Wayang kulit: inside Indonesia's shadow puppet theatre
One puppeteer, a gamelan orchestra and a lamp-lit screen can hold an audience through the night. UNESCO lists wayang among the world's intangible cultural heritage.
Photo: FaizAttariqi / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Wayang kulit is a form of puppet theatre from Java and Bali. The puppets are flat figures cut from buffalo hide, finely perforated and painted, and held on rods. They perform in front of a cotton screen lit from behind, so the audience can watch either the shadows or the puppets themselves.
The dalang
A single puppeteer, the dalang, runs the whole show. Sitting cross-legged behind the screen, the dalang moves dozens of characters, voices each of them, sings, tells jokes and cues the gamelan orchestra with taps on a wooden box. A traditional performance can last from evening until dawn.
The stories
Most plays draw on the Indian epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, retold over centuries with Javanese and Balinese characters and values. Comic servants called punakawan, led by Semar, comment on the action and on everyday life, which keeps the old stories topical.
Recognised by UNESCO
UNESCO proclaimed the wayang puppet theatre a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2003. It was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.
Wayang is still performed at weddings, village celebrations and on television, and young puppeteers compete in dalang festivals around the country.