Obama puppet with the 'tree of life'
Living in Lebanon, I’ve been missing playing Javanese gamelan with my friends back home–but I’m comforted to know that gamelan music has been played in Beirut before. In the video above, a Lebanese cedar tree seems to float over a gamelan performance in Beirut like the “Tree of Life,”–a central “puppet” used in Javanese shadow puppet plays.
In the photo to the left, and in this video from our gamelan performance at Asia Society, you can see an Obama “puppet” standing next to a “tree of life.” Decorated on both sides, the “tree of life” has an aesthetic power that is not fully appreciated if it’s viewed only its shadow form.
Though the “tree of life” generally represents life and the cosmos, it holds a number of symbolic meanings and functions throughout a shadow puppet play. For example, it helps to demarcate time and space–by announcing scene changes, and representing various landscapes–like mountains and lakes.
Hopefully, one day soon, the gamelan will return to Beirut–and bring with it a “tree of life”–to greet the Cedars of Lebanon…
Shadow puppets from central Java (University of Hawaii Dept. of Theater and Dance)
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