Wayang Golek Menak ( Wayang Cepak / Wayang Sunda )

This wayang golek appear as wayang made of wood and has the shape of puppet. Each puppet’s role is handled by the dalang, from behind tha stage. The dalang is able to make their look as if they were alive. This wayang is telling stories, originating form the Islam, i.e. they are Arab oriented, of which the influende also reaches Turkistan etc. the stories  tell about the heroic adventures of an uncle of the Propet Muhammad, whose name was Amir Ambyah. This Stories have a very significant influence in Malaysia and are known as the “stories  af Amir Ambyah”. From here was it, that Yasadipuro, during the reign of Pakubuwono IV, revised the above-mentioned stories. Yasadipuro I, a sholar/philologist from the court of Surakarta was not merely revising the stories, but also made the name of the roles Javanese in these “Wayang Golek Menak” stories, for instance: AMIR AMBYAH BECAME JAYENG RONO and  JENGIS KHAN BECAME RAJA JENGGI.

So that said stories could easily be absorbed and accepte by the Javanese people, also because this was done in very beautiful poetic compotition. As for the stories of Amir Ambyah themselves, they had succeeded in covering the north coast of Jave, to be exact, Kudus. In this place the “Wayang Golek” hac been successfully developed by the Sunan of Kudus, then after the fall of Kingdom of Demak, it moved to the Kingdom of Demak, it moved to the Kingdom of Pajang and later turther to the Kingdom of Mataram, where it was told by said Jasadipuro I. But it reality, the performance of the “Wayang Golek Menak” had not always been limited to the above mentioned stories only.

The influence along the North coast of Jave, further moved to the West, namely to Cirebon and west Jave. In Cirebon this “Wayang Golek” called “Wayang Cepak” and is telling many kinds of stories such as the Ramayana, Mahabarata sories while in West Jave, it became the “WAyang Sunda”. The difference from wayang cepak is that wayang sunda only goes about Mahabarat and Ramayana stories.

In the course of its evolution tha Wayang Golek in 1941 produced the creation of a dance, the “tari Golek” (The Puppet dance), which was disclosed int the idea and conception of Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX. Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX, a King and Indonesian Nationalist figure, had succeeded in creating a work of art constituting the “Bekso Tari Golek Menak” (Puppet Dance of the Aristoctrats), namely an abstractions of the movemen of the “Wayang Golek Menak”, imitating the movement of said wayang. The basic idea was inspired by a “Wayang Golek Menak” performance played by a dalang from Kedu, by the name of Ki Widiprayitno.