Wayang Kulit is a traditional Indonesian shadow puppet theater that originated in Central Java. The puppeteer, called a dalang, manipulates leather puppets backlit by an oil lamp and tells stories from epic poems accompanied by a gamelan orchestra. The dalang voices all the characters and engages the audience through humor and flexibility. Good characters are placed on the right side of the stage area while bad characters are on the left.

1. INDONESIAN
THEATER

2. SHADOW PUPPET is a
well-known Indonesian
Theater popular not only in
their own country but
spread in several countries
around the world.

3. SHADOW PUPPET

4. WAYANG KULIT
WAYANG KULIT in Central Java is one of
the oldest continuous traditions of
storytelling in the world which includes the
use of puppet materials and background
musical accompaniment to make it
interesting audience.

5. WAYANG is an
Indonesian and Malay
word for “Theater”.
Puppet itself is called
wayang.

6. KULIT means skin and refers
to the leather construction of
the puppets that are carefully
cut into fine tools and
supported with carefully
shaped buffalo horn handles

7. THE
PERFORMANCE

8. •Audience is the most important person in Wayang
Kulit performance.
•The Dalang prepares all the materials used like cloth
and the light for shadow.
•The puppet on the right side signifies good character.
On the left side signifies the bad.
•The open space between them about 2 meters
represents the stage.

9. THE DALANG
• The puppeteer
• Characterized by his being creative, humorous, and
flexible.
• He manipulates the puppets, sings, and taps out the
signals to the orchestra.
• He speaks the parts of all the characters.
• The use of voice interchangeably is the main ability
of a dalang to give more life to a different character.

10. THE DALANG
• The chief performer who told a story to the
accompaniment of gamelan ensemble.

11. •WAYANG KULIT was performed
in royal court and widely
performed in public on religious
occasions so that knowledge of
wayang became widespread among
classes in JAVA.

12. THE MUSIC OF GAMELAN
•A Gamelan ensemble is compromised
mainly by bronze percussion
instruments augmented by other
percussion intruments, string, and a
flute.

13. JAVANESE GAMELAN
•SARON – Xylophone of heavy bronze
bars
•GENDER – bronze xylophone with
resonance chambers beneath
•BONANG – set of bronze bowls

14. SARON GENDER BONANG

15. JAVANESE GAMELAN
•GONG AND KEMPUL – hanging
gongs
•KENUNG AND KETUK – single
inverted bronze bowl
•GAMBANG – wooden xylophone

16. GONG & KEMPUL GAMBANG
KENONG & KETUNG

17. JAVANESE GAMELAN
•REBAB– Two-stringed fiddle
•SULING– flute
•KENDANG– horizontal drum beat
with the fingers on both ends.
•TJELEMPUNG – a zither of thirteen
double strings.

18. REBAB SULING KENDANG TJELEMPUNG

19. SULUK
• The dalang sings the mood songs (Suluk) at
regular intervals during the performance
• Suluk are never accompanied by the full
gamelan ensemble.
• Often a single instrument accompanies the
singer, never more than three or four.

20. WAYANG KULIT