163

Wayang Tengul Art Performance:
 A Study of People’s Appreciation of Wayang Tengul Art   

Tutung Nurdiyana

Department of Performing Art, Faculty of Teaching and Education Science, 
Universitas Lambung Mangkurat, Indonesia

Submitted: September 16, 2019. Revised: November 4, 2019. Accepted: December 28, 2019

Abstract

Wayang tengul is one type of wayang (puppet) belonging to Indonesia existing in Sidobandung 
Village, Balen Subdistrict, Bojonegoro Regency. This wayang is still preserved and found attrac-
tive by society until now. This wayang preservation depends on society’s appreciation as the au-
dience of wayang tengul and is one of the most important factors for the success of a performance. 
Therefore, this research attempts to describe how people in Sidobandung Village appreciate way-
ang tengul. This qualitative research was conducted in Sidobandung Village. It shows how the 
people highly appreciate wayang tengul art since this wayang art is unique, not strictly bound by 
wayang common practice, performed interactively between dalang (puppeteer), gending (Java-
nese music) and audience and laden with guidance presented in fresh jokes. 

Keywords: Wayang Tengul; Appreciation; Audience

How to Cite: Nurdiyana, T. (2019). Wayang Tengul Art Performance: A Study of People’s Appreciation of Wayang Tengul 
Art. Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research And Education, 19(2), 163-171. 

Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 19 (2) (2019), 163-171
Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id/nju/index.php/harmonia
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15294/harmonia.v19i2.23636

Some state that wayang, especial-
ly wayang kulit, is a depiction of Javanese 
culture and a manifestation of Javanese 
people’s cipta, rasa and karsa in every as-
pect of society and state life. Wayang is 
familiar to Javanese people and contains 
many interesting things for entertainment 
while serving as a medium of communi-
cation and education which remains rele-
vant in every era, since wayang is dynamic 
and able to keep up with development in 
the society. According to Clifford Geertz, 
when a person desires to study Javanese 
culture, he/she should start from under-
standing and learning wayang (Bastomi, 
1993). The reason is that wayang summa-
rizes the Javanese people’s views of life. 
The Clifford Geertz’s opinion is quite un-
derstandable since art is an expression 

INTRODUCTION

Wayang is one cultural heritage that 
survives, especially in Javanese society, 
and also the national pride in art. Wayang 
is called an adiluhung (high quality) art, 
since it is an artwork which is laden with 
philosophical, symbolic and historical va-
lues of ancestral heritage, which needs be 
preserved (Harsojo, 1998).

There are various forms and types 
of wayang in Indonesia, one main form 
of which is wayang kulit, which has been 
taking a special place in the heart of the 
Indonesians for centuries, both elites and 
common folks. Wayang kulit is a traditional 
art with great number of fans, while it has 
existed for hundreds of years, but survives 
changing times.
Corresponding author: 
 E-mail: tutung.nurdiyana@gmail.com  

p-ISSN 2541-1683|e-ISSN 2541-2426



Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 19 (2) (2019): 163-171164

generated from existing ideas, values and 
norms in the mind of individuals in the 
society. Meanwhile, according to Mulyo-
no, wayang’s high quality may be found in 
multiple values, including entertainment 
value, art value, education value, scientific 
and spiritual enlightenment, and religious 
value (Mulyono, 1979).

Wayang performance in a traditional 
agricultural society is often intended to be 
teaching. Besides the most important part 
of religious ceremony, wayang performan-
ce is filled with various teachings of life, 
from philosophy to moral teaching for ru-
ral farmers. This shows that wayang perfor-
mance has currently become an important 
part of the society’s socio-cultural system. 
However, in industrial or urban society, 
especially transitional society, wayang per-
formance has transformed its functions 
and roles. Wayang in such societies often 
serves as entertainment, ethnical identity 
and social class stratification in Javanese 
society, cultural commodity and a little 
still serving as a small part of a description 
of the meaning of life of a group of Java-
nese society. In this context, wayang is un-
derstood as an aspect of teaching and pitu-
tur (advice) instead of as the main essence, 
but the aspects of entertainment commodi-
ty, technical skill to generate new creation 
and artistic aspect instead. 

