| Balai Budaya and Surrounds | ||||
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Both stories actually related to the Hindu religion and were used in the teaching of the religion. Although the Indonesian people (except for the Balinese) left that religion in the 16th century and are at present mostly Moslems (a small percentage are Roman Catholic or Protestant and Buddhist), they have not banned these two Hindu epics. They still tell or write them in verse and in prose; many comic books have been published dealing with them; fragments of the stories are performed in the shadow play, or wayang kulit, and they are performed on the stage, like an opera, with acting, dancing and singing, or in open air theatres, as traditional ballet festivals under the tropical full moon. Indeed, these two ancient stories have been an inexhaustible source of inspiration for Indonesian artists and craftsmen while the Hindu influence can still be seen in several other art forms, such as in music, literature, theatre and dance. Nowadays in the Hindu religious teachings they are left out, but morals that are not in contradiction with those in Islam (or the other religions) have been retained in the narratives of the puppeteer and in the dialogues of the dramatis personae. The core of the morality in both stories is the eternal fight between good and evil in macro as well as in micro-cosmos. And in the whole story, in each fragment, and in each side story (born out of the fertile mind of the Indonesians themselves), in the beginning evil always seems to win, but since God's blessing is absolutely for the good, in the end evil will be totally defeated. Courage, self-reliance and patience, and justice and wisdom are some of the most important traits of the heroes. But however brave and loyal and true and wise they are, in both stories not one hero is pictured as being perfect; each personality is just like living human beings with weaknesses, faults and errors. Therefore, when the Indonesian Embassy has these statues on display beside the steps and around the terrace, it is not just to show the visitors how beautiful Balinese stone carving is, or just as decorative ornamentation to break the geometric lines of the businesslike office buildings, no, there is a deeper meaning behind it: that the Indonesian people are working hard to build up their country and are doing their best to keep pace with modern science and technology without ever losing their foothold on their own strong culture; and that the Indonesian people have a high and noble ideal, the Pancasila, and that they are laboriously climbing up the steps to achieve the actualisation of that ideal - a just and prosperous society based on the five philosophical principles of: Belief in the One and Only God; Just and Civilised Humanity; The Unity of Indonesia; Democracy Guided by the Inner Wisdom in the Unanimity Arising Out of Deliberations Among Representatives; and Social Justice for the Whole of the People of Indonesia. After climbing the steep narrow steps with the statues on either side, the visitor passes through a plain and modest stone gate, a humble imitation of a Balinese temple gate. Automatically he stops. Straight in front his eyes meet an attractive building, an Indonesian pendopo, surrounded by a pond with small fountains and some fish, just enough to express movement, life, but without distracting the attention of the visitor from the main objects: the pendopo, and, again, the sculptures around the terrace. The visitor is kindly invited to inspect the statues of princess Shita, prince Rama and the ape hero, Hanuman, from the Ramayana and Bhima, Arjuna and other heroes from the Mahabharata. |
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| This
motto dates back to the 15th century and is most appropriate for Indonesia,
which is an archipelago made up of thousands of islands, inhabited
by many different ethnic groups, with various customs, languages and
religions. The unity has been facilitated and strengthened by the
existence of the national language, Bahasa Indonesia. In the display cupboards there are dolls in traditional dress from some of the Provinces of Indonesia. Another cupboard contains the emblems of each of the Provinces. Other important items on display are described below: 1. The Gamelan musical instruments (gamel = hammer). Indonesia's gamelan music is nowadays quite well known outside Indonesia, but a question, which is often asked, is: just how old is it? Nobody knows for sure yet. But in the reliefs of the old Hindu-Javanese temples in Java, dating from the 7th and the 8th centuries, one can already recognise some pictures representing gamelan instruments. Most instruments in a gamelan orchestra are percussion instruments (entailing the use of a hammer or mallet) and are made from a tin-copper alloy known as 'gangsa' (bronze). They are mounted on teakwood frames, which are brightly painted and lavishly decorated with gold leaf. There are two sets of gamelan in the Display Room, one from Central Java (green) and one from Bali (red). The Javanese Gamelan has two tuning scales - the slendro, which is pentatonic (5 tones), and the pelog, which is septatonic (7 tones). A complete gamelan orchestra may contain 75 instruments, 30 players and 10-15 vocalists. Gamelan music is polyphonic, and four groups of instruments contribute to the total effect. The conductor does not stand in front of the orchestra with a baton, but conducts by beating the drums (kendang) with his hands. The rebab (a two-stringed violin) plays the melody, with variations provided by the suling (a bamboo recorder). The