The surviving human puppet show in Senen, Jakarta
As the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta hosts to plenty of traditional art performances from all over the country.
The bustling Senen area in Central Jakarta, a center of trade since the Dutch colonial era, has been home to a Javanese cultural center for more than 40 years.
Located at Jl. Kalilio 15, the cultural center is nestled in a three-storey building with the name “Bharata Purwa” written above the entrance door. A traditional human puppet show called Wayang Orang Bharata is regularly held here every Saturday at 8 p.m.
Delivered in Javanese, the group performs up to 380 wayang stories of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, with beautiful gamelan music as the background.
With ticket prices ranging from Rp 40,000 (US$3.52) to Rp 60,000, Wayang Orang Bharata has proven quite popular among Javanese cultural enthusiasts, with more than 75 percent of seats occupied at every show.
“In past years, most of our audience has been adult, but now I see more younger people watching. Many come from the upper class as well," said Wayang Orang Bharata leader Marsam Mulyo Atmojo.
For those who do not understand the Javanese language, Bharata Purwa's stage is equipped with a running text screen showing dialogue in Indonesian - though the amusing acts of the performers are usually more than enough to invite laughter from the audience.
While the cultural center's theater forbids smoking during the show, audience members can order food from many of the street food stalls available around the place and eat while sitting in their cozy seats.
Little does the audience know the efforts the group must go through to keep the show going.
According to Marsam, the history of Wayang Orang Bharata is closely related to the history of human puppet groups in the country, especially in Jakarta. Since 1963, there used to be a human puppet group called Panca Murti in Jakarta. When the group dispersed in 1972, some of the members then formed a new group called Wayang Orang Bharata.
“At the time, there were hundreds of human puppet groups in Java, but today there are only three groups left - in Semarang, Surakarta and ours in Jakarta," said Marsam.
Since 1972, Wayang Orang Bharata's performances at Bharata Purwa have been held every night and have been lauded as some of the most popular cultural shows in the city.
The building used to be a storage space for spice during the Dutch colonial era and was later changed to a theater named Realto, also home to the group's members and families.
At the end of 1999, when Bharata Purwa was being renovated, Wayang Orang Bharata took a six-year hiatus.
“The Jakarta government later offered to subsidize us. I then called all the members and asked them to conserve the human puppet culture, at least for the sake of our descendants, as we would want them to learn about it from their own country, not others. But I also told them not to make this their main job and that they should find most of their income from other sources,” said Marsam.
From around 140 members in the group, most inherited their roles from their parents and grandparents.
“Presently, up to five generations have joined Wayang Orang Bharata. This is one reason why they have made great performers – they’re very familiar with the stories and characters as well as the Javanese dance, costumes and makeup," added Marsam.
Initially, since it returned, the group held wayang orang performances three days a week. But due to high production costs, the group cut performances to once a week.
Fortunately, the group's struggle has paid off. The Saturday shows are always full, with audiences having to buy tickets at least two weeks prior to performances to secure seats.
Favorite stories like the Baratayudha are so popular among fans of Javanese culture that the shows sell out very quickly.
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