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The years between
2500 to 1500 BC were years of mass migration into Southeast Asia.
These prehistoric travelers, or immigrants, migrated along the river valleys
and along the coastline.
They would settle in places where they could fish, grow rice, and establish
communities, focusing on river basins and on plains of Java and Bali. …prehistoric
culture was of considerable development and, as far as theatre is concerned,
its most important elements were: the cultivation of rice, the practice of animism,
possession of a common fund of myths, and bronze manufacture (Brandon 1967:
9).
The cultivation
of rice led to the communities having periods of leisure a couple of times a
year.
And, this period of leisure led to the development of theatre as entertainment.
Leisure time
is an essential precondition for the creation of theatre of any degree of sophistication.
A performer must have leisure time in which to develop his artistic skill and
an audience must have leisure to attend a performance (Brandon 1967: 9).
The harvesting of the rice also gave way to festivals celebrating it. To this day Southeast Asia performs dances, songs, and special plays honoring the rice spirit for the bountiful harvest.
Which in turn leads to animism, which was the common religion of the prehistoric immigrants.
Animists believe
that spirits reside in everything from the grain of rice to a river.
They also believe when one person acts selflessly for the good of others that
the act becomes a magic ritual.
Shadow figures
used in Javanese wayang kulit dramas were developed out of this belief, and
used to make contact with ancestors of the tribe. Spirits are often thanked
by the Thai people with theatrical performances, …it is not even necessary for
a human audience to attend (Brandon 1967:11).
These performances were crude, however, involving rudimentary movements that
non-performers can learn easily.
Theatre became more sophisticated in these communities when Indian culture spread
to Southeast Asia.
What is interesting
to note is that Indian culture didn’t spread through hostile takeover.
Traders, missionaries, and scholars slowly brought it to Southeast Asia.
Indian culture and knowledge was respected, as they had made achievements in art, mathematics, science, and, they were literate.
Animism also
helped the spread of Indian culture.
Because the animist believe that everything is spirited and that man could accumulate
the spiritual power of other things and people for his own use and protection,
it followed that the king, as ruler of the state, was expected to amass more
spiritual power than anyone else (Brandon 1967:14).
Theatre throughout Java, Bali, Malaya, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos was
affected for all time when Indian culture was assimilated.
Hinduism, practiced
by Brahmans, provided religious basis for theatrical performances, where a king
is considered a living god, usually a reincarnation of Shiva or Vishnu, who
were Hindu gods.
Adoration and devotion to the god-king were shown with dances, music, and acting.
This belief in a god-king fit in well with animism, as both believed heavily
in ancestor worship, …animism and Hinduism combined to support the development
of theatre art (Brandon 1967:18).
The Ramayana
and the Mahabharata provided dramatic material in the Indian influenced courts
of Southeast Asia.
The Ramayana tells of the birth and education of Rama, a prince and the seventh
incarnation of the god Vishnu, and recounts his winning of the hand of Sita
in marriage.
Displaced as rightful heir to his father's throne, Rama goes into exile, accompanied
by Sita and by his brother Lakshmana.
Sita is carried off by the demon king Ravana.
With the aid of the monkey general Hanuman and an army of monkeys and bears,
Rama, after a long search, slays Ravana and rescues Sita.
Rama regains his throne and rules wisely.
In the probable addition, Sita is accused in rumors of adultery during her captivity.
Although innocent, she bears Rama's twin sons in exile, sheltered by the hermit
Valmiki, said to be the author of the poem.
After many years Rama and Sita are reunited.
Java and Bali let the Mahabharata provide dramatic themes for early court theatre.
The Mahabharata,
more complicated and four times lengthier than the Ramayana, provided the basis
for hundreds of plays.
The central theme of the Mahabharata is the contest between two noble families,
the Pandavas and their blood relatives the Kauravas, for possession of a kingdom
in northern India.
The most important segment of the poem is the Bhagavad-Ghita, a dialogue between
Krishna, the eighth incarnation of the god Vishnu, and the Pandava hero Arjuna
on the meaning of life.
It has influenced devout Hindu believers for centuries.
The Mahabharata
was composed beginning about 300 BC and received numerous additions until about
AD 300.
It is divided into 18 books containing altogether about 200,000 lines of
verse interspersed with short prose passages.
The Harivansha, one of several late appendixes to the poem, discusses at length
the life and genealogy of Krishna.
The rulers
of Southeast Asia used these plays to their advantage.
The plays dramatized the belief that a king’s power is absolute power, and his
subjects are to serve and obey him.
