Layout 3 - India Foundation for the Arts - IFA

Wayang Kulit – Eddin Khoo
Ravana or Sita you will be given a
puppet of Ravana or Sita. In the
Kelantan tradition you have five major
comic characters led by Pak Dogol,
a grotesque and exaggerative character
with a huge stomach, bald head and
long neck. Now, Pak Dogol has
emerged from the earth. He is
essentially Adam made from clay and
he has strong healing powers but he’s
extremely naughty, bawdy and rowdy.
This was the spirit of my master
puppeteer Abdullah who was known as
the Hooligan dalang. The status that is
bestowed upon the ritual artist in
Kelantan is very distinctive and special.
They are even allowed considerable
liberty in their personal conduct. My
master Abdullah was designated to be a
puppeteer at the age of nine. He first
performed in public at the age of
fourteen, and after that he literally had
to adhere to the life and standards
required of the puppeteer, which
proved quite beneficial in his case: he
was allowed more than four wives,
allowed to seduce, allowed conduct that
would be forbidden in others.
In one of my very early questions
to dalang Abdullah I asked him, “Why
shadows?” And in a typically esoteric
fashion he said, because in a shadow
play what is closest to me is the most
distant to the audience, and what is
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The opening sequence of the Wayang Kulit Siam features the sage
Maharisi urging the sons of Rama and Ravana to conduct a dueldance
as part of the Gerak Angin (Moving of the Winds) ritual.