Wayang Kulit

The ` Wayang kulit` is a shadow  play. This show is very popular in java. The `Wayang kulit`  performance needs a screen, three or  four banana trees , puppets , Javanese musical  instruments  , Javanese musicians and singers , and a `Dalang` .at night three is a special lamp. Under the screen are the banana strees.

        The `Dalang` stick the handles of the puppets on these banana strees so the puppets can stand.  The puppets the `Dalang`  the Javanese musicians and singers , and the lamp are in front of the screen while the spectators are behind  the screen so during the show they can see the shadow of the puppets on the screen . the puppets are made of leather. There are two groups of puppets, good characters and bad . the good characters are on the right-hand side of the `Dalang` while the bad characters are on the left-hand side. During the show these two sides of characters fight againsteach other and at the end the good characters always win. It takes about nine hours to perform the `Wayang kulit`.

     The `Dalang` is the most important person in the whole show. He has several duties.  He moves the puppets , tells the story, imitates the dialogues of the characters, sings, and controls the musicians and the singers. Therefore, a `Dalang`  must be a very healthy man. He must be able to sit crooslegged during the show.

     The story of the `wayang kulit` performance is from either the `ramayana` or the `mahabrata`. These stories are actually ancient india stories. In `Ramayana` the hero is `Rama`. He leads the fight against the giant with ten faces called rahwana. A white monkey called hanoman helps him during the war. In `Mahabrata`  the good characters are the pandawa family. This family consist of five brothers,namely ; puntadewa, the oldest brothers, bratasena, harjuna, nakula, and sadewa. On the other hand, their counsins, the kurawa, are bad characters. The kurawa family consists of one hundred brothers, and the oldest one is suyudana or kurupati. These two families always quarrel and the winner is always the pandawa family.