Wayang Kulit (Leather Puppet), the Masterpiece of Javanese Performance Arts

When you spend the night in Yogyakarta while enjoying leather puppet show, it will feel vivid. The melodious rhythm of the gamelan in harmony with the voice of the female singers will not let you fall asleep. The story presented by the dalang as the puppeteer as well as the storyteller will bring you into being one of the characters in the story. You will soon learn the greatness of Javanese culture in the past.
Leather puppet show is a performance art that has been more than half a millennium of age. Its presence has its own story, in relation with the entrance of Javanese Islam. One of the Wali Songo or the nine pious leaders who spread Islam in Java created the puppet by adopting Wayang Beber or Beber Puppet that grew during the triumph of Hindu-Buddha. Such an adoption was done since leather puppet had been attached to Javanese people so that it became the proper media to spread Islam, while Islam prohibited plastic arts. Consequently, leather puppet was made in order for people to be able to see shadow.
Leather puppet show is done by the puppeteer who is also the storyteller who is possibly considered the best entertainer in the world. All the night, he plays all the characters of the leather puppets forming human characters made from buffalo skin decorated with motif as the product of leather carving. He has to change the voice character, switch the intonation, produce humor and even sing. In order to make the atmosphere vivid, the storyteller is assisted by musicians who play gamelan - the traditional Javanese music instruments - and the female singers called sinden who sing Javanese songs.
The total characters in leather puppet show number in the hundreds. The puppets that are not played are stuck in banana stem that is placed close to the storyteller. While being played, the puppets will look as shadow from rear view of the white screen in front of the storyteller. The shadow is created by the light from the oil lamp placed at the upper rear of the storyteller that is cut off by the puppets being played on the screen.
Each puppet performance presents different story or act. The act variations are divided into four categories namely lakon pakem, lakon carangan, lakon gubahan, and lakon karangan. Lakon pakem is the standard story that entirely originates from leather puppet literature while lakon carangan is only the main story that also refers to the leather puppet literature. Lakon gubahan does not origin from the leather puppet stories but it uses the places in accordance with leather puppet literature; lakon karangan is entirely a free story.
The stories in the leather puppet originated from some old books such as Ramayana, Mahabharata, Pustaka Raja Purwa and Purwakanda. Now, there are some books containing lakon gubahan and karangan that have been hundreds years to be liked by the society such as Abimanyu Kerem, Doraweca, Suryatmaja Maling and so on. Among the old books, Purwakanda book is most often used by the puppeteers from Yogyakarta Kingdom.
The leather puppet show begins when the dalang takes out a puppet in the shape of a mountain called gunungan. A nightlong leather puppet show in Yogyakarta style is divided into 3 scenes with 7 jejeran or acts and 7 war acts. The first scene, called pathet lasem, has 3 jejeran and 2 acts of war accompanied by pathet lasem Javanese musical composition. Pathet Sanga as the second scene has 2 jejeran and 2 war acts, while Pathet Manyura as the second scene has 2 jejeran and 3 war acts. One of the scenes that most spectators mostly wait is gara-gara that presents typical Javanese humor.Sasono Hinggil that is located in the south square is the place that very often performs nightlong leather puppet shows. Usually, the performances are done on the second and fourth weeks, beginning at 09.00 p.m. Another place for leather puppet performance is Bangsal Sri Manganti in the complex of Yogyakarta Kingdom. The leather puppet performance in that place is done on Saturdays, beginning at 10.00 a.m. for two hours at Rp.5,000 for the ticket entrance.

Sendratari Ramayana

Presented by more than 250 artists at its original place: Ramayana Open Air Theater & Trimurti Theater
Prambanan Temple complex - Yogyakarta - Indonesia
Ramayana is the Java's finest example of storytelling in stone in which the epic is egrved on the wall of Siwa Temple in the complex of Prambanan sanctuaries. Prambanan's version of the Ramayana differs somewhat from the original Indian epic, reflecting the adaptation to Javanese sensibilities over the centuries.
More recently, the Ramayana has been adopted for the performing arts. Since the 1960s, hundreds of dancers have brought the ancient relief's panels to life at Prambanan's open- air theater, located just west of the temple complex. Essentially, a traditional dance drama minus the lengthy dialogue, the Ramayana Ballet or "Sendratari" - an acronym composed of the indonesian words of art, drama and dance - is rocking good theater, with enough heroics, tragedy, romance and mayhem to satisfy the most jaded modern spectators, all presented under a tropical moon with the magnificent floodlit Roro Jonggrang Temple as a backdrop.
The entire Ramayana epic consists of four episodes, each night one episode, presented from 07.30 to 09.30 p.m. in four clear nights on and around the full moon, each month from May through October. The full story is held at Trimurti Theater every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; presented by more than 50 professional dancers.
Ticket Price Ramayana Ballet:
Trimurti Stage (indoor)
Special: IDR 100,000
1st Class: IDR 75,000
2nd Class: IDR 45,000
Student: IDR 15,000 (with letter from school)
Performance Date
Ramayana Stage (outdoor)
VIP: IDR 150,000
Special: IDR 100,000
1st Class: IDR 75,000
2nd Class: IDR 45,000
Student: IDR 15,000 (with letter from school)

