Wayang golek are wooden doll puppets that are operated from below by rods connected to the hands and a central control rod that runs through the body to the head. The simple construction of the puppets belies their versatility, expressiveness and aptitude for imitating human dance. Little is known for certain about the history of wayang golek, but scholars have speculated that it most likely originated in China and arrived in Java sometime in the 17th century. Some of the oldest traditions of wayang golek are from the north coast of Java in what is called the pasisir region. This is home to some of the oldest Muslim kingdoms in Java and it is likely the wayang golek grew in popularity through telling the wayang menak stories of Amir Hamza, the uncle of Muhammad. These stories are still widely performed in Kabumen, Tegal, and Jepara as wayang golek menak, and in Cirebon, wayang golek cepak. Legendary origins of wayang golek attribute their invention to the Muslim saint Wali Sunan Kudus, who used the medium to prosletize Muslim values. In the 18th century the tradition moved into the mountains of West Java where it eventually was used to tell stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabarata in a tradtion now called wayang golek purwa, which can be found in Bandung, Bogor and Jakarta. Wayang golek purwa has become the most popular form of wayang golek today and the most famous puppeteer family is the Sunarya family which has produced several generations of stellar performers.
Wayang is an Indonesian and Malay word for theatre. When the term is used to refer to kinds of puppet theater, sometimes the puppet itself is referred to as wayang. "Bayang", the Javanese word for shadow or imagination, also connotes "spirit." Performances of shadow puppet theater are accompanied by gamelan in Java, and by "gender wayang" in Bali.
UNESCO designated Wayang Kulit, a shadow puppet theater and the best known of the Indonesian wayang, as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on 7 November 2003.
Wayang is one of the form of culture which contain all the material of art. Mostly wayang included puppets as a main thing in a performance, in 2 dimensions or 3 dimensions. As we all know, in wayang we may find others art such as batik which is used as the cloth of each character, and also keris as weapon. From these two things; batik and keris, if we’d like to, we can learn so many things. Other supportive components are gamelan as backsound music, Javanesse verses as song sang by sinden (javanesse singer), and so on. All of them are combined to be one complex shadow puppet performance. In fine art itself, wayang always grows. Start from wayang beber, wayang kulit, wayang golek, and many other kinds. In this performance, I focus on wayang kulit or shadow puppet. Wayang kulit has quality of form in stylizing and deformation which is unique. Even on its stylizing technique, it symbolized each character which is performed.
