who borrows from tradition yet freely creates new and contemporary performance, is cited as an example of a woman managing to break gender norms through experimenting with new modes of performance (Vourloumis 2010; Diamond 2008). Even so, the very nature of this kind of work places Sawitri at the margins, and her work has limited efficacy.
Inspired by these other publications on women and Balinese performance, I began my own study hoping to find that women performing as dalang would show a real departure from gender norms and indicate that the goal of equality was within reach. Instead, I found that women dalang have had little lasting impact on social hierarchy in Bali—and women dalang rarely, if ever, presently perform. I realized that in order to understand women dalang in Bali, and my own experience training as a dalang, I needed to better understand the notion of tradition in relation to gender and performance within Balinese society.
The idea of tradition in Bali is taken for granted as something from the distant and mythic past that functions as an important marker of identity and culture. Practices and things are designated as important because they are part of tradition. I approach the idea of tradition as both a taxonomic category and a cultural system to offer a richer, more complicated understanding of tradition in relation to gender in Balinese society as constituted within theatrical performance. In my analysis, the notion of tradition is used in relation to three different, yet overlapping, fields: the construction of Bali as a traditional society, the role of women in Bali as being governed by tradition, and the performing arts as both traditional and as a conduit for tradition. My focus is on Bali, but Balinese tradition exists within the nation of Indonesia, which also contributes to discourses and social meanings regarding gender and performance. I argue that the Balinese conception of tradition is not embedded in choreography or story, nor is it an object like a puppet, but rather tradition is a sign of power in the Balinese context through the meaning that society ascribes to those activities and objects. Therefore the concept of tradition in Bali must be understood as a system of power that is inextricably linked to gender hierarchy. The phenomenon of women dalang allows me to interrogate the complex dynamics of power in Balinese culture that are expressed through the performing arts. My analysis draws upon my own experience of the practical training and ritual initiation to become a dalang, coupled with interviews of early women dalang and leading Balinese artists and intellectuals. I unpack notions of tradition and gender as they relate to wayang kulit through examining practice, material objects, and ritual as they relate to systems of power.
Power as a concept in Indonesian society differs from how power is conceived in most Western cultures. Benedict Anderson, in his exploration of Javanese systems of power, provides a useful definition that applies equally well in the Balinese context. Anderson describes “power as something concrete, homogeneous, constant in total quantity, and without inherent moral implications as such” (1990, 23). This is in contrast to Western definitions, which see power as “an abstraction deduced from observed patterns of social interaction; it is believed to derive from heterogeneous sources; it is in no way self-limiting; and it is morally ambiguous” (22). In Bali, evidenced in wayang kulit, Anderson’s notion of power permeates the aesthetics, performance, and social context of the performance—power is valued by its accumulation rather than its use. Shelly Errington (1990, 3–5) explains that this different system of power has made it difficult for scholars to understand gender relations in Southeast Asia because the systems of gender are not recognizable by Western standards. For example, in Bali both men and women wear sarong but they are not tied the same way. This difference is difficult to identify and understand without being able to “read” the social symbols. Wayang kulit provides a space to examine social systems of gender and power as they relate to tradition in Bali.
This book is divided into two parts in order to reflect the primary division of Balinese cosmology between the visible realm, or sekala, and the invisible realm, niskala. The first part—Sekala: The Visible Realm provides a detailed overview of the practices and objects of wayang kulit that emphasize the changing nature of the tradition. Chapter 2 examines the process of becoming a dalang by focusing on my own study of performing wayang kulit in order to establish the social nature of tradition as practiced within the performance. Folklorist Barry McDonald proposes that tradition is “the human potential that involves personal relationship, shared practices, and a commitment to the continuity of both the practices and the particular emotional/spiritual relationship that nourishes them” (1997, 60). Building on this definition and drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, I analyze my own experience of studying this art for more than a year in Bali in order to frame wayang kulit as a practice that reflects the dynamic social and cultural dimensions of the performance and of the concept “tradition.”
Chapter 3 builds on this work and describes and analyzes the objects that are required for a wayang kulit performance, such as the puppets, the puppet box, and musical instruments, together with the less tangible objects (i.e., skills), important for a performance such as the voice, the music, and the stories told. Throughout the chapter, I emphasize how these objects function as material culture that relates to economic and social capital. For example, I examine the puppet box as one of the most important markers of a dalang, discuss my own process acquiring a box, the criteria for determining its quality, and how frequent use is an important part of its value as a traditional object.
The second part of the book—Niskala: The Invisible Realm—examines the many invisible realms of power expressed through and beyond the performance of wayang kulit. Chapter 4 begins with my invitation to perform wayang kulit at the Ubud Festival in August 2009. Thus my role changes from being a student and researcher to becoming a dalang and details the transformative spiritual process I underwent. I describe the rituals and ceremonies necessary to give a performance and also problematize the relationship of identity and spirituality in Bali in regard to tradition and power as I, a foreigner and a woman, begin to occupy this unique position in Balinese society.
Chapter 5 examines how the recent phenomenon of women dalang manipulates invisible realms of ritual and social power through the tradition of wayang kulit. I examine relationships between government institutions and ritual performance in order to contextualize the practice of women dalang within the greater arena of gender relations and traditional performance, especially as these relate to national agendas of modernization. I look closely at the initial opportunity for women to study wayang kulit made by I Nyoman Sumandhi, the then head of the Balinese performing-arts high school. The chapter contains interviews with Pak Sumandhi and five of the most prominent women dalang to perform in Bali.
The final chapter examines a new performance I learned that tells the story of Gugur Niwatakwaca. This story features several female characters and offers an opportunity to put gender in conversation with the invisible and visible realms of wayang kulit to better understand how women dalang point to gender in Balinese society into the future.
Part One
SEKALA: THE VISIBLE REALM
Chapter 2
PRACTICES OF TRADITION
Art cannot be taught. To possess an art means to possess talent. That is something one has or has not. You can develop it by hard work, but to create a talent is impossible.
—Richard Boleslavsky 2005, 1
The Tradition of Wayang Kulit
The practice and significance of Balinese performance constantly changes over time. I Made Bandem and Fredrik Eugene deBoer (1995) describe how variance and innovation flourished in the twentieth century with the professionalization of performers, influences from foreign
