According to the Serat Pakem Sastramiruda, the Wayang Golek was devised by Sunan Koudous. In the Kudus-Jepara region of Central Java from earliest time as yet there’s been a custom of wood-carving. It’s perhaps for this reason, that the Wayang Golek, which is carven from wood, was developed therein area. The Wayang Golek is a solid third-dimensional puppet similiar to the classical puppets from China. At the performance no screen is used, so the term wayang is perhaps a misnomer, since there’s of course no element of shadow show involved. Nowadays the Wayang Golek is especially popular and highly developed in the Sunda region of West Java. It’s also long-familiar in Cirebon, a town lying on the border between West and Central Java, where both Javanese and Sundanese are spoken.
There are, then, 3 different kinds of Wayang Golek:

1. The Wayang Golek Purwa, using the epic stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and resembling the Wayang Purwa in features and ornamentations.
2. The Wayang Golek Gedhog, which uses the Pandji stories.
3. The Wayang Golek Menak, which depicts legends of the Emeer Ambyah, which are of Persian and Arab origin and are thought to be about the uncle of the Prophet Mohammed. In Java the Emeer Ambyah is known as Wong Agung Menak Jayengrana, but as a matter of fact isn’t a historical figure.

[email_link]

Narasumber: Moerdowo,R.M.