Sanding 1000 Dalang Bocah

Indonesians commemorate 'National Wayang Day' on 7 November annually. Various programs are organized to celebrate the commemoration. This year, in Jogja, some events have been organized a couple of days ago. One of them was named 'Sanding 1000 Dalang Bocah'. I was lucky to be able to show up and watch their preparation.

'Sanding 1000 Dalang Bocah' was a program designed to get kids love and more familiar with 'wayang' as early as possible. Here hundreds of primary kids from all over regencies in the Special Region of Yogyakarta gathered and learned to ndhalang (play traditional Javanese shadow puppet show) on Margo Utomo street, the one stretching from 'Tugu Jogja' to the south.

Early that morning, those kids arrived cheerfully, wearing Javanese traditional costumes: the girls wore 'kebaya' and the boys wore 'beskap'. Each group wore costumes of different colors. Watching them wrapped in beautiful and colorful costumes really helped my Sunday cheered up.

After all kids gathered, each of them sat on a piece of square plaited-coconut-leaf-mat that had been prepared by the committee. In front of each mat, there was a small bamboo post for them to put the 'wayang' while they were ndhalang.

Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X attended to open the program as well as to celebrate the inauguration of wayang as the world's cultural heritage. One lesson to learn from this program is, while young children can ndhalang, at least I should try to know more about wayang.