Completed shadow puppet ready for painting.Īfter the puppet is carved it is painted, the colours each have significant meaning, creating the essence of the puppet’s character red= love, spirit and motivation, blue= loyalty and control, black= Power and strength, gold= Amnesty, green= hope and prosperity, pink= happiness and many more. It takes at least ten days to make just one puppet. Not only the hide is from buffalo, they use the horn to make the supporting rods and bone to make the rivets holding the moving parts of the puppet together. The puppet makers I saw used stencils and cut the hide with Knives and chisels, motorcycle spokes had been made into varied shaped and sized chisels and were used, showing me the intricacy of the process. Special cured buffalo hide is used, not from agricultural animals, where they might be whipped and their hide scarred, but from buffalo raised in East Java, where they grow healthy and strong. Detail of man chiseling the hide to create minutely detailed, symbolic pattern.
#Wayang kulit shadow puppetry skin
Wayang, in modern Indonesian language, is loosely translated to mean puppet, Kulit means skin or leather, the material from which the figures are carved. I was told there are 150 different human characters, 100 God and Ganesh and nearly 100 animal characters. Three men were hammering away on their benches, making intricate incisions into buffalo hide, the Shadow puppets already cut into shape and recognisable as characters. Tatang and his friends in the workshop.Īny way we arrived safely at the workshop where we were greeted by his friends and invited inside. So I had the experience of motorcycling through central Yogya with all the other traffic and mayhem! Holding on wasn’t a problem, but cornering and knowing what to do with ones body when there was a change of direction made me a little nervous. My hesitation only lasted a minute, I felt a bit obliged, but I trusted him.
There in front was parked his motorcycle and he expected me to get on, telling me it wasn’t a long journey and I’d be fine. Little did I know what he had in store for me ! We met outside the central Post Office then we walked a little way. He was taking me to a shadow puppet carving workshop, owned by a friend. Today I took a taxi in to the centre of Yogya to meet Tatang, who had been to the market to buy silk.
Detail of the head of puppet, showing the intricate carving and chiseling.
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