Saturday, September 20, 2008

Wayang Golek

Wayang golek are wooden doll puppets that are used for story telling originated from West Java. In the 18th century this traditional story telling moved into the mountains of West Java where it eventually was used to tell stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabarata, the famous Hindu epic. In Sunda, this performance is now called wayang golek purwa, which can be found in Bandung and Bogor. The puppeteer in wayang performance is called dalang. Now, the most famous wayang golek puppeteer family is the Sunarya family.

2 comments:

Hilda said...

Those are gorgeously elaborate costumes — love them! I hope the Indonesian embassy brings one of your puppet shows here. I'd love to be able to watch a performance!

Kim said...

Harry, Lovely photo of these exquisite puppets. My husband used to carve puppets and we loved to go to all kinds of puppet theater, enjoying performances of many famous international puppeteer troops. Although I did not see these, I did see the famous Indonesian shadow puppet plays when that troupe came to the SF Bay Area. The stories are wonderful and the artistry amazing. Puppet theater has such a rich history in many counties, its a shame most people think of it as for children, because it is actually theater for all ages. These are gorgeous!
-Kim
Seattle Daily Photo