Wayang

Wayang (Puppets)

Puppets have been used for centuries in Indonesia to tell the stories of the ancient epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabarata, as well as ancient myths. Modern stories also utilize this ancient art form for contemporary audiences.
Puppets fall into two major classifications - wayang kulit - the leather or shadow puppet of Central Java, and wayang golek - wooden puppets of West Java. There are several varieties of wooden puppets. Some expats enjoy collecting the same character by various artisans, or all the characters in a scene or story, or just characters that strike their fancy. Good guys, bad guys, gods, demons, nobles, giants, clowns, princes and princesses and monkeys ... all can be found in traditional puppet forms.
Less commonly seen are the Wayang Klitik, a flat wooden puppet.


Wayang Golek


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!

Traditional Dress from Indonesia

In general, the people wear clothes that are similar to western style. They wear traditional dress on special occasions.

Men: Indonesian men generally wore sarongs (usually with a checkered pattern) in the home. In public, the sarong is worn only when attending Friday prayers at the mosque. For formal national occasions, the men wear batik shirts with trousers or teluk beskap, a combination of the Javanese jacket and sarong.

Women: For formal occasions, Indonesian women wear the kebaya -- a beautiful, figure-hugging embroidered blouse worn with a batik sarong that is usually dyed with flower motifs and in bright colours. On these occasions, women often tied their hair into a bun, or attached a false hairpiece. In addition, they may drape a long stretch of cloth, called "selendang", over one shoulder. This cloth can be used as a head shawl or on less formal occasions, used to carry babies or objects.

Traditional Dress: Indonesia has 300 ethnic groups; each has their own traditional dress variations.

• The Minangkabau ethnic group is indigenous to the highlands of West Sumatra. Their traditional dress consists of silk robes with metallic thread woven into the material. Their headdress is shaped like buffalo horns.
  
  
• The Toraja people live in the mountainous areas of South Sulawesi (Celebes). The women's traditional costume features elaborate beadwork and tassels.