Wayang, Ecology, and the Sacred: Engagements with Indonesian Puppet Theatre

This hybrid academic symposium, bookended by two live performances (one virtual and one in person), explores the diverse relations between puppets arts (wayang), ecology, and the sacred in Indonesia. Presenters consider how communities and puppet artists express the interconnectedness of humankind with forces of nature, address nature spirits, and sustain ecological balance through wayang performances. The symposium explores wayang’s articulations with age-old traditional rites related to sacred topographies alongside its indexing of pressing needs related to environmental change and globalization. The symposium concludes with the debut of a lecture-performance co-created by puppeteer-professor Matthew Cohen, and the award-winning artist Ben Hagari titled Sea Offerings, Wayang, and Me. This performance looks back at Cohen’s training as an apprentice puppeteer in the Cirebon area of Java, Indonesia in the 1990s, when he accidentally became a shaman of sorts. The performance interpolates a puppet drama (Budug Basu) about the cursed union of the rice goddess and the embodiment of fish, sponsored annually by fishing communities. Throughout the work there is autobiographical commentary, ecological reflections, comedy, and video shot in the Cirebon area in 2024. The video features the adornment of a buffalo head with female makeup, the making and processing of miniature ships, and the casting of the buffalo head into the sea.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required for the full symposium, which takes place at Miller Hall.

The concluding 4:30 p.m. concert, held at the ISM Great Room at Yale Divinity School, is free and open to the public without the need to register.

Co-sponsored by the ISM’s Religion, Ecology, and Expressive Culture Initiative and the Yale Council on Southeast Asia Studies. For more information, view event website.