Mask Dance from Some Provinces in Indonesia

Masks (topeng) defined characters at the courtly dance dramas of Javanese kings. In fact, these masks largely were about glorifying kings past and present and their heroic deeds. To this day, many masked dramas of Java tell of Panji, an adventurous prince of long ago embodying all Javanese ideals of noble refinement. Against all odds, Panji triumphs in the end. As with puppet characters, the precise physical features of a Panji mask make him readily identifiable to the audience. These performances include arrays of masked characters, many paralleling those of the shadow play.

In Bali, masks invigorate most festivals and sacred rituals. Balinese invariably strive toward drama and elaboration in their arts and the island’s extraordinary masks reflect this. The most dramatic and world-famous masked characters are the Barong, a fabulous and morally good creature from the underworld, and its counterpart Rangda, a powerfully evil witch who plagues villages. The Barong inevitably wins in the end after much music, dance drama, and audience excitement.

Such elaborate masks include human or horsehair, shredded leaves of plants, carved teeth, colorful fabric, real or simulated gold, and many layers of paint. The Barong incorporates a full body costume of gold-painted leather and leaf strips. Worn by two people, the fantastic creature resembles a hybrid lion, a caterpillar, and a fabulous Chinese festival dragon. Rangda wears a raging mane of hair and a ferocious face, with bulging eyes, long fangs, and a hanging tongue—features symbolic of wildness and devilry in Bali. While these masked beings clearly define good and evil, the stories they enact are not simple. Rather, “the barong performance is the expression, through theater, entrancement, and celebration, of the whole complex of the Balinese mythic and religious world—the choreography involves not just a troupe of dancers and musicians, but a whole village.”

Other masked dance dramas in Bali tell babad (meaning “history” or “chronicle”) tales—ancient stories based upon genealogies. These provide cores around which performers weave improvisations demonstrating the relevance of the tale to more recent events. According to one scholar, masks are the only visual forms that represent the babad tales in Bali dramas.Yet, their stories often contain new renditions or invented episodes and thus continue to reflect both historical and modern concerns and shifts.

The Hudoq ritual mask dance of East Kalimantan Dayaks begins riceplanting season and celebrates the harvest. Of a style and elaboration seen nowhere else, the masks represent crop pests or fearsome beasts to scare off evil spirits. Consisting of numerous parts in wildly diverse shapes, these masks are masterpieces of imagination and craft. Some bear delicately carved swirls extending beyond the body, some feature intricate beadwork combined with other materials, and others have upright feather crowns. Some masks extend to a full body costume of banana leaves or grass. Usually 11 dancers perform the Hudoq ceremony to the sounds of gongs and a small drum. Hand and feet movements create the dance, as arms fly upward then slap down and feet stamp upon the ground. One foot crosses the other with each stamp, causing bodies to sway. Dancers thus proceed in a circle until they have covered the arena. Finally, they sit in the center waiting for spirits to possess them. A twitch of bodies signals possession and they stand to dance once more. When finished, they sit and all present regard the spirits as departed. The entire ceremony takes lead from a ritual specialist.

The Asmat of West Papua wear masks evoking the costume of the Balinese Barong. The jipai covers the head and body to the legs. Head sections are of wood, but the body mask might be woven, with extending grasses at the bottom. These are secret creations in men’s houses as part of months-long preparations. Eventually, a jipai covers a man who wants to make contact with his ancestors, during a special event commemorating the departed. The masked figures perform dances before the men’s house at various times during the special day.

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