The current wayang kulit is human’s 
work which has been continuously wor-
ked on and improved for centuries from 
generation to generation. Various cultu-
res influence the form and philosophy of 
wayang, from original ancestral culture, 
Hinduism, Buddhism to Islam. With the 
arrival of Islam, the history of wayang art 
in Indonesia developed in every aspect 
of Indonesian-Islamic visual art tradition. 
At that time, a form of wayang was born, 
which reflected a more appropriately ma-
ture conception to the Indonesian art trad-
quated ition, visually and spiritually.

In the past, when Islam entered Java 
island, the role of wayang as a medium of 
dakwah was very useful since through wa-
yang performance, Islamic teaching was in-
serted. The Muslim missionaries (mubaligh 

- walisongo) used wayang as a medium of 
dakwah which could not be separated from 
the idea that wayang was already familiar 
to Javanese people, thus for ease of disse-
mination of Islamic teaching and people’s 
acceptance of it, wayang was used. Ac-
cording to Mulyono (as quoted by Amir, 
1994), the Islamic teaching introduced by 
the wali includes the Javanese version of 
wayang genealogy, that according to this 
genealogy, wayang started from one an-
cestry, that is Prophet Adam.

The wali who disseminated Islam in 
Java Island, besides creating wayang gene-
alogy which was connected with Islamic 
teaching, often created gendhing-gendhing 
and wayang story for dakwah purpose. With 
regard to these activities, there is an as-
sumption in the society that the ones who 
created wayang, gamelan and pakem-pakem 
pedalangan are the wali at the time Islam 
started developing. This assumption, ac-
cording to Pigeaud (Wibisono, 1991), is be-
lieved by the people on the north coast of 
Java. Besides, wayang performance, which 
was deemed sacred during the pre-Islamic 
era, was popularized by the wali, rearran-
ged and adjusted to Islamic teaching and 
the cultural value system of its supporting 
society. This Pigeaud’s opinion is in line 
with Amir’s statement, that for dissemina-
tion and development of Islam, the pant-
heist goods system in wayang performance 
with its hierarchical divinity system was 
modified, putting gods as the executors of 
God and not other than God (Amir, 1994).

Now, wayang serves a function and 
role in society’s cultural life. The function 
and role of wayang since its creation and 
in its journey are not fixed depending on 
the need, demand and working of its sup-
porting society (Wibisono, 1991). Javanese 
culture, which supports the existence of 
wayang, is changing. Therefore, it is impos-
sible to maintain and preserve a cultural 
element while its supporting society has 
been and is continuously changing. There-
fore, what we need to do is changing, revi-
sing and modifying wayang in order for it 
to survive in the society’s changing culture 
(Waluyo, 2000).



Tutung Nurdiyana, Wayang Tengul Art Performance: A Study of People’s Appreciation of 165

In Bojonegoro, there is a type of wa-
yang called ‘wayang tengul’ with some uni-
queness. First, wayang tengul has no stan-
dard like the standard pakem pedalangan 
wayang kulit. Therefore, the way to present 
it is up to the dalang. Although the story 
has certain guideline, but the version of 
the story is up to the dalang. Second, nayogo 
(gamelan players) and sinden (singers) are 
involved in dialogue with dalang, talking 
in a bi-directional conversation, thus hu-
morous comments are commonly used in 
about 8 hours of wayang tengul performan-
ce. Such bi-directional dialogue does not 
bore the audience. Some audiences also 
occasionally make humorous comments, 
from which dalang makes jokes.

In addition to its uniqueness, wayang 
tengul also has its characteristic of using 
typical Bojonegoro dialect called Javanese 
language Ngukuh. The purpose dalang of 
wayang tengul use typical Bojonegoro dia-
lect is for wayang tengul art to have an im-
pression and nuance of original art perfor-
mance of Bojonegoro society and also to 
stimulate the audience in each performan-
ce, so that they will not get bored listening 
to standard Javanese language Kromo Ing-
gil.

The uniqueness and typicality of wa-
yang tengul remain showing the simplicity 
of performance as a cheap show to enter-
tain the society since the rate for each wa-
yang tengul performance is also far lower 
than that of wayang kulit performance. The 
rate of each performance is based on the 
story to be told and its duration, since the 
duration of wayang tengul performance 
may be shortened at request of the host. 
Wayang tengul, as a traditional art that is 
still loved by Bojonegoro people, actually 
still serves function like the other existing 
traditional arts such as oklik, tayub and san-
dur. The reason is that wayang tengul con-
tains various arts such as dance art, music 
art, pedalangan at, visual art and perfor-
ming art.

