Monday, May 27, 2013

Jogjakarta Indonesia 2013 - Wayang Kulit House

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Jogjakarta 2013 : House of Wayang Kulit - May 2013
The third day of our Jogjakarta tour  (... see Jogjakarta 2013 : Day 3 - A Day Of Palaces) was an artsy day for us, we had visited Hery's Batik Art Center (see blog), and during the later part of the day went to buy art pieces at the Kasongan area. We had also dropped by at an interesting Sea Shell Craft Shop.
Now we are at the House of Wayang Kulit, a place of the traditional Javanese shadow puppet shows.
The place is just called "The House Of Wayang" as locally the word "Wayang" is synonymous to these shadow puppets. Wayang means theater and Kulit means skin as these puppets are made from buffalo skin (leather).
Wayang Kulit is a puppet show but a different type. One don't see the puppets themselves but only their shadows. 
Cut puppet figurines pending painting.
The puppet are two dimensional but are finely crafted with traditional shapes and many holes in the puppet.
Holes? Yes. Holes.
As one see only the shadows, the puppets have to be finely crafted with holes to let the shine through.
Craftsman slowly and intricately cutting out holes in a leather to form the puppet.
After the cutting, the puppets are painted with nice & colorful patterns. Of course the audience can't see the colors and pattern, this painting is done more as a pride of the craftsmen to show off their artistic nature.


It is a very basic type of entertainment, So the puppets all of the right shape and right position, will let the light shine through for the audience to see a beautiful shadow.

The puppets are controlled not by strings but with sticks stuck to their hands.
AND IT'S SHOWTIME!
A light is shone onto a screen, and the puppets are played in front of the light. The puppets' shadows are thrown onto the screen. The audience watch from the other side. With the puppet master moving the puppets, sometimes the shadows are but a blurry movement.
Other than the human puppets, there are figurines that represents houses and locations. 
Most of the storyline are based on the Hindu epics, such as the Ramayana, etc.
and others that represents mystical creatures, such as the above which perphaps is the Garuda, a creature from Indian folklore.
Evil spirits or monsters are represented by hideous looking puppets.
Puppets in a row.
Here, puppet dolls are also made. These are used in the Wayang Golek puppet show, a different kind of puppet play.
A close-up look of the dolls shows that the makers try their best to paint and use fabric as close to their culture as possible.
Javanese Lady Dancers Puppet Dolls.
Traditionally costumed Javanese Lady Puppet Dolls.
And of course the ugly-looking ones that represents the bad guys.
The Wayang Kulit - a dying traditional art and culture that needs to be preserved.
House Of Wayang,
Ngadisuryan,
KT 1/30 Kec. Kraton,
Jogjarkarta, Indonesia.

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