All of those who are interested in contemporary Indonesian society,
its organization and social and political articulation, sooner or
later come to realize that in order to achieve any real depth of
understanding for these phenomena it is first necessary to
appreciate the enduring and frequently manifest residuum of
traditional, pre-Western culture in Indonesia. Certainly this is
true with respect to Java, whose culture has of course had an
impact far beyond the shores of that island. In many cases these
legacies of traditional culture help to explain current phenomena;
in addition they make much more understandable the Javanese
approach to religion-not only to Islam but also to Hinduism and
Buddhism, which were introduced to the island earlier. For they
have conditioned the way in which all outside ideas, Western and
non-Western, have been received, and they help to account for the
particular patterns of synthesis which are woven into the Javanese
milieu. Most striking is the way in which persisting elements of
old Javanese culture affect contemporary values. An ability to
accommodate to and tolerate conflicting norms and ideas, the
capacity to entertain in coexistence ideas and values that would
seem incompatible in many Western settings, an unusual capacity for
sympathetic toleration in social behavior-these are all attributes
of contemporary Javanese society deriving from old Javanese
culture. For the outsider, such elements are probably most easily
approached and understood through the traditional artistic medium
of the wayang - the Javanese shadowplays based upon adaptations and
developments of major themes and episodes in the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata. These wayang plays, performed with flat leather
puppets which throw their sharply etched shadows against a screen
which is viewed from the other side, are as important a part of
contemporary Javanese culture as they were of the old. To discern
this relationship between the wayang plays and Javanese society, to
achieve an insight into the values which have been conveyed by
wayang over the centuries, and then to perceive these patterns of
social conduct and morality in a dynamic phase of interaction and
adjustment with the new values and social concepts born in
Indonesia of the Japanese occupation, the Revolution, and the rapid
change of a post-revolutionary society, is an accomplishment few
non-Indonesians would be capable of. Nor, indeed, would it be
possible for most Indonesians, for their involvement in the culture
and the society is so close that they miss the perspective
necessary to appraise and describe these phenomena to an outside
audience. Mr. Benedict Anderson's study of the wayang and its
sociological and psychological significance is, I believe, a real
contribution to our understanding of Javanese culture and values. A
political scientist by training (he has recently returned from
Indonesia after three years of research there, primarily on the
Revolutionary period), he has long been interested in Javanese art,
drama, and music and has achieved unusually deep insights into
these aspects of the Javanese civilization. Mr. Anderson wishes to
emphasize that this study is exploratory in nature and that the
conclusions he reaches are tentative. He would welcome comments and
criticism on the material he is presenting. - George McT. Kahin,
August 24, 1965
General
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