Traditionally, a wayang is played out in a ritualized midnight-to-dawn show by a dalang, an artist and spiritual leader; people watch the show from both sides of the screen.

Wayang performances are still very popular among Indonesians, especially in the islands of Java and Bali. Wayang performances are usually held at certain rituals, certain ceremonies, certain events, and even tourist attractions. In ritual contexts, puppet shows are used for prayer rituals (held in temples in Bali),[7] ruwatan ritual (cleansing Sukerto children from bad luck),[8] and sedekah bumi ritual (thanksgiving to God for the abundant crops).[9] In the context of ceremonies, usually it is used to celebrate mantenan (Javanese wedding ceremony) and sunatan (circumcision ceremony). In events, it is used to celebrate Independence Day, the anniversaries of municipalities and companies, birthdays, commemorating certain days, and many more. Even in the modern era with the development of tourism activities, wayang puppet shows are used as cultural tourism attractions

Wayang traditions include acting, singing, music, drama, literature, painting, sculpture, carving, and symbolic arts. The traditions, which have continued to develop over more than a thousand years, are also a medium for information, preaching, education, philosophical understanding, and entertainment

UNESCO designated wayang – the flat leather shadow puppet (wayang kulit), the flat wooden puppet (wayang klitik), and the three-dimensional wooden puppet (wayang golek) theatre, as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on 7 November 2003. In return for the acknowledgment, UNESCO required Indonesians to preserve the tradition

Etymology

The term wayang is the Javanese word for 'shadow'[3][13] or 'imagination'. The word's equivalent in Indonesian is bayang. In modern daily Javanese and Indonesian vocabulary, wayang can refer to the puppet itself or the whole puppet theatre performance.

History

Wayang is the traditional puppet theatre of Indonesia.[14][2][5] It is an ancient form of storytelling known for its elaborate puppets and complex musical styles.[15] The earliest evidence of wayang comes from medieval-era texts and archeological sites dating from late 1st millennium CE. There are four theories concerning where wayang originated (indigenous to Java; Java–India; India; and China), but of these, two are more favored: Java and India.

Regardless of its origins, states Brandon, wayang developed and matured into a Javanese phenomenon. There is no true contemporary puppet shadow artwork in either China or India that has the sophistication, depth, and creativity expressed in wayang in Java, Indonesia.

Indigenous origin in Java

According to academic James R. Brandon, the puppets of wayang are native to Java. He states wayang is closely related to Javanese social culture and religious life, and presents parallel developments from ancient Indonesian culture, such as gamelan, the monetary system, metric forms, batik, astronomy, wet rice field agriculture, and government administration. He asserts that wayang was not derived from any other type of shadow puppetry of mainland Asia, but was an indigenous creation of the Javanese. Indian puppets differ from wayang, and all wayang technical terms are Javanese, not Sanskrit. Similarly, some of the other technical terms used in the wayang kulit found in Java and Bali are based on local languages, even when the play overlaps with Buddhist or Hindu mythologies.

G. A. J. Hazeu also says that wayang came from Java. The puppet structure, puppeteering techniques, and storytelling voices, language, and expressions are all composed according to old traditions. The technical design, the style, and the composition of the Javanese plays grew from the worship of ancestors.

J. Kats argues that the technical terms come from Java and that wayang was born without the help of India.[17] Before the 9th century, it belonged to the Javanese. It was closely related to religious practices, such as incense and night / wandering spirits. Panakawan uses a Javanese name,[clarification needed] different from the Indian heroes

Kruyt[who?] argues that wayang originated from shamanism, and makes comparisons with ancient archipelago ceremonial forms which aim to contact the spirit world by presenting religious poetry praising the greatness of the soul.

Origin in India

Hinduism and Buddhism arrived on the Indonesian islands in the early centuries of the 1st millennium, and along with theology, the peoples of Indonesia and Indian subcontinent exchanged culture, architecture, and traded goods.[16][18][6] Puppet arts and dramatic plays have been documented in ancient Indian texts, dated to the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE and the early centuries of the Common Era.[19] Further, the eastern coastal region of India (Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu), which most interacted with Indonesian islands, has had traditions of intricate, leather-based puppet arts called tholu bommalata, tholpavakoothu, and rabana chhaya, which share many elements with wayang.

Some characters such as the Vidusaka in Sanskrit drama and Semar in wayang are very similar. Indian mythologies and characters from the Hindu epics feature in many major wayang plays, which suggests possible Indian origins, or at least an influence in the pre-Islamic period of Indonesian history.[16] Jivan Pani states that wayang developed from two art forms from Odisha in eastern India: the Ravana Chhaya puppet theatre and the Chhau dance.