saron (brass xylophone) and the gender (xylophone with resonating tubes under the keys) play the main theme and add beauty to the melody. The bonang (double row of pots resting on a horizontal frame) and gambang (wooden xylophone) paraphrase the main theme, sometimes syncopating or filling the gaps. The large gong marks the end of a main phrase, while the kenong and the ketuk (smaller horizontal gongs) mark intermediate divisions of the phrases. The Balinese Gong Kebyar is tuned to a 5-note scale, and uses a gong and a kempul for its basic "envelope of sound". The kempli (small gong) beats the rhythm throughout the performance and the players take the beat from the kempli or the drums (which conduct the orchestra). The xylophone-like instruments, which play the melody, vary from the low jegogan (bass) to the high and decorative kantilan. The leader of the melody section plays the giying or the slightly larger gangsa. The other players take their time from him. The two long instruments are the trompong, for solo performance, and the reyong (smaller pots) for punctation of the melody and solo passages, which requires four players. 2. Angklung (bamboo instruments from West Java). Angklung music is made by playing a set of at least 14 hand-held bamboo instruments, each of which produces a particular note when shaken or "trembled". Bamboo tubes of varying widths are cut to certain lengths so that they make the same note in different octaves, and 2, 3 or 4 tubes are secured on a frame. When the frame is shaken, two projections at the base of each tube 'sound' as they knock against the ends of the slots in the bamboo base into which they are suspended. Members of an angklung orchestra hold the angklung in their left hand and shake it with their right when it is their turn to play that particular note. Cooperation and concentration are needed to produce this delightful music. The music collection is also fortunate in having a selection of other localised traditional instruments such as a large bamboo 'xylophone' from Menado, North Sulawesi (Arumba Music) and used to accompany dancers. From the island of Roti has come the Sesandau, traditionally, a large bamboo tube surrounded by metal springs (with adjustable stops for tuning), that uses a lontar-palm-leaf basket for a sounding box, but the one in the Display Room is electric. Another item is the Kulchapi, a two-stringed lute from South Sulawesi. 3. Wayang Kulit - puppets from Central Java (wayang = shadow, kulit = skin) A set of leather wayang puppets (wayang kulit) and a large white screen are opposite the main entrance to the Display Room. The puppets are intricately punched out of buffalo hide, and are brightly coloured. They are firmly secured to a long, pointed stick made of buffalo horn, and they have long, jointed arms attached to smaller sticks of horn. A traditional Wayang Kulit performance begins at about 9 pm and finishes at sunrise next morning. It is accompanied by a full gamelan orchestra and two or three female singers. The Dalang is the one who brings the puppets to life, playing them close to the screen (kelir), with the flickering oil-lamp (blencong) hanging above his head, talking for them with changes in his voice, hitting the 'kecrek' with his right foot and knocking the wooden box with the 'cempala' held in his left hand, to add emphasis to the narration or signal to the gamelan players. The shadows thrown onto the screen are viewed by the audience seated on the other side. It is believed that Wayang Kulit performances were once a religious rite, dating from the time when the religion of Indonesians was a mixture of dynamism, animism and ancestor worship, when the Dalang would recount the wonderful deeds of their heroes or their deceased ancestors (represented by the buffalo skin puppets). With the influence of the Indian religions (from the first century A.D.) these ancestral heroes were gradually replaced by characters from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. In more recent times, the wayang art form has been used to teach new approaches to present day situations, e.g. family planning, modern agricultural practices, nutrition, health and hygiene, etc., or comedian puppets are added to comment on public figures and current affairs. Nowadays, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the old Javanese Panji stories are performed on stage like an opera, and referred to as Wayang Orang or Wayang Wong. The actors wear fantastic costumes. They do the acting, dancing, singing and the dialogues, but the introduction at the beginning and between the acts is always done by the Dalang, who sits among the gamelan orchestra. The most recently created form is the sendratari, a ballet based on indigenous Indonesian dances themselves. Actually the word sendratari is an acronym consisting of three words: sen - seni = art; dra =drama; and tari = dance. While the Wayang Orang is usually performed on the stage of a theatre (at festivities in a pendopo), the sendratari is initiating a new tradition, to be performed in open-air theatres by moonlight. And while the open air theatre on the grounds of the 1,100 year old Prambanan temple near Yogyakarta restricts its ballet festivals to fragments of the Ramayana (because the whole story is told in the reliefs on the walls of the main temple), other open air theatres, like the one at the Taman Ismail Marzuki cultural centre in Jakarta and the largest open air theatre in East Java, the Candra Wilwatikta Garden, are willing to perform ballets based on the Mahabharata, besides the Ramayana, and even on historical events like the rise of the kingdom of Majapahit, etc. 4. Wayang Golek (puppets from West Java) (golek = doll) Wayang plays can also be performed using wooden puppets, the wayang golek, being most popular in West Java. Their faces and head-dress are 3-D versions of the stylised Wayang Kulit characters, and the jointed arms are attached to sticks. The head pivots on a central wooden core. Performances can take place during the day, and a screen is not necessary. Samples of the golek are on display in the hall showing their costumes, which bear some resemblance to the costumes of the Wayang Orang. 