Wayang, Let’s Save Our Heritage

Wayang, Indonesian Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity

 Wayang is the Indonesian original cultural heritage which was admitted and designated by Unesco, United Nations as Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Wayang or the shadow puppet theatre has various kind, there are Wayang kulit, Wayang wong, Wayang golek, Wayang klithik, Wayang beber, and Wayang wahyu. But I think the most popular one is Wayang kulit which spread around Jogjakarta, Central Java, East Java, and Bali. The performance of Wayang is always accompanied by gamelan, traditional music instrumental.

Wayang, the oldest indigenous storytelling in Indonesia was created about hundreds a go. It is assumed that Wayang existed long before Hinduism came to Indonesia, but there is no evidence to prove it. When the Hinduism came to Indonesia and adopted slowly the local belief system called Animism and Dynamism. By using classical stories from Mahabharata and Ramayana, they used Wayang to spread their religion. It also happened when Islam began spreading in Indonesia, by adopting and adapting, moslem used Wayang to spread Islam. In Islam, display of God in human form is prohibitted, therefore to keep performing the theatre, Moslem leaders converted wayang golek in wayang purwa which made by leather and displayed only the shadow instead, here is the birth of Wayang kulit. Wayang nowadays is not belong to one of religion, Wayang is a Indonesian cultural heritage and belong to Indonesian people.

The term of Wayang, “Bayang” come from Old Javanese language  which means “shadows”, actually the meaning is not only about shadow, but also “the spirit”. Wayang performing theatre usually starts the show at 8 p.m until the early morning (around 4 a.m), played by the only one Dalang ( person who played the Wayang) and one assistance of Dalang. Wayang itself has a hundreds characters, so the Dalang have to remember each character’s voices and attitudes.

What could I do for Wayang? I had a great opportunity to introduce Wayang, Javanese traditional puppet theatre in farewell party of Short-term training Architecture and Arts program in Osaka, Japan. I brought two Wayangs which are called Arjuna and Srikandi (There is different spelling of those characters’s name in Indonesia and among Hinduism countries such as Nepal, India) came from classical story Mahabharata. Arjuna is physically powerful, strong, robust, has a high-desirability, and has many wifes. Srikandi, one of Arjuna’s wifes is a strong and powerful woman, beautiful, and skillful. By introducing Wayang to the global community as Indonesian Cultural Heritage, I wish Wayang could attract International attention and show proudly to the world that Indonesia has masterpiece of heritage, Wayang. Let us save our heritage!

 

  Reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayang.htm  

Wayang Kulit, picture is taken from http://128.32.250.47:8080/folkartandlit/2007/04/27 .htm

Graduation Work, Research Design Project

 

conservation design project for graduation work

model of design project

When the land cost is getting higher and higher in old city of Surabaya, people should think deeply about re-using the existing building. Yet, some owners of old historic building choose to renovate totally into the new design. Actually by adapting, reusing the existing old building and doing some conservation processes, those buildings are potential to be old city tourism.

Considering the condition of the old building, quality of architecture, and current purpose, I chose BPN building which built in 1811 located on Tunjungan, the downtown of Surabaya city. By giving new utility as Museum and Gallery and renovate partly in interior, it will increase the quality of architecture of the building. Different from other museum in Indonesia, Surabaya Museum of History explains about history of Surabaya city development. By adaptive reusing the old building into the new utility as historical museum, the visitor can feel an atmosphere of the past on the present situation.

 This research project is based on two main concept designs, there are: “Create a dialogue between the old and the new one” means that the old building could adapt with the new utility and new function.  I added new buildings behind the old building in order to keep balance between past and present, no contradiction. The second concept is “Respect to the Old” means that all of activity starts from the old building as respectful expression.

 

 

Surabaya’s Old buildings, where are they now?

Saat orang-orang membicarakan perkembangan kota Surabaya melalui rencana-rencana pembangunan gedung pencakar langit, perancangan kompleks superblok, apakah mereka masih ingat akan bangunan-bangunan tua dan sejarah kota Surabaya? Sejarah bagi saya bukanlah hanya sebatas masa lalu, tapi sebuah waktu yang menyisakan sebuah kenangan, nostalgia, romantik, dan menggambarkan sebuah perjalanan arsitektur.

Bangunan-bangunan lama di kota Surabaya sekarang seperti hanya sebuah gedung kosong tanpa fungsi. Pemerintah memang telah melakukan kegiatan pelestarian, tapi beberapa masih merupakan sekedar pelestarian yang berarti pengawetan, melestarikan dan menjadikannya museum-museum kota. Sebenarnya yang lebih penting adalah menggiatkan kembali aktivitas yang ada dalam bangunan (revitalisasi), dan menggunakan kembali bangunan lama dengan fungsi baru (adaptive-reuse).

Adakah manfaat dari semua kegiatan di atas? Jawabannya adalah pasti ada. Pelestarian dengan menggiatkan kembali aktivitas akan membangkitkan kembali nilai arsitektur bangunan. Masyarakat akhir-akhir ini juga gemar akan kafe-kafe, galeri, dan atau butik yang dulunya merupakan bekas bangunan lama. Mungkin menurut mereka, ini menyimpan sebuah nilai tersendiri dan beberapa orang malah beranggapan ini sebuah romantisme. Saat bangunan tua dimanfaatkan kembali menjadi fasilitas umum, masyarakat akan tertarik dengan nilai sejarah, keunikan arsitektur, dan nilai nostalgia yang dimiliki bangunan tersebut.

Sebenarnya tidak hanya itu, pelestarian sebuah peninggalan kota melalui kegiatan konservasi yang dinamis akan memberikan dampak positif bagi kota yang bersangkutan, yaitu nilai sosial dan ekonomi masyarakat. Coba kita tengok negara-negara maju, lewat pelestarian kota lama, mereka dapat menarik jutaan wisatawan. Akankah kota kita dapat menjadi seperti itu? Jawabnya, pasti bisa.