This wayang tengul art is still preser-
ved until now, particularly in Sidoban-
dung Village, Balen Subdistrict, Bojone-
goro Regency, which is the location where 

the research on wayang tengul is conducted. 
In this village, wayang tengul still exists and 
is preserved for generations as an ancest-
ral heritage, as proven with many and fre-
quent wayang tengul performances held in 
the society in certain events. Wayang tengul 
performance is commonly held in relation 
to people’s social activities. For example, 
a change of government official event, go-
vernmental events from village to regency 
levels, marriage, birth, circumcision or any 
event related to a person’s life cycle cere-
mony or in other ceremonies deemed im-
portant by the society.

Based on the existence of wayang ten-
gul which remains preserved by the people 
in Sidobandung Village and of the audi-
ences who are still fond of and loyal to it 
from various groups, the researcher is in-
terested to study wayang tengul audience’s 
appreciation. Wayang tengul audience is 
one of the most important factors for the 
success of its performance. This audience 
is derived from various groups, including 
children, youths and elders. In every wa-
yang tengul performance, the audience or 
each individual appreciates what the per-
formance they watch differently. The au-
dience also has their respective purpose 
of choosing which dalang is appropriate 
to perform a certain story in wayang ten-
gul performance and they have the crite-
ria for it. Dalang of wayang tengul must, if 
not want to be left by his audience, strive 
for making his performance attractive. 
Not only by developing how to perform, 
but the story is occasionally made not pur-
suant to the standard. However, a dalang 
must be aware of wayang genealogy.

Sidobandung people’s appreciation 
of wayang tengul art performance becomes 
the research’s focus. People’s appreciati-
on of or response to traditional art in this 
modern era is then important as why they 
still desire to pay attention to traditional 
art, especially wayang tengul. Based on the 
background above, the research attempts 
to answer the problem, of how is people’s 
appreciation of Wayang Tengul in Sidoban-
dung Village?



Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 19 (2) (2019): 163-171166

METHOD

This qualitative research focused on 
items in their natural context, attempting 
to understand, or interpret, phenomena 
from the perspective of meaning attached 
by human (researcher) to it (Denzin, et al., 
2009).

The qualitative research emplo-
yed here was ethnography. According to 
Spradley, ethnography is a work to desc-
ribe culture. The purpose of this activity 
was to understand a view of life from the 
perspective of native inhabitants. Further-
more, Spradley states that the essence of 
ethnography is the effort to pay attention 
to the meaning of action from an occur-
rence happening to the person we want 
to get an understanding of. Some of these 
meanings are directly expressed in langu-
age, and many are received and conveyed 
only indirectly through words and actions 
(Spradley, 1997). 

Qualitative ethnographic research 
in social research may also be employed 
to study certain issues to be taken as the 
theme, thus it does not have to describe 
the culture of a certain society holistically. 
This view is stated by Hammersley and 
Atkinson regarding ethnography. Accor-
ding to Hammersley and Atkinson, “eth-
nography” is a method with typicality. 
Ethnography consists of some research ac-
tivities in the form of ethnographer’s parti-
cipation in daily life within a long period, 
seeing what happens, listening to what 
they say, asking a question. In short, eth-
nography means collecting any data which 
may be used to understand issues which 
becomes the research focus (Hammersley, 
et al., 1995). 

This research employed ethno-
graphy, aiming at describing the wayang 
tengul phenomena more thoroughly and 
emphasizing exploration attempt on the 
Wayang tengul phenomena through a set of 
non-structured data in the society’s versi-
on, to be analyzed interpretatively to gene-
rate an overview of the society’s apprecia-
tion of performing art wayang tengul more 
comprehensively. 

Through informants, interview ai-
med at collecting information and data 
from certain individuals. In this regard, 
to enter into the society on which the stu-
dy was conducted, the researcher needed 
purposively determined informants. The 
research informants included dalang who 
was deemed to have extensive knowled-
ge of wayang. In addition to dalang, the ot-
her informant was wayang tengul maker or 
craftsman. This informant was deemed to 
have actual understanding of characters 
inherent in wayang tengul dolls they made.

