Puppetry In a Time of Coronavirus: Purbo Asmoro Curing the World Via Puppetry

by Kathy Foley

Can puppetry be a cure in a time of crisis? Most of the online interventions this week by and for puppeteers are tips on good online clips,  mini making methods for housebound youngsters—or youngsters at heart, and messages of goodwill (as with the UNIMA-USA and P of A rendition of  “You Are My Sunshine” for World Puppetry Day March 21 Zoomed from Center for Puppetry Art. But today an Indonesian puppeteer applied a Wayang intervention—ritual healing through puppetry.

In Solo, Indonesia Dalang Purbo Asmoro (see https://wepa.unima.org/en/purbo-asmoro/ for bio) responded to the announcements of the rising of the Corona Virus and death of Indonesian President Jokowi’s wife by staging a Ruwatan (“Safe Making”) performance of the 'Sudamala' story. Like all of Indonesia he practiced quarantine—the musicians, the audience, and all the other spectacular elements of Wayang were gone. However the dalang as a curative force doing a ritual story was present. 

Dalang Purbo came in bearing the requisite offerings for his live-streamed ritual. He apologized in advance for any errors or shortcomings (humility is needed to please the spirit world).  He sat down and, playing his own accompaniment on a metalophone called a gender, adding percussive accents for fights with his foot hitting the metal plates (ketrek), manipulating without any assistant to hand figures, he performed the complex Sudamala  story which is part of a ritual of protection against forces that threaten (“mala is evil)—in this instance the evil he is countering is rising Covid-19.

The tale tells how the high goddess of the universe in her demonic form (Durga) is trying to get a mother (Lady Kunti) to sacrifice her stepson Sadewa. When Kunti refuses a demon enters her body and Sadewa is tied to a tree for sacrifice. Sadewa’s refusal of the demonic Durga brings the divine power of Siwa (Batata Guru) into his body and he will soon save his mother and family. The crisis is averted.

Dalang Purbo titles the Youtube version as “doa untuk dunia” (prayer for the world). We hope that the curative power of wayang in general and this story by an important dalang of contemporary central Java does its work—making the world safe/ruwat.

The longer story which you can explore by reading the Danker Schaareman article below is a bit complicated, but the gist is that above.  

To let the performance  digitally bless your day, go to the URL below--it is in Javanese with no subtitles but, just being at a ruwatan (perhaps even remotely) is thought to have curative blessings:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQNPGtTXgRk&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3h58Wyc7ty4KRHiFCESR74BBJsRuPtGuBzrzxJ-3IY7nNhM5JSF6rvUJQ

For a more detailed version of on version of the “Sudamala” story, see: https://www.academia.edu/4097769/Sudamala_-_Ritual_Purification_in_Bali