Rama Wijaya, at last wins the competition. Prabu Rawana, the rules of Alengkadiraja Kingdom is eager to marry Dewi Windowati. After knowing Shinta, he assumes that Dewi Shinta is the incarnation of Dewi Widowati whom he is wanting for a long time.

OK. From this ensues a fair amount of mayhem, including some wars, the appearance of animals, people posing as animals, and animals posing as people. Most of the principals die (or so it seems), but at the end Rama and Shinta get back together. Only he thinks that she has been made impure somewhere in the events that have transpired (when she was captured by the dark side), so he initially refuses to take her back. She then tries to burn herself to death. The attempt is unsuccessful due to the intervention of the God of fire and her own holiness. “Shinta is saved from the fire her proof makes Rama happy and finally accepts Shinta.” The ending does not merit comment. In fact, I won’t comment any more on the story as anything that has survived more than two thousand years (perhaps three) has quite a bit going for it. I will comment on the ballet, however. The performance is held in a relatively new outdoor theater adjacent to the Prambanan temple complex. It is of Hindu origin. There are three main temples of roughly the same vintage as Borobudur. The stage on which the ballet is performed is aligned so that the three candi (temples) serve as a backdrop. The temples are very large and loom over the stage. They are also well lit, so one can enjoy their beauty throughout the performance. The original complex consisted of some 244 “minor” temples. Man and nature destroyed the whole complex, and the restoration has been focused on the three structures. Watching this ballet, watching it in this facility, is a marvel.

The Ramayana story was taken over by the Javanese as their own (from the original Indian epic). The characters in the ballet are Javanese, and their dance is traditional Javanese. The performance I attended was of the “full story,” which was at first a little disconcerting as the story is also performed in four segments on successive nights. The “full” version, though, is edited for modern audiences and it ran a mere two hours. By Javanese standards this is just a trailer. The Ramayana ballet is a multi-media show. There is fire (a pretty good fire scene lit by the white monkey), excellent lighting, singing, and gamelan, as well as the dance itself. The dancing is of course the heart of the show, and of great interest. First, there is a lot of it. At times there are as many as 30 or 40 characters on the very large stage. Dancers enter (and leave) from all over the place. The style of the dancing is different for different characters. For example, Prince Rama is rather dainty (as is his brother) and prances about, but Rahwana (the evil one) moves in a more powerful fashion. When you are wondering who is who, you can tell a little by how the character is moving. But the most surprising thing to me was that at times the characters were moving in a way that was very similar to Wayang puppets – the shadow puppets. If you were to stand in front of a mirror and let your arms swing back and forth in front of you, across your front, you would have an idea of what was happening. This sounds as if it must have been very stiff, but it was not at all stiff. It is a terrific, magical connection of two indigenous art forms.

It took a little bit to get accustomed to the audience. One part of the audience was grossly impolite. They seemed to consider the performance an unfortunate side attraction to their own conversation. Whenever things on stage got loud, they simply screamed to one another. Consequently, if there was a sudden lull on the part of the musicians one heard screeching from this section of patrons. Another group of attendees was far more interested in capturing the moment, the deca-moment, the whole performance, on different types of film and video. There were so many flashes going off it seemed like a holiday in the seats. The wonder for me was that the dancers didn’t totally lose it, as if I could not see due to the flashes, how could they? At the end of the performance the audience was invited on stage to take photos with the cast. This was a good idea as the cast was beautifully clad. It was a little like my day at the zoo, where people where having their photos taken with the orang hutans. I’m not sure who was less happy, the cast or the animals. My own passions were kept under control, as I had not brought my camera. Sometimes we do the very right thing for the very wrong reason. As I write this it is drizzling. This is the first rain since I arrived. I mention it for meteorological completeness.