His Excellency Lie Sie Bin, the king of the Tai Tong Tiauw, was worried: One of his kingdoms, the of So Pak, had decided to extend its area by building a new city.
Lie Sie Bin, feeling threatened, decided to attack the renegade kingdom, resulting in a major war led by Commander Cu Pi Lun.
An extract of this old story from the period of the Chinese kings was performed recently in the Potehi Puppet Show at the Hong Tek Hian Temple, also known as the Dukuh Temple, in East Surabaya.
Praise to the puppet masters: Members of the Dukuh Temple community make offerings and prayers to mark the ascension of Buddha and gods and goddesses into Nirvana. (JP/ID Nugroho)
The production, along with prayers, took place on the eve of Imlek 2009 (Chinese New Year 2560), performed in combination with celebrations marking the ascension of Buddha and gods and goddesses to Nirvana
The Potehi Puppets, also known as Poo Tay Hie, are a special feature of the Dukuh Temple, where puppet shows are staged three times a day. The name comes from the words poo (cloth), tay (pocket) and hie (puppet).
"The shows start at 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and at 6 p.m. so all members of the temple community can enjoy the stories told by the puppets," said Edy Sutrisno, one of the Potehi puppeteers.
History leaves no certain record of the origins of the Potehi Puppets. Some say the art began 3,000 years ago during the Tiu Ong dynasty. At that time, the story goes, four prisoners were facing the death penalty played music using various secondhand instruments. On hearing the music, the emperor Tiu Ong felt consoled and set the prisoners free.
Others believe the Potehi Puppets appeared for the first time during the Jin Dynasty in the third to fifth centuries AD. They developed in the Song Dynasty in the 10th to 13th centuries.
Potehi puppets remain popular, with a history that straddles cultures and ages. (JP/ID Nugroho)
The Potehi Puppets became well known around three centuries later, when Chinese people first came to Indonesia. Since that time, performances using solid puppets such as the West Java Golek (wooden) puppets have been staged in temples across Indonesia. Productions range from the classical stories of the Chinese Dynasties, through to popular - though meaningful - stories such as the Kera Sakti (the Sacred Monkey).
The instruments used are Chinese musical instruments such as the gembreng (a flat gong), the rebab (a two-stringed instrument), the gwik gim (guitar), the suling (flute) and the simbal (cymbal). Whereas originally the Hokkian language was used, Indonesian is now used here.
The sad part of the story is that, despite popular interest in the Potehi Puppets, they were banned when the colonial Dutch administration prohibited Chinese arts in Indonesia. This happened again when the Soeharto government banned Chinese art.
These bans ended when former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid reopened opportunities for Chinese art. The Potehi Puppets returned to reclaim their popularity.
Mujiono, 48, puppeteer and narrator for the Dukuh Temple Potehi Puppets, started working with the Potehi puppets at the invitation of his uncle when he was in junior high school
"There was a woman who was originally from Hokkian and who was on the staff of the Dukuh Temple. She became my teacher," Mujiono said.
To strengthen the puppet characters, Mujiono diligently reads the temple's books about Chinese history. Now, after dozens of years with the puppets, he knows Chinese history by heart.
"But the fact remains that many Chinese leaders are difficult to play, such as Gia Ko Bin, whose character is not old, not young, not bad, but also not good," he said.
The world of the Potehi Puppets is an enjoyable one for him, especially when he and the five members of his troupe can entertain people of Chinese descent with a keen interest in the art.
"I've been to other cities to perform shows with the Potehi puppets an uncountable number of times," said Mujiono, who charges Rp 5 million (US$450) for a performance. "I feel happy seeing people enjoy my show."
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