Just as the mystery plays of the Middle Ages dramatized the life of Christ and
so taught illiterate peoples of Europe to believe in Christianity, the Hindu
epics showed the lives of the Indian gods and of their descendants and so taught
the people of Southeast Asia to believe in Hinduism (Brandon 1967: 18). Southeast
Asia’s mainland let the Ramayana provide not only the basis for dramatic material,
but also for dances.
Then, in 1000
AD, Sanskrit Drama stopped being performed, and its original style was lost,
much like the tragedies of the Greeks.
India would contribute to Southeast Asian theatre no more.
India’s influences had been swallowed and digested by Southeast Asian Theatre.
Although miniscule compared to India’s contributions, Chinese performing arts
entered Southeast Asia by 1287.
Throughout Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia one sees Chinese musical instruments
(Brandon 1967: 28).
Chinese opera
had great influences on the opera of Vietnam.
The Vietnamese directly adapted Chinese operas to suit Vietnamese culture, adding
Vietnamese melodies and language, but keeping Chinese models and heavy use of
make-up.
Also during
this period Islamic culture was introduced into Southeast Asia.
Islamic culture believes that most theatre is blasphemous, and in Indonesia
and Malaya, where they settled, theatre was suppressed.
They replaced Hindu based theatre with Islamic based theatre, …popular theatre
troupes avidly dramatized Islamic stories, as much because they were exciting
tales as because they were Islamic in content (Brandon 1967: 33).
In the next
three hundred years, the Spanish, English, and Americans came to Southeast Asia
bringing not only missionaries, merchants, and armed forces, but their Western
cultural influence as well.
The impact of the West was felt on the theatre of every country of Southeast
Asia (Brandon 1967: 35). Colonial governments of the West drastically cut funding
for local kings and princes, who in turn found it impossible to finance court
theatre.
With court theatre diminishing, Southeast Asia developed theatre troupes, which
would perform in public. These troupes found an audience willing to pay for
theatre. Western drama, however, found very little acceptance.
Even today, Western motion pictures have more influence in Southeast Asia than
its theatre.
And then, Islam
conquered Java:
The Javanese Singasari dynasty conquered Bali in 1284, but when it collapsed
shortly afterwards.
Bali regained
its autonomy and the Pejeng dynasty, centred near modern-day Ubud, rose
to great power.
The Pejeng king was defeated by the great Majapahit dynasty in 1343 and Bali
was brought back under Javanese influence.
As Islam took
hold in Java in the 15th century, the Majapahit kingdom collapsed and many of
its intelligentsia moved to Bali.
They included key priests who were credited with introducing many of the complexities
of Balinese religion.
Javanese artists, dancers and musicians also sought sanctuary in Bali, and the
island experienced an explosion of cultural activity.
The first Europeans to set
foot on Bali were Dutch seamen in 1597.
Setting a tradition that has prevailed to the present day, they fell in love
with the island and, when the ship's captain prepared to set sail, several of
his crew refused to come with him.
By the early 1600s the Dutch had established trade treaties with Javanese princes
and had wrestled control of the spice trade from the Portuguese.
They were, however, more interested in profit than culture and hardly gave Bali a second glance.
In the early 18th century, as local rule in Bali began to fracture, the Dutch began muscling in using the tried and tested divide-and-rule policy.
They used Balinese salvage
claims over shipwrecks as a pretext to land military forces in northern Bali
in 1846.
Teaming up with the Sasaks of Lombok to defeat the rajahs of Bali proved a bad
tactic when the Sasaks changed their minds and slaughtered the Dutch.
This incensed the Dutch so much that they invaded Bali with a heavy military
force and severed Bali's control of its smaller neighbour.
With the north under Dutch control and ties with Lombok severed, the south of
Bali was not going to remain autonomous for long.
In 1904, another salvage dispute resulted in Dutch warships
appearing off Sanur.
It took Dutch troops five
days to reach the outskirts of Denpasar.
Surrounded by superior forces, Balinese royalty and religious leaders decided
to take the honourable path of a suicidal puputan - a fight to the death - rather
than surrender.
First the palaces were burnt, then - dressed in their finest jewellery and waving
golden daggers - the rajah led the royalty and priests out to face the Dutch
and their modern weapons.
The Dutch begged the Balinese
to surrender, but their pleas went unheard and wave after wave of Balinese nobility
marched forward to their death.
In all, nearly 4000 Balinese died.
As other local kingdoms
capitulated or were defeated, the entire island came under Dutch control and
became a part of the Dutch East Indies.
There was little development of exploitative plantation economy on Bali, and
common people noticed very little difference between rule by the Dutch and rule
by the rajahs.
Despite the long prelude to colonisation, Dutch rule over Bali was short-lived; Indonesia soon fell to the Japanese in WWII.
