Wayang performance

The play can be performed outside or inside, with the puppets being moved against a central white cloth screen that is lit up by an oil lamp or, in recent times, by an electric light.


The audience can sit anywhere around the screen, but where they sit usually depends on who they are and on their social status. Explain that in our theatres too, people can sometimes pay more for better seats.

wayang as education

The size and nature of the puppets depends on their character and station in life -as an ordinary person, god or demon. The puppeteer or dalang will have the good puppet characters (‘halus’ or ‘refined’) standing in the gedebog or banana trunk to his right and the bad puppet characters (‘kasar’ or ‘coarse’) to his left. This connects with the idea underlying wayang kulit that in every person

wayang kulit as indonesia culture

Wayang kulit is a famous traditional form of puppetry in Indonesia, mainly in Java and Bali. ‘Wayang’ means ‘shadow’ in Javanese and ‘kulit’ means leather or skin. ‘Wayang’ has come to mean ‘puppet’ in Bahasa Indonesia, and is applied to the three forms of Javanese puppets: wayang kulit (shadow puppets), wayang klitik (flat wood puppets), and wayang golek (rod puppets).


The wayang kulit art