The researcher obtained the appre-
ciation data from various wayang tengul 
fans and audiences as informants. The au-
dience of wayang tengul art performance 
was gathered accidentally when a perfor-
mance was in progress, and the fans were 
not only obtained during the performance, 
but visited in their home. There are 13 in-
formants from which information of their 
appreciation of wayang tengul art perfor-
mance is collected, consisting of 2 (two) 
children (8-10 years old), 2 (two) adoles-
cents/adults (15-40 years old), and 9 (nine) 
elders (41-60 years old).

After the research had been con-
ducted and data were collected completely 
from the field, the next phase was analysis. 
In this phase, the data were used in such a 
way for answers to the research problems. 
Furthermore, the analyzed data were in-
terpreted using the concept and theory 
presented in the frame of reference, thus 
a complete overview was obtained for 
the research focus. Finally, of all that have 
been conducted, a conclusion of the rese-
arch problem was made.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

History of the Origin of Wayang Tengul 
in Sidobandung Village

It was relatively difficult to collect 
the data of wayang tengul history since the-
re was no written evidence of the origin of 
wayang tengul. The researcher eventually 
obtained the data of the origin of wayang 
tengul based on folklore which was dee-
med to be the actual history of the origin 



Tutung Nurdiyana, Wayang Tengul Art Performance: A Study of People’s Appreciation of 167

of wayang tengul by the people in Sidoban-
dung Village. The folklore is as follows:

In the past, wayang tengul was initi-
ally a child game in the village after they 
had finished herding their livestock and 
coming home from farm work, in the form 
of wooden doll game made by themselves 
and played on the table. The doll’s head 
and body were made separate, thus the 
doll was movable. The doll’s head may be 
moved rightward-leftward, upward and 
even rotating. People say the head was 
able to tungal-tungul (head movement to 
any direction), thus it is called ‘wayang ten-
gul.’ The doll took arbitrary form and the 
story was up to the doll player. The music 
was played with surrounding items which 
were just hit as the players pleased. Over 
time, this doll game was deemed interes-
ting and entertaining to those who wat-
ched, thus the people developed it into wa-
yang tengul art performance. The form of 
doll, story, performance stage, and game-
lan were made in such a way, belonging to 
the people of Sidobandung Village.

That is the story developing among 
the people in Sidobandung Village of the 
origin of wayang tengul. The story of the 
origin of wayang tengul, as told by Kayam 
(Kayam, 1981) is that the concerned society 
will claim society as a union of humans 
and what we call society’s creativity is 
originated from its supporting people, as 
well as what we call folk art, folk song, and 
folk dance of which creators are unknown 
(even if they started from creators who 
were members of the society) as theirs.

The people of Sidobandung Village 
have never known who created or started 
wayang tengul art for sure. The knowled-
ge of people of Sidobandung Village of 
wayang tengul is from folklore developing 
through word of mouth from generation 
to generation, thus wayang tengul is kno-
wn as the traditional art of Sidobandung 
society. According to Harsojo (1998), the 
characteristics of folk art is that the values 
contained in that folk art are the reflection 
of the way of daily life of the concerned so-
ciety or derived from myth developing in 
the society.

Time and Place of Wayang Tengul Perfor-
mance

Wayang tengul performance in Sido-
bandung Village is held at certain times 
deemed important or special, such as wed-
ding party, circumcision, and bersih desa 
events. For people’s ceremonial event, it 
is commonly held in certain months belie-
ved by Javanese people as good months to 
bring luck.

The time of wayang tengul perfor-
mance is mostly at night, but some are also 
held in daytime, commonly at bersih desa 
or ceremonial events depending on the 
request and agreement between the host 
and dalang, since there is basically no rest-
riction for a wayang tengul performance in 
daytime. In daytime performance, lamps 
are not used, that it is bright, no shadow of 
wayang is generated.

The place for wayang tengul perfor-
mance may be everywhere, such as village 
office, sports field, or yard of individual 
who has ceremonial event. In case the yard 
is too small, the alternative is to put a sta-
ge for performance on the road in front of 
one’s house, by first getting permission 
from village authority. The reason to choo-
se wide space is for the guests or audience 
to watch wayang tengul performance con-
veniently.

