Grass-Puppets

Two Wayang Rumput or grass-puppets made of KASURAN-grass. These grass-puppets go under the name of WAYANG GEPUK, as Pak Gepuk was the creator of these ordinary creations. The two grass-figures belong to a group of five puppets, which entered the Museum Kolong Tangga collection in 2007. The creator of these jewel-like theater-puppets was born in 1905 in a place called Rembang near Purbalingga. At the age of eight he fell out of a tree and broke a leg. Something that later on would have a certain impact on his future professional life. At 14, he was a “Dalang Ebek” or a member of a kuda lumping (horse-trance dance) group. Pak Gepuk made his first wayang rumput when he was 23 years old, he hasn’t stopped making them. But Pak Gepuk saw his art as a miraculous result of a mystic experience, a forty days long meditation in total solitude. Pak Gepuk didn’t need books or designs in order to realize his puppets. Pak Gepuk had the whole creation-process ready in his head. While making his jewel-like characters, he recited with a loud voice and distinct spoken words, a part of the Mahabharata-story. According to insiders, each puppet-creation was accompanied by his recitation which sounded very much like chanting. Today, Pak Gepuk has gone to a hopefully better place. He has left behind a legacy of a unique folk-art impregnated with a knowledge of Javanese spirituality. It wasn’t necessary to write extensively about the “grass-puppets”, they speak for themselves. Important are the few written words about the man who created them. Because knowing more about Pak Gepuk, might offer the possibility for a better understanding of Pak Gepuk’s extra-ordinary creations.