Template:Punokawan
Punokawan – (Servants) – All stories
In the world of puppetry, there is a term called sedulur papat lima pancer, sedulur papat is punokawan, and lima pancer is Ksatria (Pandawa knights). This means that the term sedulur papat lima pancer is a symbol of a knight and his four servants.
The Punokawan characters are Semar, and his three children, namely Gareng, Petruk and Bagong (Cepot).
Semar is known as the caretaker and advisor of the Saptaarga descendants. In the puppet story, Punokawan are loyal guards of the knights who have wise/good characters.
In the shadow puppet show, these four characters usually appear in goro-goro. Their presence often makes the audience laugh. By the puppeteers, these punokawan are indeed played with jokes. But behind their jokes, there are actually advice, suggestions and criticisms. Therefore, Punokawan plays an important role, because they often determine the direction of the knights they guard.
The four of them are called Panakawan, and in Mahabharata they are the servants of the five Pandhawa brothers (Javanese version). In the Ramayana epic they are the servants of Rama and Laksmana (Javanese version).
If the puppet performance takes place during the daytime (in the villages of Java shadow puppet shows happen during the day or the night), the character Bagong usually does not appear with Semar, Gareng and Petruk, but if the puppet performance takes place at night all four will appear together. This generally has to do with the fact that the daytime performances are shorter than the all-night shows.
Blog: Hadisukirno – Yogyakarta - 2012