Wayang Tengul Story
Wayang is a performing art which 

displays dolls made of leather or woo-
den resembling human. Wayang, which 
is an inanimate or mute object, will live 
and speak when it is involved in a story 
brought by dalang. Therefore, it is dalang 
who actually preaches wewayanganing 
ngaurip or reflection of life, giving examp-
le to people. The stories played in wayang 
tengul are those related to the history of Is-
lam derived from Serat Menak, Babad Tanah 
Jawi, and Majapahit referring to East Java 
style pedalangan story.

The East Java standard structure is 
free, which means that it does not have to 
follow a mainstream sequence. In Central 
Java pedalangan standard, after jejer scene 
is kedaton scene, followed with outer pase-



Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 19 (2) (2019): 163-171168

ban and dodolan, but East Java standard is 
arbitrary according to the story. The same 
is with wayang tengul, the scenes in this wa-
yang performance are not structured accor-
ding to the standard since it does not have 
one. The sequence of the story is also up 
to dalang but there is jejer as guideline for 
dalang. Gamelan in wayang tengul is laras 
slendro.

Stories in wayang tengul are mostly in 
the form of carangan made by dalang which 
are occasionally derived from folklore. The 
stories are usually mild, which means that 
they do not contain deep story like his-
tory or genealogy of wayang. The humor 
element is dominant, intending to attract 
and stimulate the audience. Behind that, 
however, wayang tengul is laden with Isla-
mic teaching which emerges in the middle 
of the scene that it has been prepared. The 
Islamic teaching is commonly delivered 
during Umar and Amir (characters) scene 
(menak history). This Islamic teaching is 
delivered in addition to the existing story 
and is connected with current occurrences, 
thus the scene is focused on religious con-
tent.

Below is the general composition or 
sequence of story in wayang tengul as well 
as examples of story to perform: A perfor-
mance with the theme “Menak History 
Umar Amir”:

Jejer I
There is a kingdom named Merday-

in with its king called Nursewan, having a 
disaster of the existence of a giant or buto 
named Buron Amru residing in Payal fo-
rest who eats human. This puts king Nur-
sewan to restlessness, until he makes a 
sayembara (competition), that whoever kills 
Buron Amru will be given with the king-
dom and the throne as well as princess 
Dewi Muninggarsari.

Jejer II
There is a war between Buron Amru 

and imperial soldiers in Payal forest, 
leading to the defeat of the kingdom Mer-
dayin.

Jejer III
Umar and Amir sons of Abdul Mun-

talib, in their journey, hear of the sayembara 
and intend to participate in the sayembara. 
Finally, Umar and Amir are able to kill 
Buron Amru. However, when they arrive 
at the palace of kingdom Merdayin, they 
still have to pass one more test since, as 
king Nursewan says, becoming a king is 
not something easy, they have to conquer a 
thousand kingdoms, including King Lam-
daur from mount Srandil, King Maktal, 
King Jemblung Marmadi, King Tamtanus 
Swantanus from Selomiring, and many ot-
hers.

Jejer IV
Umar and Amir finally get separa-

ted, while Amir successfully conquers a 
thousand kingdoms and meets a superna-
turally strong person, His Excellency Kelir, 
and is given with heirlooms Cemeti Jabar-
nas and Kuda Kalisaha.

Jejer V
Umar meets Prophet Daud and is 

given with an heirloom Kasang Kasud 
Kudratullah and eats wood Kistabul Jati 
in Swargo Ungkul. The function is that he 
will be invulnerable to any highly toxic 
venom. In the end, Umar and Amir meet 
and return to Kingdom Merdayin to be 
enthroned by King Nursewan. Amir is gi-
ven with the throne and married to Dewi 
Muninggar Sari. Amir’s kingdom is called 
Kingdom Puser Bumi or Mekkay and has 
his name changed to Sang Agung Jayeng-
rono Dimukti. Umar is given with a thro-
ne as regent in Talkandangan regency and 
married to Dewi Bastari. Umar has his 
name changed to Utet Umar Maya.

Audience of Wayang Tengul Performance
Wayang tengul is one of art perfor-

mances with so many fans in Sidobandung 
Village. This may be seen from how often 
the people have wayang tengul performan-
ce for their certain ceremonial event, both 
individual and joint events. Besides the 
high frequency of people having wayang 
performance, this may also be seen from 



Tutung Nurdiyana, Wayang Tengul Art Performance: A Study of People’s Appreciation of 169

the abundant number of audiences every 
time a wayang tengul performance is held.

