Changing faces of Malay shadow puppet play

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Mystical characters, captivating voices, dramatic music ensemble, a spellbinding story telling -- this is the Wayang Kulit -- a Malaysian traditional shadow puppet show.
It is a stage show featuring puppets manipulated behind a semi- transparent screen and a back light. Popular in the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia, wayang kulit is said to have existed for more than 250 years.
The show comes in many forms and guises inherited from different cultures in the Malay Archipelago -- but in Kelantan, the north-eastern state of Peninsula Malaysia -- Wayang Kulit Siam is the commonly played.
The Wayang Kulit Siam here was said to be originated from Thailand and has a strong Hindu influence. The stories of the wayang kulit are traditionally based on the Hindu epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
The epics include a few distinct characters: the puppet storyteller, the king Rawana, Sri Rama, Siti Dewa, the admiral Laksamana and the court jesters -- Pak Dogol ad Wak Long.
One man is responsible for breathing life into this array of characters -- the master puppeteer and storyteller known as the Tok Wayang.
It is no easy task -- not only does the Tok Wayang has to control the movements of the puppets -- but also he has to modulate his voice, weaving between a myriad of distinctive characters.
The shadow play is invariably accompanied by a gamelan orchestra, one that consists of about 10 to 30 musicians.
Yusoff Mamat, more commonly known as Pok So, has been playing Wayang Kulit almost all his life.
In a recent interview with Xinhua here in the state of Kelantan, Pok So explained that the performance was carried out at a different context before -- it was more of a harvest blessing ritual than an entertainment.
"In the past, wayang kulit was a source of living for the people. First, there were no other entertainment, no television sets at home. Most people are paddy farmers. Before the harvest season, they would invite Tok Wayangs to perform wayang kulit at their paddy fields, to bless their farms.
"They will perform for a week or two. I think, it was not the wayang kulit that gave them a good harvest. There were no toilets around the fields, so the audience would urinate on the paddy field, thus fertilizing it," said Pok So.
The 50-year-old man finds it interesting and at times challenging animating the characters while adding twists to a story on the spot to keep the audience fascinated.
"The wayang kulit has only one background, which you cannot lie about -- the Ramayana and the Mahabharata; and the characters -- Sri Rama and the King Rawana. You can't lie about them because they are in the history. But from there you could make your own stories.
"For me, I never use scripts. The stories came automatically. We try to create as many sad and happy scenes as possible in the show, otherwise the audience will be yawning. When they laugh, I will be more energized. I love playing wayang kulit because it calms my soul," said Pok So.
The puppets used in the wayang kulit are flat and two- dimensional, carved intricately upon goat parchments and painted with permanent ink. Each puppet, stylized exaggeration of human shapes, is given a unique appearance.
They have swiveling arms, allowing them to express themselves through their dramatic hand actions. Like many other puppet shows in Asia, the wayang kulit was said to have strong ties to the spirit world.
Thus many Tok Wayangs make food offerings to the spirits before and after a performance.
In a conservative state like Kelantan, the staging of the show is discouraged for its un-Islamic elements. But on the contrary, some also say the Wayang Kulit was used in a period of time by Islamic Missionary to preach about Islam.
Pok So thinks it is subjective to determine whether Wayang Kulit is un-Islamic.
"I don't practice what people in the past had used to. The old people would have yellow glutinous rice, eggs and fertilizer ready during the show, using smoke to create effects and so on.
"I myself was afraid to play wayang kulit because of these rituals as I didn't know how to read the spells. I was shaking each time I performed. Now I abolished them -- the reading, worshipping and the smoke effect, so that the younger generation dares to join in the fun," said Pok So.
To him, the moral of the story is what it matters. Instead of following traditional Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, he tells stories based on local folklore, history, popular comedies and secular tales. Many of his stories are embedded with ethical values.
"The wayang kulit usually depicts the good and the bad kings. That's the kind of tales I tell. But I could somewhat modernize the story depending the occasion; for instance, if the health department invites me to perform, I play about how a sick man is cured.
"And if the rehabilitation center invites me, I tell a story about how a drug addict is cured," said Pok So.
Most performers here in Kelantan no longer practice the rituals that go along with the original wayang kulit because they are against the Islamic teachings. But according to Pok So, a less sophisticated wayang kulit is what keeps the young people interested.
To keep up with the times, Tok Wayang nowadays tend to improvise, using not only the Kelantanese dialect but also the mainstream Bahasa Malaysia and English and taking familiar tunes from television shows to spice up their performance.
This, according to Pok So, makes the show more comprehensible and learnable. And most importantly, it enables older Tok Wayangs to pass down a culture that should not be forgotten.
"I have been in this industry for long, trying hard to keep the tradition. If I'm no longer around, I think the wayang kulit would extinct. I just hope that doesn't happen," said Pok So. — Xinhua