... by shadow play dalang (nearest to, but BOOK REVIEWS 861 more than "puppeteers" in the Western sense). Comparing the literary with the oral tradi- tion poses formidable problems. Whereas the literary mode is more or less standardized in the HSR, which can be read, performances of the same story in the oral...

... of Sundanese wayang golek (wooden, three-dimensional rod puppetry) and the interfaces among audience members, dalang (puppet masters), and particular government institutions, personalities, and programs. Relying on thorough ethnographic fieldwork in West Java and using interviews, archival materials...

... of studies in the mid-1970s with one of Malaysia's leading dalang (puppeteer), Hamzah bin Awang Amat, Patricia Matusky's book focuses on wayang kulit Siam, one of four types of shadow play found in Malaysia. Unlike the other three, which are to varying degrees imported from Java or Thailand, the author...

... University , 1973 . i, 416 pp. Tables, Figures. $A6.00. 862 JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES than to those of other dalangs. (Was it once?) How then does the myth evolve? Plausibly enough, Sweeney finds dalangs "dipping" opportunistically into whatever versions happen to be available including those known...

... and to schools." straitlaced moralism to dampen the richness of Hindu-Javanese culture. It is much more the case, as he shows us, that Islam added its own richness to that blend, in the form of Sufi mentalism: (p. 102) In 1971, just before the general elections, a meeting of dalangs traditional shadow-puppeteers...

... is the concept of the dalang , the puppet master, whose manipulations animate the characters of the play. Indonesian observers, domestic and international alike, have often alluded to the dalang 's role in Indonesian politics as the hidden hand or the true power behind the scenes. Politics as theater...

.... He was famous as a dalang, and on one occasion seized and imprisoned the lightning which subsequently escaped! Jaka Tingkir himself had, formally speaking, scarcely any better claim to the throne than Senapati, his only direct link with the house of Demak being by marriage to the sister of the last...

... and minds of the puppet masters. Two lesser points of Cohen's review need to be corrected. He is under the impression that all of the interviews were conducted in English or in Indonesian. Only two were in English: with Kathy Foley, the American dalang, and with Pak Saini Kosim, whose English is flawless...

... it a few days later. There were also rumors in Halmahera of boatloads of expatriate Dutch Malukan killing teams arriving in Ambon at night from Holland and mysteriously disappearing before dawn. Complementing the cast of global dalang (puppeteers) was a long—and ever-growing—list of shadowy national...

... the story from 500 CE with an account of how Indian civilization spread to the island archipelago and opens with a photograph showing a Javanese dalang giving a performance in the late 1800s. Adams summarizes the rise of Srivijaya, noting that the maritime kingdom has been credited with spreading...

..., particularly when, to the best of my knowledge, Dalang Hamzah is still alive and performing? As it stands, this work is a significant contribution to our knowledge of wayang kulit Siam, but one that is heavily rooted in the ethnographic present, with little of the fascinating social history characteristic...

... Malay life around the character of a puppeteer (dalang) who operates at the flexible boundary between traditional Malay cultural performance and the constraints of Islam, representing a more extreme and dramatic embodiment of the tensions of Malay society. Douglas Raybeck's study of Kelantan Malay...

... of the basic Ramayana story as used and varied by Kelantanese dalangs. 746 JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES Throughout the book the reader is referred to pictures of puppets relevant to the point in the text. It is a pity that almost no reference is made to the equally viable puppetry styles of other states and other...

... relevant, then the reader might come away with a more coherent image of Indonesia than he does. Such a scheme might go part-way toward incorporating the rich material on literature, music, dance, and drama which, as it stands, lies isolated at the end of the book. For example, might not the dalang's way...

.... Illustrations, Appendices, Bibliography, Index. $16.75. 566 JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES more dalangs now than, there were ten years ago, in spite of cassettes and movies. In fact, most of the court musicians in Jogjakarta and Surakarta come in from the villages, periodically forestalling the decadence that has...

... in most useful detail and is followed by the description of the typical order and style of Kelantanese performance practice. An explanation of the repertoire and its means of "composition" ends with an outline of the basic Ramayana story as used and varied by Kelantanese dalangs. ...

.... Such a scheme might go part-way toward incorporating the rich material on literature, music, dance, and drama which, as it stands, lies isolated at the end of the book. For example, might not the dalang's way of directing his gamelon by "poetic imagery and indirect reference" (Hood, p. 441) be treated under...

... in Malay culture in two major modes: in written form as the Malay equivalent of the Ramayana epic, the classic Hi\ayat Seri Rama (HSR); and in actual performances today by shadow play dalang (nearest to, but ...

... alone or with Nur Rahardjo. He also implies that dalang Tizar Purbaya is merely a puppet merchant, not an active puppet master, and that Tizar's recent performance activity has been limited to "demonstrations arranged by Herbert in connection with her book tour." He seems lamentably unaware of Tizar's...

... a "puppeteer," a dalang, is ultimately responsible. So events of "chaos" have a Communist dalang. So Suharto is usually seen in popular rumors as the astute mover behind events of Order and coercion. 'Atheists, agnostics, and those who belonged to older forms of belief which were not classified under official...