Wayang Kulit Melayu

The wayang kulit Melayu, also known as the wayang Jawa, is strongly influenced by the Javanese wayang kulit purwa. This type of shadow play once flourished under royal patronage and existed as entertainment only for aristocrats in the northern Malay sultanates of Kedah, Kelantan, and, formerly, in Pattani of present-day southern Thailand. One of the well-known Kelantanese dalang of the wayang Jawa has noted that it was, indeed, supported by the royal family up to the outbreak of World War II. Performances and court patronage ceased during the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, but performances began again, this time primarily as entertainment for the local commoners at the time of Malayan independence (merdeka). According to Sweeney, by the 1970s there were only two dalang of wayang kulit Melayu in Kelantan, two in Kedah, and two in southern Thailand who were still able to perform. In the late 1980s, however, with the loss of court patronage and the serious decline in the number of performing dalang, this type of shadow puppet theatre is nearly extinct.

Historically, the interest and importance of the wayang kulit Melayu in the Malaysian shadow play tradition lies in its ties to Javanese sources with regard to literature, theatrical conventions, and music. Sweeney, in his work on the Ramayana in the Malay shadow play, has noted that during the time of court pattronage in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many Malay dalang were sent to Java to learn the art of shadow puppet theatre. They returned to north Malaysia with story manuscripts in hand, as well as knowledge of the theatrical conventions, orchestra, and music in the Javanese style. Back in their home settings, the Malay dalang continued to deevelop the wayang kulit Melayu style using a mixture of the Javanese elements they had learned in Indonesia as well as the Malay features of shadow play found in their own village environments. The stories told in the wayang kulit Melayu, for example, are primarily those of the Panji cycle (see Capter 2) and the Mahabharata, which relates the adventures of the Pandawa clan. Some Javanese language is used in the recitation and chanting of certain passages of the text in a story; however, the predominant language used in relating the story-line, the dialogue, and the monologue is the regional Malay dialect.

Some wayang kulit Melayu dalang claim that there are well over 1,000 flat leather puppets in a complete set, encompassing all the character needed to tell the Panji and Pandawa stories. The puppets used to this day, retain a form, style, and design very similar to the Javanese leather puppets of the wayang kulit purwa (Plate 1). The stage itself, however, follows the traditional Malay shadow play roofed operating hut raised on stilts, with a white screen stretched over a frame to partition off the unwalled side of the hut for viewing by the audience. Like the Malay wayang kulit Siam folk village form of shadow puppet theatre, the wayang kulit Melayu orchestra players sit inside the hut behind the dalang. While the manipulation of the leather puppet movements as well as the pace at which the story progresses is much slower in the wayang kulit Melayu type when compared to the fast-paced, village folk style of the wayang kulit Siam.

An important feature of the performance structure in the wayang kulit Melayu is the ritual opening of prayers and food offerings presented to the spirit world. Following the customary practice of the Malay dalang, the shadow play begins with incantations and prayers asking for safety and help in avoiding danger. The official pembukaan ('opening of the stage', similar to the buka panggung of the wayang kulit Siam) is carried out by the dalang who sits on the stage in front of the screen and lamp reciting charms and prayers with a tray of special food offering.

.Just as some of the theatrical conventions of the wayang kulit Melayu exhibit a mixture of Javanese and Malay element, the music and orchestra, too, are a blend or traits from the two different sectors of the Malay world. In its use of many knobbed gongs, the wayang kulit Melayu orchestra shows some strong influence from the Javanese gamelan, the ensemble which has accompanied the wayang kulit purwa from ancient times. For example, in imitation of the extraordinary use of the bronze knobbed gongs in the Javanese ensemble, the wayang kulit Melayu orchestra features two large hanging knobbed gongs called tetawak or tawak (Plate 42), one medium-sized pot-shaped knobbed gong called mong, aa set of six small knobbed gongs in a rack called canang (Plate 2 and 43), and one pair of hand cymbals referred to as kesi (Plates 44-46). All the bronze knobbed gongs and cymbals serve as time markers in the music. In addition, the drum rhythmic patterns of the musical pieces are played on two double-headed barrel drums, the gendang (appearing in large and small sizes, and shown in Plate 3), while the only non-percussion instrument is the two-sstringed Malay rebab (Plate 4), which provides melody often heard in heterophonic style along with the dalang's sung part. The tawak, canang, kesi, and gendang are identical to those instruments found in the Malay wayang kulit Siam folk orchestra, although the number of canang used in the wayang kulit Melayu ensemble is greater.

The rebab of the wayang kulit Melayu orchestra presents an interesting example of the fusion of the Javenese and Malay styles in a musical instrument. In this case, the overall length of the instrument and the use of only two strings (tuned a fifth apart) follows the Javanese practice; the Malay rebab is taller in height and uses three strings (tuned a fifth aand aa fourth apart). In addition, the shape and thickness of the body and neck, as well as the exterior decorations on the body of the instrument, distinctly follow the design of the rebab played by the Malays in Peninsular Malaysia (Plate 5). In its physical construction, the largeness and thickness of the body and neck of the Malay rebab bring it into stark contrast with small-bodied, thin (and fragile) appearance of the Javaanese model.

Although this form of shadow puppet theatre was performed in the past exclusively for the nobility, court patronage has ceased and the form is nearly extinct today.

[ Wayang Kulit Jawa ][ Wayang Kulit Gedek ][ Wayang Kulit Siam ]
[ Wayang Kulit In Kelantan ][ Hamzah Awang Hamat ][ Wayang Kulit In Malaysia ]
[ Main ][ Songket ][ The State Of Kelantan ]

Source : Malaysian Shadow Play And Music : continuity of an oral tradition, by Patricia Matusky.