term wayang will be explained more fully in the section dealing
with wayang- wong. Topeng is a wooden mask representing an important
figure in the story. The Panji cycle which is made up of original
Javanese stories, constitutes the only repertoire for the wayang
The term wayang wong comes from the two wordes wayang meaning shadow
and wong meaning man.
To understand more fully the meaning of the term wayang wong it
will be necessary for us to study the word wayang. Professor James
R. Brandon says that in its narrowest sense the word wayang today
designates the flat, leather-carved rod puppet of the shadow play
(wayang kulit). In its widest sense the wayang means a dramatic
performance, whether the actors be puppets or human beings.
Dutch scholar G.A.J. Hazeu, in his dissertation dealing with the
Javanese shadow play, written at the end of the 19th century, explains
the origin of wayang, and its historical and anthropological development.
He explains that a wayang performance was actually a religious ceremony.
During the prehistoric period one important aspect of the Indonesian
religious life was the worship of their ancestor, from whom they
still expected help in this world. This primitive belief, which
continued into the period of recorded history permeated their spiritual
life. The people made statues of their ancestors which they believed
the spirits of their ancestors would then enter. The spirits took
the form of shadows, or in Javanese, wayang. These images of ancestors
were first made of stone, then of wood and the skins of animals.
The shape of the images, whether they were made of stone, wood or
leather, was symbolic; they were not made to look like ordinary
human beings. The images or Puppets themselves were called wayang
and a wayang performance (shadow play) was held to call forth the
spirits of the ancestors to enter the wayang.
performance was always held at night because it was believed that
was the time when the spirits of the ancestors wandered about in
this world. The person whose duty was to evoke the spirits to enter
the puppets was the head of the family, and the duty of the other
members of the family was to prepare offerings and join in the saying
of prayers. The head of the family spoke of the deeds of the ancestors
when they had been alive. As the time went on it was found that
the duty of evoking the spirits of the ancestors and narrating their
deeds was burdensome and difficult and this function was taken over
by a shaman, then by a specialist called the dalang. Hazeu. concludes
that the wayang performance is a religious tradition of ancestor
worship. The wayang is also an aspect of the ancient shaman belief.
The head of the family who evoked the spirits of the ancestors,
later the dalang was in fact a shaman, who became the medium linking
the spirits of the ancestors with this world.
H. Rassers has another theory: he says that wayang is a remnant
of an initiation rite for men. The shadows (wayang) represent the
spirits of the tribal ancestors, and by producing the
wayang topeng Yogyakarta style, which appeared in the villages in
the middle of the l8th century began to the attention of' the artists
from the nobility at the beginning of the 20th cent The wayang topeng
was further perfected and developed ill Yogyakarta by the oldest
dancing organization Krida Beksa Wirma established in 1918 by Prince
Suryadiningrat and Prince Tejakusuma. The stories presented by the
wayang topeng were not only from the Panji cycle but taken from
other sources as well.