Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppets) - Part 1: Introduction

The Puppet shows: Audience among gods. (right to left : Guru, Kamajaya, Narada, Wisnu & Yamadipati) Wayang Kulit is probably the most famous and imaginative form of Indonesian Wayang. Finely carved and painted thin leather puppets move behind a white linnen screen, such that the audience on the other side of the screen sees the shadows only. Kulit means leather. Thick and specifically treated Water Buffalo leather is manually cut out, engraved, ciseled with amazing detail and finally hand-painted. Movable limbs are joined with leather bolts and even the handles are made from the long horns of the same Water Buffaloes.

Gamelan music orchestra accompanying the puppet shows.

Gamelan music orchestra accompanying the puppet shows. Gamelan music is now quite familiar to Western ears, Wayang Kulit (shadow puppets) less so. Both are traditional in Java and the two are inextricably mixed, the music accompanying the puppet shows. The two great Indian epics, Ramayana and Mahabarata, captured the imagination of nearly every culture in Southeast Asia which had contact with Indians. Both of these epics have been with the Javanese since the influence of India was first felt during the first century A.D. Coming centuries ago from the snowcapped Himalayas to the warm plains and snow free mountains of Indonesia, the original epic has of necessity undergone many drastic changes, affecting not only geographical and personal names, but also the story itself. Both epics are the basis of the most important wayang kulit stories, now called wayang purwa. These lakon or stories number as many as two hundred. In the process of Javanese oral tradition, the stories serve as a bare outline and have been transformed into entirely Javanese versions. Now one often refer to these as Rama cycle for the Ramayana and Pendawa cycle for the Mahabarata.

Gamelan sets The traditional gamelan orchestra accompanies the dalang, who manipulates the puppets from behind on the same side of the screen, providing a nearly continuous music appropriate to each scene. Though the dalang never looks back at them, and nearly never says a word to the music players, each of them seems to know precisely what to do. The gamelan orchestra consists of a large array of bronze and percussion instruments which are of two different tunings, quite different in character, named slendro and pelog. There are two musicians in the group who have important functions in the unspoken communication between the dalang and the musicians, the drummer and the gender player. The ways in which the dalang communicates his intentions to the gamelan players is a whole study in itself in the area of the non-verbal communication. Video Wayang kulit performance by Ki Manteb Soedharsono Wayang Kulit (Dewa Ruci by Ki Manteb, 1/10) Wayang Kulit (Dewa Ruci by Ki Manteb, 2/10) Wayang Kulit (Dewa Ruci by Ki Manteb, 3/10) Wayang Kulit (Dewa Ruci by Ki Manteb, 4/10) Wayang Kulit (Dewa Ruci by Ki Manteb, 5/10) Wayang Kulit (Dewa Ruci by Ki Manteb, 6/10) Wayang Kulit (Dewa Ruci by Ki Manteb, 7/10) Wayang Kulit (Dewa Ruci by Ki Manteb, 8/10) Wayang Kulit (Dewa Ruci by Ki Manteb, 9/10) Wayang Kulit (Dewa Ruci by Ki Manteb, 10/10) Website Dewa Ruci - Explanation about Dewa Ruci