Jatayu: Sacred and Symbolic Wayang Character

Ron Beck, Independent Wayang Researcher and Collector, 2024. Photos by Michael Spencer.

In two forms of Wayang theatre -? Wayang Kulit shadow puppetry and Wayang Golek rod puppet shows, the Wayang character Jatayu provides some striking, majestic, and distinctive examples.

The eagle, vulture and other birds of prey, have sacred and mystical importance in many cultural traditions.?? Jatayu and Garuda assume that cultural and spiritual role in South and Southeast Asian cultures. ?

You only have to get up close and personal with a few of these massive “birds of prey,”? (the order Accipitres), to understand the sense of power, wonder, and almost mystical strength that these creatures imparted on the indigenous cultures from whom the concept of power and godliness in the form of these birds arose originally.? Not the least, especially in the centuries before man invented airplanes, the freedom and mystery of the sky. (A great place to get a feeling for that is the peerless Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka, Alaska, coincidentally one of the closest North American spots to Southeast Asia)

And also politically.? In 1782, the US Congress chose the bald eagle as the US National symbol.? In Indonesia, at the other side of the globe, the new Indonesian nation, selected the Garuda (a Javan hawk-eagle) as the key element of their national seal in 1950.?? ?

Wayang (the tradition of theatrical story telling in Java) which is deeply embedded in Javanese culture, provides a powerful visual window into the importance of Jatayu and Garuda in Javanese beliefs and culture, in the Balinese tradition (the “lord of all flying creatures” in Bali) and by extension their importance to Indonesia as a country and Indonesia’s cultural identity.? You don’t have to look further than banners flying across Indonesia every independence day and the coat of arms on Indonesian government uniforms and buildings, and of course the name of the national airline,? to understand how deeply these characters are intertwined with the national identity.

Unraveling though, the origin, specific meaning, and role of individual Wayang puppets and masks and their iconography is murky.?? The Wayang puppet character representing Garuda is pretty universally called “Jatayu” and is used somewhat interchangeably when Jatayu or Garuda comes up in a puppet narrative (“Lakon”).??Garuda is an important character in old Hindu texts and the narratives of the Mahabharata, and it is inferred that the character known as Jatayu derives from the emergence of Hinduism in Nusantara, most likely after the year 1000 and somewhere before the 1500s. But Garuda in Indonesia far transcends a Hindu take on it.

The importance of birds as spiritual objects must precede any modern religion in Java. And that partially explains why Jatayu almost always appears in a puppet performance "set" in the possession Dalangs working in the Wayang Cepak and Menak style.

(Wayang Menak is the puppet style that centers around the stories in the "Menak Amir Hamza," a Javanese translation/adaption of the Amir Hamza stories written initially in Persian. The Persian epic story, the Hamzanama, relates how Amir Hamza travels widely and proselytizes Islam across the near East. In the Javanese version, the "Wali Songo," the patron saints of Islam in Java, are melded into that original Amir Hamza story.)

The inclusion of Jatayu in the Wayang Menak puppet "Lakon" (stories), transcends any specific religious connotation, and is more associated with a timeless need to have the powerful and magical Garuda available for certain Javanese ritual performances.? (See an article from 2000 by Matthew Cohen, "The Barikan Banner of Gegesik, in the journal Archipel" which discusses the magical and traditional properties of Garuda and the general topic of, as Cohen describes it, "The nominal notion of time" and the idea of an "omni-temporal" character or episode).

And also, the iconography of Jatayu diverges somewhat in several directions:

?In the northern Javanese traditional Wayang Cepak puppet forms, the wings of Jatayu are represented on the articulated arms of the wooden Wayang puppet, an inventive way to empower the Dalang to elegantly convey Jatayu in flight with his wings moving smoothly.?

Also, in the Wayang Cepak versions of Jatayu, the figures tend more towards being anthropomorphic.? ?Jatayu, as a Wayang Cepak character, is uniquely defined, by the stylized feathers carved and painted into his body and in some cases head, by his pronounced and toothed beak, and by his wings carved into the articulated arms.?

I have one older Wayang Cepak that probably dates before 1900, in which the beak is highly exaggerated, but I also have another interesting rendition, created probably in early-mid 20th century, in which the beak is much more restrained.? In many examples, Jatayu’s beak is carved to exaggerate the anthropomorphic nature of the character, in which the character is brought to life, seemingly in the midst of talking, sometime menacingly, sometimes authoritatively, and sometimes conversationally.?

In the Wayang Golek Purwa style of wooden Wayang puppets, the wings are often outstretched, and quite clearly more carved to be decorative than to be of practical convenience in performance.? The common narrative among students of Wayang, is that these majestic Wayang Purwa have been created purely as tourist objects.? But there are other Wayang characters, for instance some of the Raksasa (or giants) who are really too heavy to be used vigorously by the, often slight in build, Dalang during a long performance, and are therefore planted for most or all of a performance on the banana log that is used to display those characters not in the center of the action at any point during the performance.? So that is an alternative view of why these oversized and elaborate characters exist.

In Wayang Kulit shadow puppetry, it is easier to show the wings extended, since they are made of leather and therefore lighter and easier to manipulate in performance, and, truly, they become imposing and important characters in that context.? Some of the older Wayang Cepak sets which are intact incorporate a Wayang Kulit version of both Jatayu and Naga (who was Jatayu’s opponent in the traditional Mahabharata stories), which were sometimes used in concert with the Wayang Cepak puppets during performances.

Across all of these forms and variations, though, Jatayu cuts an important and imposing figure. A Dalang (the puppet performers and "masterminds") spends years learning his art and theater. Part of it is learning the stories, but a bigger and more subtle part is the essence of each character, how the character moves and carries oneself on the Wayang stage, but also the tone of his speech and talking, the cadence, the weight of the words. Given that attention to detail and to delivery, it's interesting that there is so much variety in the way Jatayu is conveyed in the art form. This speaks to a complex and sometimes contradictory character, just as the culture and voice of Java as a culture, and Indonesia as a political entity, can be. You can see, just from a few of the examples I have reproduced here in this blog, that Jatayu's aura and essence varies. From attention grabbing and menacing, in the character at the head of the article, to powerful and influential in the next image, to friendly and wistful in the third, action oriented in the next two, and possibly even mischievous in the final shadow puppet shown here below.

Next time you get the chance to visit Jakarta, Bali, or anywhere across Java, take notice how often and in how many different settings Garuda/Jatayu appears, and in how many different contexts.

In my opinion, at the very heart of it, it shows that below the surface, in Indonesia, there is a strong spiritual and supernatural underpinning to the identity and culture that the complex society of today is built on. At the very least, Jatayu seems to come to life, in a powerful way, in the many examples I have in my personal collection.

Also read my other Wayang blogs on:

Rahwana https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/rons-wayang-blog-2-rahwana-ron-beck/

Semar https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/quintessential-wayang-golek-semar-ron-beck/