My Achilles Heel

Wayang Golek is a traditional form of puppetry from Sunda, West Java. Unlike flat leather shadow puppets, these puppets are made from wood, and being three-dimensional do not use a screen. The puppetts are ornate with colourful costumes, and have moveable arms and head.

The puppetteer sits on the floor behind a low "table" on which the puppetts perform. The shows are performed for at least six hours during the night, accompanied by gamelan music, with speech and singing to tell the story. This music is quite unlike the traditional court music from Solo, for example, and contains much banter and sound effects!

The stories are usually based on the epic stories of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the show is only a small part of the whole epic. In Indonesia, people are familiar with the different characters appearing in the stories, which can be recognised by the size, shape, colour and angle of their eyes and nose and the way they walk, talk, sing, dance and fight. Kinds of wayang golek : hanoman, cepot, gareng, sugriwa, gatot kaca,bima, batara kala, anila and anjani.

Subject : Cross Cultural Understanding

Lecture: Cunong N, Suharja, Drs., M. Hum.