This notion that wayang was brought to Java from India has some proponents, and obviously Encyclopaedia Brittanica is unwilling to make a ruling one way or the other, as there was an absorption of so many cultural elements from India over the first few hundred years of the common era.

There is also evidence that wayang is a much older art form than thought previously. Brandon notes the inscriptions on copper plates dated to 840 B. C. E. that mention the names of officials who performed or who worked with musicians or clowns. Unfortunately, the terminology of the time cannot be precisely deciphered, so it remains unclear whether or not they were performing wayang (ibid. 2). Javanese theater, however, produced evidence of one of the earliest forms of theater. Wajang beber (paper-scroll play) is a play in which an illustrated scroll is unrolled to accent the action occurring in the play. This is one of the simplest forms of theater known, which indicates its antiquity. (Ibid. 5)

Originally, puppets had a solid leather body and were not highly carved. This changed over the years, as the popularity of wayang grew and the stories became more elaborate. The once solid leather sheet began to be intricately designed and painted. Physical characteristics slowly began to be better defined: a long, slim nose meant a character was refined, while a round, bulbous nose meant a character was an ignoramus, evil, or somehow untrustworthy. One of the most important, drastic developments in the form occurred around 1630. The formerly stationary silhouette of the wayang kulit puppet developed moveable arms. Quickly, puppets began to take on new physical characteristics, some highly exaggerated. New characters were introduced as they began to be named for, or because of, their physical type. Instead of one evil character, now a play might have several appearing at once with the original evil character. Each new puppet had its own distinct deformity or exaggeration to make it more readily identifiable to the audience.

The one puppet that serves as a marker for the plays is the Kajun, the "tree of life" puppet, also called gunungan—the mountain. This puppet is shaped like a large leaf, and different scenes are painted on each side. It has no anthropomorphic characteristics, and no moving parts. This puppet marks the beginning and end of the play, as well as representing curses and blessings. It can be fluttered across the screen to signal the passage of time or the end of a short scene. It may represent a crypt within a scene, or a palace gate, or a mountain. Except for a brief moment or two, the kajun is visible, being planted at either edge of the screen, during the entire play. (Brandon, 1980, 40)

Wayang kulit puppets are made from thin buffalo, deer or cowhide. They are carefully and intricately carved to reveal their characteristics, almost always in profile. However, oafs, clowns, and the monkey character, Hanoman, will often show three-quarters of their face. Once the leather has been completely cut, it is painted. The paint allows the virtually translucent cowhide to become more opaque, thus lending an almost colorless shadow to the screen. More important puppets will be painted with metallic paint, and the god puppets or the king may be gilded with gold leaf. (Long, 1982, 9-11) This is certainly one of the reasons why the characters are painted even though one cannot see all of the detail through the screen. Another reason is that the dhalang must manipulate so many puppets that he needs to see the detail to know he has the correct one.

By 1630 wayang kulit had developed so greatly that a king of central Java "…ruled that wajang beber might no longer be used as a medium of performance for the magically powerful play The Birth of Kala. Monopoly rights to its performance had passed to wajang kulit." (Ibid. 5) Additionally, there were now four distinct play cycles operating in wayang kulit. Over the years, wayang kulit transformed from a court-based art form to a people’s art. It developed to the point where it spun off variations of itself, translated through dance (wayang orang) and even strife—in 1947 wayang suluh (shadow information) was developed as a support for the propaganda of the Indonesian guerrillas during the War of Independence. (Brandon, 1980, 9).

Photo downloaded March

10, 2004, from

www.indonesian

shadowplay.com