Ramayana Ballet, a Drama in Typical Javanese Dance

Ramayana ballet is an art performance that is so beautiful, admiring and it is difficult to compare. This performance is able to unite various Javanese arts such as dance, drama and music on one stage and one momentum to present the Ramayana story, a legendary epos written by Walmiki in Sanskrit language.
Ramayana story presented in this performance is similar to that engraved on Prambanan temple. As people tell, Ramayana story that is engraved on the most beautiful Hindu temple is similar to the story in oral tradition in India. The long and straining story is summarized in four scenes, namely the kidnapping of Shinta, Anoman's mission to Alengka, the death of Kumbakarna or Rahwana, and the meeting of Rama-Shinta.
The entire story is presented in a series of dance movements done by beautiful dancers accompanied by gamelan music. You are invited to really plunge into the story and observe each movement of the dancers to know the coarse of the story. There is no dialog among the dancers. The only storyteller is the sinden or the female singer who describes the coarse of the story through Javanes songs with her typical voice.
The story begins when Prabu Janaka held a contest to determine the would-be husband for Shinta, his daughter that finally was won by Rama Wijaya. The scene is continued with the adventure of Rama, Shinta and Rama's younger brother named Laksamana in Dandaka forest. There, they met Rawana that was eager to posses Shinta since she was considered the reincarnation of goddess Widowati, a woman that he had been seeking for long.
In order to attract Shinta's attention, Rahwana changed one of his followers named Marica into a deer. The effort was successful when Shinta was attracted and asked Rama to chase the deer. When Rama did not show up after a while, Laksmana went to find Rama and left Shinta herself by protecting her with a magic circle around her in order that nobody would be able to kidnap her, including Rahwana. The protection failed to keep Shinta in the place since Rahwana succeeded in kidnapping her by changing himself into Durna character.
At the end of the story, Hanoman, the white, powerful monkey succeeded in taking Shinta from Rahwana. When she returned, however, Rama did not trust her anymore. He considered Shinta disgraced. In order to prove her virginity and holiness, Shinta was asked to burn herself. Shinta proved her holiness when she was not burned at all even she became more beautiful. Finally, Rama accepted her as his wife.
You will not be disappointed to see this excellent performance. They do not only prepare the dance and music, but also the lighting that is set in such a way to be able to describe certain events in that story. The make up of the dancers does not only make them beautiful but it is capable of describing the characters they perform so that spectators easily know the characters even though there is no dialog.
You will see not only the dance but also interesting acts such as fireball game and acrobat. The fireball game is presented when Hanoman that initially would be fired alive turned to be successful in burning Alengkadiraja Kingdom owned by Rahwana. The acrobat is seen when Hanoman fights against Rahwana's followers. The fireball when Shinta would be burned is also interesting to see.
There are two places in Yogyarta where Ramayana ballet is performed. First, in Purawisata Yogyarta that is located on Jalan Brigjen Katamso, to the east of Yogyakarta Kingdom. In the place that was recorded in Indonesian Record Museum in 2002 for performing Ramayana ballet for 25 years, you will enjoy dinner while seeing the ballet. The other place to see the ballet is the open stage and Trimurti closed-stage in the complex of Prambanan temple.
Ticket Fare for Ramayana Ballet in Purawisata Yogyakarta: IDR 175,000
Facilities include:
Dinner at Jimbaran Resto
Enjoy gamelan performance while having dinner
Visit to the backstage to see the preparation of the dancers if you come early
Taking photograph is allowed during the performance
Taking photograph with the dancers after the performance
Ticket Fare for Ramayana Ballet in Prambanan Temple Tourism Complex.
Trimurti closed-stage
Special: IDR 100,000
Class 1: IDR 75,000
Class 2: IDR 45,000
Students: IDR 15,000 (by submitting proposal letter from school)

Ramayana open stage
VIP: IDR 150,000
Special: IDR 100,000
Class 1: IDR 75,000
Class 2: IDR 45,000
Students: IDR 15,000 (by submitting proposal letter from school)
Performance Dates

