Wayang, Ecology, and the Sacred: Engagements with Indonesian Puppet Theatre

This hybrid academic symposium bookended by two live performances (one virtual and one in person) explores the diverse relations between puppets arts (wayang), ecology, and the sacred in Indonesia. Presenters consider how communities and puppet artists express the interconnectedness of humankind with forces of nature, address nature spirits, and sustain ecological balance through wayang performances. The symposium explores wayang’s articulations with age-old traditional rites related to sacred topographies alongside its indexing of pressing needs related to environmental change and globalization.

The symposium concludes with the debut of a lecture-performance co-created by puppeteer-professor Matthew Cohen and the award-winning artist Ben Hagari titled Sea Offerings, Wayang, and Me. This performance looks back at Cohen’s training as an apprentice puppeteer in the Cirebon area of Java, Indonesia in the 1990s, when he accidentally became a shaman of sorts. The performance interpolates a puppet drama titled Budug Basu about the cursed union of the rice goddess and the embodiment of fish that is sponsored annually by fishing communities with autobiographical commentary, ecological reflections, comedy, and video shot in the Cirebon area in 2024 showing the adornment of a buffalo head with female makeup, the making and processing of miniature ships, and the casting of the buffalo head into the sea.

9:00 Coffee

9:30 am Opening remarks by ISM representation and Matthew Cohen

9:45 am Virtual performance by Ki Purjadi and his gamelan musicians from Cirebon, including a Q&A

10:45 am Talk by Sumarsam (in person)

11:15 Talk by Kathy Foley (in person)

11:45 Virtual talk by I Nyoman Sedana

12:15 Virtual talk by Dewanto Sukistono12:45 Discussion

1pm-2pm Lunch break

2:00 Talk by Ron Jenkins (in person)

2:30 Video directed by Daniel Haryono (with short introduction by Daniel Haryono) (in person)

3:00 Talk by Ben Hagari (in person)

3:30-4pm General discussion

4pm Coffee break

4:30-5:30pm Performance-lecture by Matthew Cohen with video by Ben Hagari, “Wayang, Sea Offerings, and Me”

Registration needed for Symposium only

Host or Publisher Yale Institute of Sacred Music