Javanese Studies Center (JSC)
The vision of this campus is to establish a forum that offers a large library of information about Javanese culture. It is hoped that in the future, regular classes can be offered so that organized and elaborated explanation can be delivered to the American community.
As is now, the presentation is facilitated by websites and occasional live shows. You will find in this page, a variety of forms and manifestation of Javanese culture. Elaborated explanation can be found in web pages that are linked to the content.
As is now, the presentation is facilitated by websites and occasional live shows. You will find in this page, a variety of forms and manifestation of Javanese culture. Elaborated explanation can be found in web pages that are linked to the content.
Table of Content
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Language Arts
Javanese ScriptJavanese language is equipped with a special set of characters or alphabet (loosely term) known as hanacaraka (the pronunciation of the vowel "a" here is similar to "o" in the word "hot" or "a" in the word "tall") or simply carakan (here the vowel "a" is pronounced like "a" in "art").
However, unlike the commonly known alphabet, the hanacaraka script does not have characters representing the vowels. All of the characters are consonants. The hanacaraka is categorized as Abugida type. Below are the basic characters of hanacaraka. You can tell that the name hanacaraka is derived from the first five letters of the set. Again, all of the "a" here is pronounced similar to "o" in the word "hot". The two characters "dha" and "tha" are to be differentiated from "da" and "ta". The former are "stronger" than the later. |
Javanese Script - vowel soundsThe vowel-sounding in hanacaraka is made possible by "sandhangan swara", a set of extra symbols attached to the basic characters. There are basically nine vowel sounds in Javanese scripts but only five "sandhangan swara" are needed. One of the extra vowel sound does not need the symbol and some special rulings, derived from relations between characters, define the other three sounds. The "sandhangan swara" are given below.
Javanese script is an extensive but interesting subject to learn. Basic understanding might be obtained from the Wikipedia brief description on this subject (Javanese script).
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LanguageThe Javanese language can be differentiated from the national language of Indonesia (Bahasa Indonesia). They are both however fall under the same family of Austronesian language. The Javanese is spoken by more than 75 million people.
Similar to some Austronesian languages, the Javanese language recognizes at least three distinct styles the utilization of which depend on the social status of the users. In Javanese these styles are called (directly quoted from Wikipedia on this subject):
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PoetryThe Javanese poetry is generally categorized into three classes; "sekar ageng, sekar madya, and mocopat". Literally speaking, sekar, ageng, and madya mean flower, big and medium. Here "sekar" represents poetry. The poetry is categorized based on the rules of poetic constructions that are used.
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Folktales and Mythology
PERFORMING ARTS
GamelanA set of gamelan ensemble and its players
The picture of gamelan set above is from wikipedia. Gamelan is an ensemble of traditional instruments commonly found in Java and Bali islands. The gamelan is utilized to provide musical background for many occasions such as shadow puppet show (wayang kulit), human puppet show (wayang wong), classical dances, etc. The gamelan set for each ethnicity in Indonesia is unique. Traditionally speaking, gamelan instruments cannot be mixed in between ethnic group.
Some examples of Javanese gamelan instruments played by Prof. Sumarsam from Wesleyan University can be viewed here. |
Wayang Kulit - Shadow Puppet ShowA dalang plays a puppet under the lamp that creates the shadow. This is the view from the dalang and gamelan side (back side).
The words wayang and kulit literally mean shadow and skin, respectively. The word skin is used because the puppet is made of cow skin. The puppet is basically a cut-out of a picture representing a character. The upper and lower hands of the puppet are connected by hinges. This allows some movement of the puppet. The word shadow (wayang) reflects the appearance of the show (see the figure above). During the show, a lamp is placed to create shadow of the puppets projected on a screen, made of special cloth. The puppets are played by a person who also does the dialogue. Audience have the choice to watch from the dalang side (see figure above) or the shadow side (see figure below). |