Exploring Jombang’s Wayang Potehi
The oldest potehi ever found in Indonesia is archived in a temple in the Chinese kampung
in Gudo village, Jombang. The kampung was officiated by the colonial Dutch government
in September 1889 after the establishment of a sugar mill near the area. Since the establishment of this sugar mill, immigrants from Fujian had been coming to Gudo to work. One of the immigrants that arrived from Fujian was Tok Su Kwie. He was a sehu
(puppet master) of a potehi group called Fu He An. Today, his grandson, Tok Hok Lay
or Toni Harsono, is continuing his legacy.
Potehi are cloth puppets that originated during the 17th century in Quanzhou or Zhangzhou of China's Fujian province. In Fujian, it also goes by the name bùdàixì. By the 18th century, potehi came to Indonesia. Potehi is performed both as entertainment and media for rituals. It is usually performed in Imlek (Chinese New Year) as a leisure for everyone in kampung or as a media for buka giling ritual, that marks the beginning of production season in the sugar mill. The potehi group Fu He An performed beyond Jombang; they even performed in Surabaya in 1933, as documented by a sketch that’s now displayed in Leiden museum.
Potehi tells so many stories or as they call it in Hokkien language, siu lam pek.
From Buddhist stories like Xīyóujì or Journey to the West, to love and heroic stories
adapted to Javanese culture from Hokkien, like Si Jin Kwee or Joko Sudiro.
However, the heyday of potehi found its challenge as it was affected by the
President Decree number 14 in 1967 when the government of Indonesia banned
any practice of Chinese-related culture. From 1967 to 2004, performing Potehi
means performing in secret or only in temples.
In 2004, when this ban was lifted, potehi started to flourish again. Toni wanted the people of Gudo got back to breathing in the art of making potehi puppets and performing again.
So he slowly offered an ethical price point to buy the puppets from the crafters, who at
that time, worked full time as gravestone carvers or builders. Today, Toni leads a team of five potehi crafters, some Sehu, and a potehi group, under the name that has been flourishing for more than 100 years, Fu He An. This summer, Fu He An is doing a Europe tour,
performing potehi with Italy as the first stop.
Continuing his family legacy, Toni and other sehu consistently nurture the existence of potehi through playing the music with the youth, sharing the stories in both Hokkien and Javanese, and performing potehi everywhere - from the east to the west.