The audience of wayang tengul is one 
of the most important factors for the suc-
cess of its performance. Even if a perfor-
mance is very good, when there is no audi-
ence, it will be meaningless. The audience 
of wayang tengul in Sidobandung Village 
consists of various groups. According to 
Waluyo, the audience of wayang consists 
of children, youths, and elders, both male 
and female (Waluyo, 2000). The audience 
of wayang tengul is not limited only to the 
people of Sidobandung Village, but also 
from surrounding villages, such as Sido-
dadi Village, Mayangkawis Village, and 
Duyungan Village.

Wayang tengul is an entertainment 
mostly watched by children, that its form 
of storytelling is particularly attractive to 
them. In a year, they averagely watch wa-
yang tengul 8-10 times. Often, they even un-
consciously fall asleep about the stage whi-
le watching the performance. Differently 
from elders and youths, children usually 
arrive at wayang tengul performance early 
in the beginning. Just like children in ge-
neral, they prefer watching fight scene and 
humor scene by limbuk and cangik.

Most of the audiences are youths. 
This group ranges from 15-40 years old. 
Differently from children group, 15-year 
old audience is able to assess how profi-
cient dalang is. This youth group tends to 
prefer crowd, beauty, and humor. Howe-
ver, some of them fathom the philosophy 
of wayang tengul. Therefore, young audien-
ce prefers dalang who are proficient in an-
tawacana or conversation, sabetan or techni-
que to play wayang, and mbanyol or joking.

Old audience, 41 years old and abo-
ve, has their own choice to watch wayang 
tengul performance, slightly different from 
that of young audience. Although this 
group of audience has watched the same 
story repeatedly, but they do not find it 
boring to watch. When they are asked to 
tell the whole performance, they memori-
ze it well. This old group of audience often 
contemplates the teachings delivered by 
dalang through the story of wayang tengul 

performance. Therefore, this old audien-
ce is commonly serious at scenes which 
display very important dialogue which 
need wise problem solving.

The audience watches the perfor-
mance from the seats prepared 4-6 me-
ters away from the screen. These seats are 
commonly prepared for guests. Meanw-
hile, they who just want to watch the per-
formance but without invitation from the 
host may watch the performance from afar 
or wherever they feel convenient.

As the researcher finds, the number 
of audience of wayang tengul performance 
after late at night will decline because of ti-
redness and drowsiness, particularly child 
audiences and some youth audiences. For 
elder audiences, even if their physical con-
dition is poor, most of them watch until 
the end of performance. However, in every 
wayang tengul performance, not less than 
50 audiences watch it until the end. The 
researcher even once found an audience 
who was getting really drowsy (repeated-
ly yawning) was not willing to leave and 
waited the wayang story told by the dalang 
to end. Such an audience is the big fan of 
wayang tengul performance, that he will 
feel at a big loss when they cannot watch 
the performance until the end.

Society’s Appreciation of Wayang Tengul
Wayang tengul performance in Sido-

bandung Village seems to have made a 
certain impression and value for the peop-
le of Sidobandung Village until now, thus 
many of them are fans of it. As society’s 
work, wayang tengul is dynamic, as shown 
with its capability to attract people of Sido-
bandang Village until now. This is in line 
with Akhyanto’s statement, that wayang as 
a traditional art is dynamic with its capabi-
lity to pass through space and time, much 
of which is influenced by dalang as the 
main actor in wayang art (Akhyanto, 1988).

One of the reasons for the people to 
love wayang tengul is a factor of habit, that 
they have watched wayang tengul from 
childhood to old age, thus they are sociali-
zed with and love wayang tengul. This rea-
son is expressed by an informant named 



Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 19 (2) (2019): 163-171170

Mufid (50 years old):
“Wiwit alit kulo ngantor sepuh, kulo 
asring sanget ningali wayang tengul, 
amargi ing Deso Sidobandung kathah 
ingkang nanggap wayang niki. Dadose 
dangu-dangu kulo inggih remen kalian 
wayang tengul.”
(From childhood until old age, I have of-
ten watched wayang tengul, since this wa-
yang is often performed in Sidobandung 
Village, thus as time passes I get to love 
wayang tengul).

