UC Berkeley

This dissertation concerns topeng Cirebon, an old, virtuosic masked dance that once flourished along Java's northwest coast, and the realities of today. It asks how the Cirebonese people reconcile the growing prevalence of conservative Islam in the region with the idea of public performance. The orthodox Muslim world's doctrinal injunctions on human representation have only recently impacted this gendered form, in which women may wear masks and portray male and female characters. Islam's resurgence has inspired a debate, with artists now questioning their allegiance to a form seemingly at odds with their faith. Some dancers have modified their costumes to suggest conformity with local views of piety. This seemingly radical shift, in fact, is consonant with topeng's long history of adapting to political and religious tensions that are traceable to Dutch hegemony in the region and later fortified under Indonesia's first two presidents, Sukarno and Soeharto. The eventual ban on itinerant performance in the region after 1965 depleted topeng of much of its interiority, while forging a secular landscape where it came to symbolize Indonesian nationalist identity, domestically and abroad. I argue that topeng's sacred topography hinges on the master performer's fine-tuned capacity to translate and adapt to her surroundings, even when the conditions are inhospitable. The material culture associated with topeng is central to the story. Topeng's longevity has been dependent upon its geographical and functional mobility. While this form has long been associated with ritual in the Cirebonese imaginary, the mask's trajectory in Java has enjoyed an even longer affiliation as a popular entertainment. This accessibility made the mask multivalent, as an entertainment and an instrument of proselytizing during conversions to Islam in sixteenth century Java. How this translation occurred and how it is understood today is the basis of this study.