skuggspelsdocka, wayangfigur, wayang kulit

Skuggspelsdocka av ogarvat läder, från ko eller vattenbuffel. Figuren är monterad i en stav av horn som kluvits nästan hela sin längd, den okluvna delen av staven fungerar som handtag.

Figuren kallas Kakayonan från kayu som betyder träd, eller Gagunungan från gunung som betyder berg.

"The Kakayonan, the cosmic Tree of Life, creates the setting for the performance. It marks the beginning and end of a play or scene, its elusive shadow flickering to and fro on the screen as the dalang waves or 'dances' it. The dalang can also use it to represent a wide range of phenomena: the sea, bathing places of the celestial nymphs, forest, wind, rain, fire or a palace.
Educated dalangs explain that the Kakayonan's preliminary dancing on entering the stage signifies the panca-maha-buta, the five great elements, air, wind, rain, fire, water and earth, which are responsible for creation and form the essence of both the macrocosm and the microcosm. Before beginning to narrate , the dalang first sets the Kakayonan into the center of the main banana stem. It can be suggested that this implies the suspension of profane time and the entering of a consecrated area, which Eliade (1974, p.17) has referred to as the 'centre' of the universe from which the whole habitable world extends.[...] The kakayonen sparks into life the struggle between the complementary opposites which is only resolved at the end of a play when the purer and worthier Pandawas defeat the Korawas. Yet this is a temporary victory, for the struggle between the divine and demonic forces is constantly renewed in every night wayang." (Hobart, A. 1987 s.138-139)

(NS)