"WAYANG PALEMBANG": ITS ORIGINS, CHARACTERISTICS, AND PRESERVATION FROM EXTINCTION

Wayang Palembang is a traditional art of performing arts with artificial media of people made of leather. Wayang Palembang contains universal cultural values because it tells human life. This study describes the existence of Wayang Palembang through manuscript traces (ancient manuscripts). The research found that the Wayang Palembang was originally introduced by the ruling elites of the ruling Majapahit kingdom in Palembang. During the time of Palembang Sultanate this art modified by absorbing elements of Malay culture. Subsequently, he continued to be preserved during colonial and post independence. Wayang Palembang has unique characteristics that distinguish it from Javanese puppet, which is from the aspect of the introduction language by the Mastermind, the display of its own, or the performance devices, including the duration of the timing. This shows the harmonious acculturation and adaptation between Javanese culture and Palembang Malay culture. The heyday of the Palembang puppet period ended in 1980, with the last Dalang death.


Introduction
Traditional art is a national cultural heritage that is priceless and needs to be preserved. Palembang is known to be quite extensive and rich in cultural arts, and one of the existing cultural arts is in the form of "Puppet Palembang".
Theoretically the puppet itself is a symbol that explains human existence in the form of a relationship between natural and supernatural powers (Mulyono 1982, 12).
Wayang is a traditional art form in Indonesia, a performing arts with the media of images or imitation of people (dolls) made of leather and wood.
Wayang as an artwork clearly contains universal cultural values. It is because the puppet talks about human life in general. When viewed from the role of the characters and the content of the story, the puppet story is the adaptations of the Mahabarata and Ramayana from India. In its development, this form of art wayang was used as a tool of preaching by the Wali Songo in Java with the intention to make Islamic teachings can be easily accepted by the community (Fattah 1996).
Puppet can also be said as a medium of communication because it is a type of art that is audiovisual which between the audience and the mastermind who play it will occur direct communication contacts so that it can create rides that can strengthen their fellow communities. Puppet can also be said to be a medium of communication that is very close to the daily life of society, because the puppet has some elements of its values. The elements of such values include: element of entertainment value, art value, education and lighting value, knowledge value, Rokhani value, music and symbolical (Sugito 1992). One of the educational values that can be intualized by Art media puppet through the story or Lakon (whether the story is inserted or with specific stories/plays) at the moment is: religious value, love of cleanliness and environment, honest, caring and the value of love of homeland.
Wayang art is known in various regions in Indonesia (both extinct and still preserved), one of which is Palembang. Although not clear since when and from where the origin of "Wayang Palembang", but a clear based on some relics that can still be found (one example is the story manuscript puppet) the existence of the wayang Palembang seems to have existed in the past (including the era of Available online in http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/jmis Some sources say that the wayang Palembang is almost the same as the leather puppet in Java, so it can be suspected that the wayang Palembang originated from Java. The difference with Puppet in Java one of which is the language used by a puppeteer in grabbing the message, that is using the Malay language Palembang. The existence of Palembang puppet shows the existence of a meeting or contact culture that eventually creates acculturation and syncretization of culture, so that the translocal culture that mingle with the local culture can be buried in a puppet art.
At this moment it seems that the era of Palembang puppet can be said to be drowned or almost extinct. This is very concern because wayang art is one of the wealth of traditional art as a cultural heritage that needs to be preserved. This article will briefly review the existence of Palembang puppet that is suspected to have been very popular during the Sultanate of Palembang.

Palembang Puppet presence: Historical perspective
Palembang can be said as an heir of the arts that exist on the northern coast of Java island, such as music and drama art. According to the RMH Nato Dirajo, which is still a descendant of Palembang, this happened because the kingdom of Palembang became subordinate to Majapahit kingdom since 1365.
After Ki Gede ing Temayan (officials from Java) came to Palembang in the 16th century, the language of the island of Java became a social language among the Keraton community of Palembang. In later times, the term commonly used in Java island such as the great country (the main area of the Kingdom) and Mancanagara (provincial region) became known and used in general. The princes usually control the territory Mancanagara the Kingdom of Palembang on the upstream and downstream. At that time, the foreign territory of the Kingdom of Palembang includes areas that are also inhabited by Besemah tribe (Kartomi 2012). About since when the existence of Wayang Palembang, until now has not found many sources that mention for sure. However, one source mentions that at the time of Ario Damar (Ariodillah) ruling in Palembang (1455-1486M) There have been a set of tools in puppet Show and a "Dalang" (Boedanani 1961 Wayang Palembang is actually a culture and art that has a distinctive character compared to the Javanese leather puppets Purwa origin. Unfortunately, the Palembang puppet show has lost its successor generation because the last puppeteer of the Palembang puppet using the Malay language dialogue, Ki Agus Rusdi Rashid, has passed away. Currently, there is practically no successor generation who mastered the puppet (Houtman 2017, 850). Other iformations mentioned about the art of puppet show in Palembang.

