File puptcrit/puptcrit.0805, message 262


Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 12:25:58 -0400
From: "Bell, John" <john.bell-AT-uconn.edu>
To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Islam in wayang


Other equally interesting aspects of puppets and Islam include the
shadow puppet traditions all along the Mediterranean coast and in Syria
(in addition to the Turkish example Kathy Foley mentions).  Also there
are strong puppet traditions in Iran, including extensive handpuppet
forms as well as the use of masks and objects in ta'ziyeh...

Dr. John T. Bell
Director
Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry
University of Connecticut
6 Bourn Place Unit 5212
Storrs, Connecticut  06269-5212
office: 860 486 0806
cell: 617 599 3250
www.bimp.uconn.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: puptcrit-bounces-AT-puptcrit.org
[mailto:puptcrit-bounces-AT-puptcrit.org] On Behalf Of Rolande Duprey
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 3:48 PM
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Islam in wayang

Thanks, Kathy --
I knew it was a BIG question.

Rolande

On May 9, 2008, at 2:11 PM, Kathy Foley wrote:

> Islam of course is core to wayang. Though it began during the
> Hindu-Buddhist period, wayang on Java was profoundly reworked in the
> light of Islam. However the style of Islam is not what the average
> westerner is exposed too in our contemporary sound bites.  The Wali
> (saints of Islam who are credited with the performing arts) were
> generally of Sufi inclination and much of what we see in wayang is
> related to ideas which we find in alchemical traditions which emerge
> in the performing arts in many periods and places around the globe.
> The sufis where ever they turned up were heavily invested in the arts
> as metaphors of gnosis, ideas of the universe and its relation to
> self, union with the divine and related ideas. Music, dance, puppets
> and other abstractions from the confusing caughtness we experience
> from "reality" (everyday life and how it emeshes us in material and
> relational demands that lower our pursuit of absolute
> self-realization) are part of the method of thinking through
> existence.  Puppetry is a tool of becoming and puppeteers are
> powerful because practice exposes them on a daily basis to the truths
> and ideas. Art is a place where we experience what IS--though not
> every manipulator will get "it", one is more likely to-via this daily
> exposure to powerful ideas embedded in figures, music, poetry,
> stories, structure, etc., etc. One does religion and plays with dolls
> at the same time.
>
> There is no time or reason to explain it all here. And it is
> pointless since you only start to get a sense of the meaning when you
> have played with the puppets, sung the songs, etc. for a while.  But
> the ideas are all Islam--certainly as it has been thought and
> practiced by many from Turkey to Pakistan, India, south China,
> Champa, Indonesia for a thousand years.
>
>  Puppets and Sufis traveled together. This is not to say the Hindus,
> tantric Buddhists, gnostic Christians, Pythagorians,  Renaissance
> thinkers and other groups don't have some imagery and thoughts in
> common (Plato was writing about shadow shows with reason--though he
> advocated a western realist response that the puppet player might not
> have espoused). Puppets figure prominently  in the iconography of
> these groups because a puppet is a great image of our relationship to
> powers that animate the whole and make it dance.
>
>
> -- 
> Kathy Foley
> Professor, Theatre Arts
> Editor, Asian Theatre Journal
> J-15 Theatre Arts
> 1156 High St.
> Santa Cruz, CA 95064
>  tel. (831) 459-4189
> fax (831) 459-5359
> _______________________________________________
> List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
> Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit
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