Another reason is presented by in-
formants named H. Gunawan (48 years) 
and Surif (53 years old). They love wayang 
tengul since they believe in the story and 
Islamic teaching it contains wayang tengul. 
The reason is:

“Kulo remen kalian ringgit tengul pu-
nika amargi kulo remen lakoniopun, 
biasanipun ringgit tengul puniko disisi-
pi kalian dakwah Islam. Dadose pesen-
pesen ingkang wonten ringgit tengul 
ponika saget ditiru gae kalian para tiang 
ingkan g ningali ringgit punika.”
(I like wayang tengul since I like its story. 
Wayang tengul story is usually inserted 
with Islamic teaching, thus the messages 
it contains may be taken as example for 
its audiences).

A teenager named Yudi (19 years 
old) presents a different reason regarding 
wayang tengul. He loves and often watches 
wayang tengul since the story in wayang ten-
gul is not monotonous like that in wayang 
kulit that tells the story of Ramayana and 
Mahabharata. Its story varies and its lan-
guage is informal, and it has more humor 
element. The following statement is made 
by Yudi:

“In my opinion, wayang tengul is a non-
boring wayang show that it story varies 
and its languages may be understood 
by every person, young or old, and its 
humor element refreshes the audience.”

There are many reasons presented 
by the informants of wayang tengul, but 
the next one is an informant who had once 
hired a dalang to perform wayang tengul. 
Ansari (58 years old), this informant loves 

wayang tengul since it is a Javanese folk art, 
especially Indonesia’s cultural art. There-
fore, in his daughter’s marriage, he had a 
wayang tengul performance in considerati-
on that wayang tengul is an interesting folk 
show for a low rate. Below is Ansyarai’s 
comment:

“I had wayang tengul performance since 
I like this original Javanese art, and its 
rate is affordable. This entertainment 
may be enjoyed by me, my family, and 
also neighbors. Thus it entertains many 
people.”

The audience’s excitement and satis-
faction are relative, which means that each 
person has different level of excitement 
and satisfaction since they have their own 
taste.

Wayang tengul, according to an infor-
mant named Abdullah (45 yeas old), is not 
the same with any other wayang, since this 
wayang is not boring. As evidence, many 
children in Sidobandung Village love it. In 
each performance, many children come to 
watch. Below is Abdullah’s statement:

“Wayang tengul is entertainment with its 
distinguished attractiveness and uni-
queness compared to any other wayang. 
Its story is good (with Islamic nuance), 
dalang and nayogo participate interacti-
vely in dialogue, making fresh humor, 
and its rate is affordable.”

Generally, children love joke and 
fight scenes. After watching wayang tengul 
performance, they often imitate dalang’s 
funny words and wayang’s fighting style 
presented. The following is the comment 
of a child named Sidin, 10 years old while 
waching wayang tengul:

“Wayang tengul dolls have funny sha-
pes, some are fat, some are thin, and its 
story is also funny. I like the fat doll of 
wayang tengul named Limbuk the most. 
When the dalang starts putting out the 
dolls from the box, all of my friends will 
certainly compete for the foremost seat.”

Siti, 12 years old, makes different sta-
tement from Sidin. She love fight scene the 
most. The following is her statement:

“The tensest part is when the protago-



Tutung Nurdiyana, Wayang Tengul Art Performance: A Study of People’s Appreciation of 171

nist is fighting buto ijo. The protagonist 
is small and Buto Ijonya is big, but the 
small protagonist wins.”

Children’s opinion of wayang tengul 
is different from youths’ and elders’ opi-
nion. They are simple and what they talk 
is only about doll playing and how funny 
the dalang is.

CONCLUSION

Wayang tengul art performance in Si-
dobandung Village is still found attractive 
by the people, not only since this perfor-
ming art is originated from local village, 
but they truly love this art performance. 
The young generation automatically inhe-
rits this art tradition willingly without any 
coercion.

The people Sidobandung appre-
ciate wayang tengul art performance very 
well and enthusiastically, as proven with 
so many audiences from various groups, 
constituting children, adolescents and el-
ders, in each of its performance. The peop-
le appreciate this art differently by age. 
Children love this art performance for the 
humor brought by dalang in playing funny 
characters and for fight scene. Adolescents 
and adults love the non-boring excitement 
of wayang tengul made by dalang, sinden 
and gamelan. Meanwhile, elders love wa-
yang tengul art performance for the essence 
of wayang tengul story with the story of Is-

lam history and wayang stories made diffe-
rently from any other wayang.

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