The Encoded Cirebon Mask: Materiality, Flow, and Meaning Along Java's Islamic Northwest Coast

In The Encoded Cirebon Mask: Materiality, Flow, and Meaning along Java’s Islamic Northwest Coast, Laurie Margot Ross situates masks and masked dancing in the Cirebon region of Java (Indonesia) as an original expression of Islam. This is a different view from that of many scholars, who argue that canonical prohibitions on fashioning idols and imagery prove that masks are mere relics of indigenous beliefs that Muslim travelers could not eradicate. Making use of archives, oral histories, and the performing objects themselves, Ross traces the mask’s trajectory from a popular entertainment in Cirebon―once a portal of global exchange―to a stimulus for establishing a deeper connection to God in late colonial Java, and eventual links to nationalism in post-independence Indonesia.

Laurie Margot Ross, PhD is the Director of Glocal Matters, a research center in upstate New York, which focuses on inter-Asian studies at the nexus of religion, visual culture, and performance. She is an expert on masks, particularly their psycho-physiological impact on the mask wearer and audience.