Wayang Kulit.

“ONE of my earliest memories is of watching a shadow puppet performance in our village temple in Ubud at night ..”

Ni Wayan Murni
The Times, Lombok
October – November 2007

This rare puppet collection (167 puppets, including their weapons) was acquired by Murni from another collector in Java. A complete set typically takes about 25 years to make. Many of the puppets were made by a famous puppet maker from Yogyakarta called Ki Ledjar Subroto (1938-2017 ) and his name is written on them.

The impressive variety of Javanese shadow puppets represents the variety of human life. In Java, spectators of a shadow puppet performance watch the brightly coloured puppets behind the screen or watch their shadows in front of the screen.

Many of the stories are from the Indian epic, the Mahabarata, which is the tale of a dispute between the 5 Pandawa brothers and their cousins, the 99 Kurawa brothers (and one sister), which ends in a great 18 day battle, known as the Baratayuda. Stories are also from the other Indian epic, the Ramayana.

The stories reflect old Javanese values, where there was an unequal social order and each person had his duty and function, determined by fate. Through concrete mythological examples Javanese children learn philosophy, aesthetics and morals.

Some of the puppets in the collection belong to Wayang Kancil, which are shadow puppets, where all the characters are animals. Wild animals, representing bad characters, like tigers, crocodiles and wild pigs, are placed on the left of the screen, while tame animals, representing good characters, like deer, birds, cows, fish and horses, are placed on the right. Only a few people now perform this rare style.

In fact Ki Ledjar Subroto was the creator of the children-oriented Wayang Kancil. Ki Ledjar Subroto’s childhood name was Djariman (Ki is an epithet of respect given to a senior dalang). His father was from Yogyakarta, and worked for the Wayang troupe Nesti Pandowo in Semarang.

Djariman always was part of the activities of the troupe and worked with Ki Nartosabdho who was the top wayang kulit dalang of his generation and composer of many songs. Ki Nartosabdho gave him the name Ledjar (“Cheer up”) due to his optimistic energy.

Ki Ledjar Subroto took the traditional Indonesian tales of Kancil, a mouse deer, and in 1980 adapted the stories for shadow puppetry. His Wayang Kancil performances dealt with important issues such as saving the environment.

For the next decade, he often gave Wayang Kancil performances in the southern plaza adjoining the Yogyakarta palace and trained a number of international students.

Ki Ledjar made many Wayang Kancil puppets for international collectors, major museums (Museum Wayang in Jakarta, Tropen Museum in Amsterdam, and Museum of Anthropology in Canada).

Later, he created Wayang Proklamasi (which presents the struggle of Sukarno, Hatta and other heroes against the Dutch colonial forces in the 20th century).

In 1987 he developed Wayang Sultan Agung, which portrayed the history of 1593-1645 against Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1587-1629, founder of Batavia, today’s Jakarta) and the Dutch East India Company, which he made for the Westfries Museum (the Netherlands).

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).