Exhibition: February 7 – May 22, 2016 East-West Center Gallery, Honolulu, Hawai‘i The East-West Center Arts Program presents Curators: Kathy Foley (Wayang) MalayThea tre Patricia Hardwick (Mak Yong) Michael Schuster Exhibition design: Intangible Cultural Heritage and Islam Lynne Najita Southeast Asian performance has long been wedded to ritual efficacy and auspicious occasions. Malaysian theatre forms have been influenced by a diversity of cultures, including: Islamic cultures originating from China, India, the Middle East, and Vietnam; Hindu-Buddhist cultures originating from China, India, Indonesia, and Thailand; and the indigenous animistic culture. These cultural influences have uniquely combined to create distinctive Malay art forms. Although seemingly incompatible, Southeast Asian culture is traditionally very comfortable with layering of influences and creating syncretic images and narratives. Malay theatre has often enjoyed tolerance from the wider society and also demonstrated influences from Islamic as well as local mysticism. Through the display of puppets, video, photographs, costumes, and instruments, the viewer not only gains insight into these complex theatre forms, but also explores the paradoxical issues currently facing traditional Malaysian arts. These art forms are DALANG AYO HOK, MALAYSIA, 2014, PHOTO: PUTRA CENTRE FOR TRADITIONAL ARTS AT ASWARA deemed intangible cultural heritages 1 of Malaysia and the dance recognized by the United Nations seating, and rejecting spirit beliefs and drama mak yong is through UNESCO (United Nations philosophies that are part of local genres. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Major Malay intangible cultural Organization). Beginning in the late heritage forms include shadow puppetry HANUMAN PUPPET, WAYANG 20th century, Wahabi Islamic models (wayang kelantan ) and the female KELANTAN, MALAYSIA from the Middle East have rejected dance drama ( mak yong ). Wayang many of the more tolerant traditions kelantan is performed by one puppeteer 1 Intangible cultural heritage of Southeast Asian Islam: prohibiting called a dalang , who narrates a story includes traditions or the representation of human form, by manipulating leather puppets that living expressions inherited from ancestors, calling for the veiling of women, are projected onto a shadow screen such as oral traditions, frowning upon cross-gender acting, with accompaniment by an orchestra of performing arts, or the drums, a double reed oboe, and gongs. knowledge and skills to banning women and men performing produce traditional crafts. together, questioning mixed gender Mak yong is currently associated with Wayang Kelantan Wayang kelantan is said to have been brought from Java nine dalang generations ago by a Thai Chinese woman, Mak Erak. Opening mantra in wayang kelantan originally used Thai incantations and, as late as the 1970s, the Malaysian genre was referred to as wayang siam (Siamese wayang). To portray the art as Malaysian cultural heritage, officials began calling it wayang kelantan in the 1980s. Obscuring shared influences serves nationalist agendas for both WAYANG PRACTICE AT ART & CULTURE HERITAGE ACADEMY, MALAYSIA 2014, PHOTO: PUTRA CENTRE FOR TRADITIONAL ARTS AT ASWARA Thais and Malays. a ritual healing performance called main were awarded national artist status by Wayang kelantan is primarily puteri . Sometimes these arts are believed the Malaysian Federal government. a rural entertainment of to have links to areas of Indonesia, When their arts were banned in their commoners that traditionally especially Java, where arts are often home state of Kelantan, noted artists had ritual implications. credited to the Muslim teachers of the migrated to the capital of Kuala Differing from the palace traditions Indo-Malay world, the wali songgo (nine Lumpur to teach in schools, of mainland Southeast Asia (Thailand saints), who are credited with converting adapting their traditions to a and Cambodia) that use large puppets Java to Islam. In some traditions the more secularized format. moved by multiple manipulator-dancers, saint Sunan Kalijaga is credited with The ban led to a the small puppet genres, seen in both being creator of shadow puppetry, mask precipitous decline in the Indonesia and mainland Southeast Asia dance, and female dance-song arts. traditional arts. In 1969, including Malaysia, use modest-sized He is said to have spent time there were more than 300 puppets and are largely performed by a teaching on the Malay Peninsula. puppeteers active in single manipulator ( dalang ). It seems In these versions the conversion Kelantan; in 2015, only likely that wayang kelantan is part of a of the area to Islam was affected five active dalang were united tradition of Muslim-Malay- by the arts. Saints