5. Wayang orang costumes. In one of the showcases you can see samples of the costumes of the Wayang Orang actors: a headdress, ornaments for the ears, etc. 6. Folk Dances and other traditions Folk Dances are to be found throughout Indonesia. One of these is the Reog, another is the Kuda Kepang (horse dance), both from East Java. The wooden masks are worn by dancers taking the part of certain characters in the Panji stories. The Rangda mask is worn during the Balinese 'Calon Arang' dance when fighting against the righteous beast the 'Barong'. 7. Woodcarvings. Most famous are woodcarvings from Bali and from Jepara in Central Java, but it must be stressed that those are not the only two places where woodcarving has been handed over from generation to generation. Bali woodcarvings are mostly ornamental: statues of men and women, real animals and mythological animals, but recently also larger items such as screens or room-dividers and wall-decorations, landscapes, etc. The two tall brightly-painted wooden carvings depict Kumbakarna, hero of Alengka, struggling against the monkey-army which helped Rama to rescue Sita from Kumbakarna's wicked brother Rahwana. Jepara, on the other hand, has been known for its boxes, and other small articles (jewel boxes, cigar/cigarette cases, nest of small tables, bookstands, magazine stands) and nowadays also furniture. But Malang and Madura in East Java have been producing furniture in antique style with fine woodcarving since time unknown while the eastern-most part of Indonesia (Papua Province) is extremely well known for its wood carving, especially by the Asmat Tribe. 8. Silverware. Tea and coffee sets, smokers' sets and other silver articles of high quality are produced in Yogyakarta, while filigree in gold and silver has its centres in West Sumatra, Bali and in Kendari, South-East Sulawesi - and note the boat-shaped roof on the house from Toraja, and the silver model of participants in a bull race (held on Madura, an island on the eastern tip of Java). 9. Leather goods. Fine leather goods are made in Yogyakarta, and the goods fashioned from snake and crocodile skin are from Surabaya in East Java. 10. Batik painting. (batik = a fine point or dot) This ancient technique was introduced into Indonesia, it is thought, in the 16th century and for hundreds of years the art of batik-making was confined to the ladies of the royal families. Batik painting (and more recently Batik printing) has now spread throughout the island of Java, each area with its own special style, colour and quality. Well-known centres of batik, each with its own "identity" and quite distinguishable from products of other places, include Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Wonogiri, Lasem, Banyumas, Pekalongan, and Tasikmalaya. The basic technique of batik painting, however, has remained the same. In the exhibition hall the visitor can see the traditional instruments and tools for batik painting and for batik printing, and also some samples of batik clothes. 11. Woven Cloth Three "Ulos" from Tapanuli, North Sumatra - this hand-woven cloth is an essential part of traditional dress in this area. Ulos symbolizes spiritual warmth and blessing. "Ikat" from Sumba Island - the threads are tied and dyed before being woven. Alongside are traditional dance costumes from Java, Bali, Sumatra and Sulawesi. 12. Kris These traditional wavy-bladed daggers are worn on ceremonial occasions such as at weddings. There are also some ornamental weapons from Kalimantan. 13. Fans Made of wood, batik material and parchment. 14. Traditional costumes for wedding ceremonies. The Indonesian Nation is one that can boast of an old history, but also a colourful bouquet of ethnic groups. And like everywhere else in the world: women and colours; women and gracefulness; and women and charms are inseparable. An Indonesian reception attended by guests from all over the country is like a fashion show in fairyland. And especially the costumes of the bride and bridegroom, they are so colourful and excitingly beautiful. 15. What is not on display. Indonesia is too large; the cultural riches are too overwhelming, and the exhibition hall too small. The Embassy cannot bring the whole of Indonesia in the pendopo. Not all the samples of musical instruments or articraft, and photographic material, and costumes, and samples of diamonds and other gems, and the delicious fruits, the wonderful orchids and other flowers, etc. etc. Nor the products of modern industry, such as its textiles and its electronics. But there is also a part of the Embassy that is not the office and cannot be put on visual display: the friendliness and hospitality of the Indonesian people, their peaceful attitude towards other people, their love for beauty: beauty in Nature, beauty in products of the Arts, and, above all, beauty in the Heart of Man….. because all beauty comes from God. |
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Embassy
of the Republic of Indonesia in Canberra
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