Gamelan, the Javanese Orchestra

Gamelan is the music created by integrating voices of gong, kenong and other Javanese music instruments. Soft music that reflects the life harmony of Javanese people will soon greet and calm the soul down once someone is listening to it.
Gamelan is surely not a foreign music. It has been popular in most continents and has created new music integration, for example jazz-gamelan, has born institution as learning space and gamelan music expression and it has produced famous gamelan musicians. Gamelan music instrument can now be enjoyed in various parts of the world, but Yogyakarta is the right place to enjoy it since you can enjoy the original version of gamelan.
Gamelan that grows in Yogyakarta is Javanese gamelan, one form of gamelan that is different from Balinese gamelan or Sundanese gamelan. Javanese gamelan has softer and slower tones; it is different from Balinese gamelan that is very dynamic and Sundanese gamelan that is melodious with domination of the voice of seruling or traditional bamboo flute. The difference is just natural since Java has its own view of life that is expressed in its gamelan music melody.
The Javanese view of life that is expressed in its gamelan music is the harmony of physical and spiritual lives, harmony in talking as well as behaving in order not to create explosive expression and to realize people tolerance. The real form of harmony in Javanese gamelan music is the moderate play of rebab string, voice harmony of kenong, saron kendang and gambang and the voice of gong ate each closing of the melody.
There is no definite history of gamelan existence. The development of gamelan music is predicted to begin from the existence of kentongan, rebab, tap on the mouth, rubs on string and thin bamboo until the introduction of metal music instruments. Further development after named by gamelan, this music was used to accompany leather puppet show and dances. Later it became independent music and it was completed with voices of female singers called sinden.
A set of gamelan consists of several music instruments; some of them are drum called kendhang, rebab, and celempung, gambang, gong and bamboo flute or seruling. The main components composing the gamelan music instruments are bamboo, metal, and wood. Each of the instrument has its own function in a gamelan music show, for example the gong functioning to close the long music melodies and to give balance after the music was previously decorated by Javanese music melodies.
Javanese gamelan is music with pentatonic melodies. A complete gamelan play consists of two cycles, namely slendro and pelog. Slendro has 5 melodies per octave, namely 1 2 3 5 6 [C- D E+ G A] with small interval difference. Pelog has 7 melodies per octave namely 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 [C+ D E- F# A B] with big interval difference. Gamelan music composition was created with some rules, namely consists of some cycles and pathet, confined by one gong and the melodies were created in a unit consisting of 4 melodies.
You can see gamelan as an independent music performance or a companion of a dance or performance arts such as leather puppet show and ketoprak. As an independent performance, gamelan music is usually combined with the voice of the Javanese singers (male singers are called wiraswara and female singers are called waranggana or sinden). Gamelan music performance can be classic or contemporary. One form of contemporary gamelan is jazz-gamelan as a combination of music with pentatonic and diatonic melodies.
One of the places in Yogyakarta where you can see gamelan performance is Yogyakarta Kingdom. On Thursdays from 10:00a.m. to 12:00p.m. gamelan is performed as an independent music performance. On Saturdays at the same hours, gamelan is performed as companion of leather puppet show, while on Sundays at the same hours, gamelan accompanies Javanese traditional dance. Please come to Bangsal Sri Manganti to see the performance. Meanwhile, in order to see older gamelan music instrument, you can go to other hall of the kingdom that is located a little further at the back.

Borobudur Masterpiece Dance-Drama

The Synopsis
ACT 1:The scene describes a living with full of greediness, cruelty, repressive to one and another so that everything is in disorder. There is a man named Rakai Panangkaran and he is known as a spiritualist who is very much concerned to human lives that do the evil thing. For this reason he teaches a good way to have a batter life in the future. His teaching is in the form of storeyed stone which consist of life learning named Kamadhatu, Rupadhatu and Arupadhatu.
ACT 2:The scene describes people are working together and cooperating to one and another, situated at the foot of Menoreh Hill, starting to build Borobudur. Yet the evil spirits come out to disturb and make the people suffer for it. The army of the Kingdom together with the monks try to exile those evil spirits.
ACT 3:King Samaratungga has a determination to finish the building of the temple and he asks his people to work together to realize his aim.
ACT 4:King Samaratungga, his men and all the people thank to God for His blessing in order to finish and complete the building of the temple. They sit silently and pray led by the monks for they life in peace.
Ticket Price:
VIP: IDR 200,000
Class I: IDR 150,000
Class II: IDR 100,000
Price is dinner inclusive