incorporated found. Few go through influenced puppetry that evolved compatible elements of through trade and cultural older traditions into a influences in coastal areas of new Islamic vision. Southeast Asia. The roots of After 1990 elec - the ritual initiation wayang kelantan stem from tions, a conservative believed to make one a full earlier Hindu-Buddhist models. Islamic party in the artist. The only puppeteer The beginning of each traditional northeastern who freely performs in the performance of wayang kelantan is the Malaysian state of traditional ways of this Muslim apprentice puppeteer episode. The Kelantan banned mak Malay art is a Chinese Buddhist episode features two “ dewa (minor yong and wayang as puppeteer. As a non-Muslim, gods/spirits)” that fight one another “un-Islamic.” Eyo Hock Seng is free to and are admonished by the Hermit. Opening rituals, practice the art with Islamic religious conservatives protest stories about mantras. The this episode because of the connections Hindu god- Kelantan govern - to Hindu-Buddhist iconography, which heroes or local ment advertises include warring puppets called “minor spirits, the concept and allows short gods” and the Hermit puppet, which of god-clowns, and demonstration perform - seems linked to an embodiment of other elements that are ances to promote tourism; Shiva as the divine teacher. The episode common in earlier however, permission to represents the eternal and complemen - Islamic culture were present performances tary struggle of positive and negative termed “ syirik ,” meaning to local audiences is largely forces in the universe, but raises worshipping a god other than Allah. banned. controversy in contemporary Islamic At the same time, artists of such forms PRINCE RAMA PUPPET, NANG TALUNG, THAILAND fundamentalist circles. The Pohon begins by paying respect to the spirits with an offering dance. This is followed by a series of several songs and dances that introduce the main characters and send them out on a journey. Stories were presented in a series of three-hour performances over several nights and included singing, dancing, slapstick humor, and improvised dialogue. The mak yong orchestra is small, including the three-stringed spiked lute, ROSNAN RAHMAN, MALE MAK YONG, MALAYSIA 2014, wood flute, two drums, gongs, PHOTO: PUTRA CENTRE FOR TRADITIONAL ARTS AT ASWARA and small brass cymbals. LEFT: Mak yong has a repertoire of Traditional initiations of performers, POHON BERINGAN (TREE OF LIFE PUPPET) at least twelve official stories. which involved ceremonies and WAYANG KELANTAN, MALAYSIA The most important is the offerings, are rarely performed. The RIGHT: KAYON (TREE OF LIFE PUPPET), WAYANG KULIT, JAVA , INDONESIA story of Dewa Muda . Dewa infrequent initiations that do take place Muda, a young demigod, soars into are often sponsored by researchers Beringan is a Malay version of the the heavens on a magic kite where he concerned with the continuation of “tree of life” image found throughout meets and marries a princess from mak yong performance. Many traditional Indonesia and Malaysia. It represents the heavenly kingdom. Dewa Muda performers may refuse to teach mak the unified cosmos and begins, ends, is wounded and resurrected before yong to new generations of students and signals transitions in the play. the story is resolved. without having undergone the formal Southeast Asian puppetry features Controversy regarding mak yong initiation in which knowledge is ritually the concept of a “god-clown,” and often performance continues. The culture transferred from teacher to student. presents traditional narratives that department in Kuala Lumpur makes In Kelantan, elements of mak yong may stem from Hindu epics, such as plans for “safeguarding” mak yong as and even wayang kelantan are part the Ramayana or in Indonesia the intangible culture; however, Kelantan of main puteri , a form of ritual healing. Mahabharata . Stories differ considerably officials allow tourist performances and In performances of main puteri , the from Indian versions and often what is cultural festivals, but deny permits for afflicted person becomes an actor present is not the Indian narrative, but public performance in local venues. within the healing. tales that branch from those epic events, highlighting the same characters. In Malaysia today, emphasis is more on clowning, music, and invented stories rather than the Hindu Ramayana . This seeks to deflect the criticisms of fundamentalists. Mak Yong Mak yong is a traditional dance drama form that was supported in the early twentieth century in the palace of Kelantan. The performance of the male lead, or pak yong , played by female actors was introduced in 1912. The prominent roles that women play in mak yong performance can be