wayang golek

Indonesian-Javanese. ‘Traditional performance of puppets’ or simply ‘puppet show’. A kind of puppet theatre from Java, that uses wooden puppets, which are manipulated from below, rather than with a string from above, similar to the hun lakon lek (fig.) from Thailand. It derives from the Javanese shadow-play theatre, which is known as wayang kulit, and literally translates as ‘leather puppets’, since shadow puppets are traditionally cut from buffalo hide. The name is also used to refer to the puppets themselves. The term wayang-style derives from it and usually refers to certain two-dimensional art forms, such as painting or batik, in which mythological and religious characters, both humans, animals and supernatural beings, are depicted as Indonesian shadow puppet-like figures. 回