REVKJEWS - Siamese Heritage Protection Program

184
Michael Smithies
A point of debate is whether the siteran really can be said to belong to the
gamelan, which by definition involves percussive instruments that are struck with a
hammer. The rebab (viol) and suling (flute) were both added under external influences,
but neither the siteran nor the celempung, both zither-type instruments and both
presumably introduced under Chinese influence, belong inherently to the gong-chime
cultures of Southeast Asia. Neither has been heard by this reviewer taking part in a
full gamelan orchestra performance. There might possibly here be some confusion
between Javanese music in general and gamelan music proper.
Nevertheless, Ms. Lindsay writes clearly, reasonably objectively and necessarily
succinctly on an extensive subject which has tremendous cultural remifications within
Javanese society.
The longer though still brief Van Ness-Prawirohardjo volume is chiefly disap­
pointing in the poor quality of some of the photographs; the colour plates of the warung,
the street scene, the dalang, golek heads and Arjuna, like the black-and-white photo­
graphs of paper wayang and the cempala, are ill-defined, or out of focus, or unintelligi­
ble. Whilst it is a good idea to allow a reader to compare the static coloured figure
with the silhouette form it presents on the screen, to repeat with both coloured plates
and black-and-white photos the figures of Kayon, Wayang Prampogan, Arjuna, Bima,
Adipati-Karma and others, separated and without any cross-referencing, either between
plates or to the text, is singularly unhelpful. To include an illustration of a Cambodian
shadow-play figure and a Chinese one from Yogyakarta without any reference to them
in the text indicating why they are there and what they signify is also unhelpful.
Because the wayang culture so profoundly permeates Javanese culture and
affects Javanese attitudes, perhaps it is impossible for any volume, least of all one as
short as this, to do justice to the subject. The book starts by placing the wayang in
the past and the present, elaborates on the epics and important personages in them,
discusses the da lang and his art, and then describes a particular wayang performance.
The introductory chapter does not develop clearly and one has, almost inevitably, a
confused picture of wayang kulit and its relationship to other Javanese theatres. The
most satisfactory section is that dealing with the dalang, though this is confused by the
insertion of descriptions of typical scenes from wayang kulit performances, which have
little directly to do with a description of the dalang's role and functions. The last
chapter, describing a specially-arranged performance at Mrs. Prawirohardjo's family
house, is the least successful. Perhaps here the style of the text is most obviously intru­
sive, being on occasions chattily housewifely ('It is amazing how efficiently all the
preparations are realised with no one person really coordinating things'). There is no