At the end of WWII, the
Indonesian leader Sukarno proclaimed independence, but it took 4 more years
to persuade the Dutch that they were not going to get their colony back.
In a virtual repeat of the puputan nearly half a century earlier, a Balinese
resistance group was wiped out in the Battle of Marga in 1946.
In 1949, the Dutch finally recognised Indonesia's independence.
In 1965, an attempted coup blamed on communists led to Sukarno's downfall.
General Suharto suppressed the coup and emerged as a major political figure.
The Communist Party was outlawed and a wave of anti-communist reprisals followed.
On Bali, local communists
were perceived as a threat to traditional values and the caste system because
of their calls for land reform and an end to social repression. Religious traditionalists
took advantage of the post-coup hysteria and led a witch hunt against communist
sympathisers.
Mobs rounded up suspected communists and clubbed them to death.
The Chinese community was particular victimised before the army stepped in and
restored order, but no-one on Bali was untouched by the killings.
An estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people were killed, at a time when the island's
population only totalled 2 million.
Suharto established himself
as president, and under his government Indonesia looked to the West for alliances
and investments.
On Bali, economic growth and dramatic improvements in infrastructure were achieved
by hugely expanding the tourist industry.
This also resulted in the displacement of local populations and disruption of
many traditional communities.
Many Balinese feel the tourist industry is dominated by Javanese interests and that locals have too little control over its growth.
The
Varna system (Caste System)
The varna (or caste) system in Bali derives from Hindu
traditions on Java dating back to about 1350 AD, imposed by the ruling Javanese
aristocracy and priests (who naturally appointed themselves as the triwangsa
or three higher castes) to maintain their power, social status and prestige.
At first it was a division of profession (varna), but soon it was inherited
into someone’s offspring (descendants) although it is not as strict as the system
in India. On Bali, caste determines roles in religious rituals and the form
of language (anggah ungguh Basa Bali) to be used in every social situation.
During the period of the
Balinese kingdoms, it was forbidden to marry girls from higher castes.
The ill-fated couple may be banished to the barren limestone islands of Nusa,
or drowned in the sea. However most aspect of Balinese culture have proved
to be adaptable-as Bali becomes more and more a part of Indonesia and the rest
of the world.
Despite the persistence of honorific titles, the practical importance
of one’s caste is diminishing, as status becomes more a matter of education,
economic success and community influence.
The importance of caste differences in language is mitigated by the use of ‘polite’
forms of Balinese language, or by using the national Indonesian language (Bahasa
Indonesia), itself a sign of some status.
In a traditional village, however, caste is still very much a part of life,
and caste concepts are still absolutely essential to religious practices.
About 90% of Balis ethnic population belongs to the common sudra or jaba
(“jaba” actually means the outsider although the real outsiders
are actually those of the triwangsa or menak (brahmana, ksatrya and wesya)–the
three higher castes) to which the rest belong. The triwangsa is divided into
three castes, listed in order of importance:
Brahmana are high priests, with titles of Ida Bagus (male)
and Ida Ayu (female);
All life cycles ceremonies in Bali have a deep religious meaning that is to ensure someone’s spiritual and material well being.
The first ritual is held
at six month’s conception to pray for the well being of the baby.
The next ceremony takes place after the baby’s birth, to bury his or
her placenta (it is put inside of a yellow coconut) in front of sleeping house
of the family. The following ceremonies afterwards are Kepus Pungsed
(umbilical cord cut), Tutug Kambuhan (at the age of 42 days).
Nelu bulanan or nyambution (at the age of 105days) when the baby’s
name is announced (Basically there are only four first names: Wayan or
Putu or Gde (the first born), Made or Kadek or Nengah
(the second born), Nyoman or Komang (the third born) and Ketut
(the fourth born). If there are more than four children, the same name order
will apply to them: Wayan for the fifth, Made for the sixth, and so on).
When a boy or a girl reach
the age of puberty, marked by the first time menstruation for a girl
or a deepening voice of a boy, it is the time for menggah daha / taruna
ceremony; which is frequently held together with mapandes or masangih
(tooth filling ceremony), in order to spend less money.
Its purpose is to delete symbolically the six someone’s bad characters
such as:
Aanger, Desire, Greed, Intoxication, Irresoluteness, and Jealousy by filling
a small portion of the upper teeth to form a straight line.
Only a married man or woman can become a member of the village association and thus for a Balinese, he or her most important duty is to get married and to rise children to get descendant where any time he or she or their forefathers will be able to reincarnate.
The two most popular form of marriage is mapadik-marriage by request and ngerorod-marriage by elopement.
The third one, malegandang (elopement by force-against her will) is not done any more because it is against the law.
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