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The symbol of the Javanese Puppet Theatre which I had found the most interesting and intriguing culturally to me was the Gunungan, or sometimes referred to as Kekayon. The Gunungan represents the "Tree of Life," the Javanese people's cultural reference to cosmic creation, and their appreciation of life in this world. Trees to the Javanese symbolize creatures which give wisdom, helping to interpret the celebration of life religiously, sexually, ethically, philosophically, aesthetically, politically, and economically. The “Tree of Life” serves as the self-perfecting symbol of life, world, and God. This concept of life serves as the check-list to reach eternal peace for the Javanese. Though this idea could be interpreted in depth starting from the interior of the tree, working to the top, but what really interested me the most about the Gunungan were the character's cultural similarity. The “Tree of Life” shows human spiritual growth as the Javanese perceive it, yet the characters found on the beginning/ending Gunungan puppet, ironically correlating to the Chinese's calendar of characters. The puppet master in the Java puppetry theatre would use the “Tree of Life” to show the conclusion of the story, signaling the end of the production. This symbol shows the passage of history from one Javanese to another just as the branches show the climb from human life to eternal life, finally reaching such idea of “Nirvana.” The Chinese Buddhists practiced this idea of “Nirvana,” and in the Chinese Calendar the characters that are shared in common with that of the Javanese “Tree of Life” are the monkey, tiger, bull, and dragon. More could be extracted and examined in depth, yet the figures shared in each the Java and Chinese cultures are characters that represent strength and power. This idea and shared spiritual growth of characters intrigued me immensely. Mostly because of the difference between the two cultures, but for that diverse difference, the similarities each share independently have become that much more prominent. The animal symbols that consist in each culture's view of the soul, show a link between man and nature despite cultural differences. That the Javanese and Buddhist view on the afterlife were similar, and even somewhat the same in aspects regarding the self-perfecting transition from human into a spiritually enlightened being. The usage of the same animals for each culture made me determined to find the reason for my questions, yet the idea is simple. We as humans, no matter what cultural belief we grow up following all have the feeling of sin, and as humans we want to obtain freedom from such sin even if we were to be placed into animals. Though those animal characters found in the Javanese and Chinese “spiritual ladder” represent, the most righteous, and closest in naturalistic beauty to that of God's own self. As the poem, “The Tiger” by William Blake hints, the animal most fearsome of all can, and could be the most beautiful thing one could imagine. The Java Gunungan interests me so much more now because of the diverse cultures it derives from, yet similar emphasis it shares with that of the Chinese can't help but make one wonder the value of the monkey, tiger, bull, and dragon. These spiritual symbols found in not just one, but two different cultures hold power over the human spirit, and speak deeply of the vastness of the world in which we live to free ourselves from, in the eternal end.