One of the information mentioned that the art of Wayang was brought to
Palembang by the son of Sunan Kudus (one of the Wali Songo propagation of Islam in Java) named Mas Syahid (titled Panembahan Palembang) and Mas Nurdin (titled Prince of Palembang) (Iskandar 1986).
Regardless of which is right from some of the above sources, a lot of evidence suggests that the existence of wayang art in Palembang is sourced from the writing tradition that produces literary works, in the form of puppet story manuscripts. This shows that the art of wayang once existed in the past in Palembang, the era of Palembang Sultanate, colonial era, even post independence.
One source mentioned that in 1819 when there was a Menteng war where the Sultanate of Palembang fought against the Dutch colonial and won by the Sultanate, then the people of Palembang then held a celebration with the performances Puppet show at Beteng Kuto Besak for seven days and seven nights and cut the buffalo as much as 40 tails.
It can be said that the art of wayang originating from Java is what spawned the art of "Wayang Palembang". The phenomenon can be understood by the paradigm of "acculturation". According to Herskovits DKK (SJ 1984).
Acculturation is defined as "... Those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either on both groups ".
It can be said that the contact gives birth to the process of impersonation, unification, alteration of various cultural elements that come from the outside with cultural elements that have existed in the recipient society. As known, "Wayang Palembang" is a leather puppet as it is in Java, but in terms of language usage, "mastermind" puppet Palembang using Malay language Palembang. Besides, there are puppet figures that are given the title as well as the title in Palembang such as "Ki Agus Petruk", "Ki Agus Gareng" and so on.

Palembang Wayang Manuscripts
Based on some references there can be known that Palembang puppet story is divided into two types that are written in Javanese script and Arabic script. In the Museum Balaputra Dewa saved one manuscript of Javaneselanguage puppet titled Parta Krama. The text is narrated about the marriage between Arjuna and Dewi Supraba from Kayangan.
Palembang Puppet story script that is Arabic-language can be met in National Library RI numbered ML 235. The manuscript is not titled and contains three texts. The first text is a puppet story titled Bambang To ' Seno. The second text is a poem titled The Poem Sarikat Islam, and the third text is a puppet story titled Bambang Gandawardaya (Behrend 1998).
In the manuscript the text is composed of two types of writings, so it is thought that the author of the text consists of two authors. The first page up to page 30 seems to have been written by the script of the Islamic Poetry Company, the text is written in a very tightly so that it is less pronounced legible but seems neat and orderly. As for the text on page 31 to page 55 it seems to be written by the text-encoding Bambang To ' Seno with a somewhat less regular writing.
Colofon in the first text reads "End to 3 three months of Jumadil early night Sunday at 3 1/2 the existence of the year 1336 is then is the one who wrote this is a pack Ahmad in Kampung 3 Ulu" In addition to the manuscripts stored in the library and Museum, there are also puppet manuscripts that are stored by several manuscript owner's heirs in Palembang. The manuscripts that some Palembang people keep are:

The Saga of Pendawa Lima
This

Puppet Story
The manuscript is a collection of H. M Zainuddin Syawaluddin. The condition of the manuscript has been of concern. The beginning and end of text is hard to read. The intent of the text is also difficult to understand. In the middle of the manuscript there is a picture of puppet which is described in it that Raden  about the traditional arts of Palembang (Haryanto 1988 From the color display aspect of Wayang Palembang also has differences with Javanese puppet. Javanese puppet has a golden color, while the wayang Palembang has copper yellow color. Other differences are also found in the performance aspects of the staging. The music used in the puppet staging of Palembang uses the gamelan which is the punch moves from left to right. This then produces a different sound with Javanese puppet music which blows on the gamelings moving from right to left (Margono, Sumardi, Astono 2007).
Generally, the mastermind in Palembang such as Ki Agus Rusdi Rasheed (ALM) who had played a role in the art of Wayang Palembang does not lose his skills or expertise to his descendants, so that the successor of Palembang's mastermind can be said no more.
The above facts are certainly very concern, because the art of "puppet" is one of traditional art richness that has been designated as cultural heritage should remain preserved. Therefore, there should be efforts from various parties Wayang Palembang performances has a uniqueness and a good peculiarity in the language of introduction performed by the puppeteer, the display of its own, or the performance devices, including the duration of the timing of the introduction. This shows the harmonious acculturation and adaptation between Javanese culture and Palembang Malay culture.
Unfortunately, the golden days of Palembang puppet began to dim and ended in 1980, along with the death of last Palembang puppet mastermind. It can be said that at this time Palembang puppet era already drowned or extinct, either because there is no successor or cadres that preserve it, and also because of the shift or even competition with modern culture, such as the dominance of modern "pop" art More entertaining. Various people who were once filled by the show room "Wayang Palembang" has been ambushed by the show "Organ Tunggal".
This occurs in almost all regencies and sub-districts in South Sumatera, including the city of Palembang.
On the other side of the young generation in South Sumatra, especially the Palembang city, it is also no longer interested to pursue traditional art in Palembang puppet show because it is considered less attractive, outdated, not promising income, and so on. Meanwhile, apparently from the local government in this case related to the field of culture has not had a concrete agenda to preserve one of the traditional cultural richness. We hope that someday we have a caring party and called to revitalize Palembang puppet art.