I went to my first wayang kulit performance and it really is fascinating. This is a traditional Javanese custom and most performances last all night...........8 hours! However, I went to the "tourist" version which is a manageable 2 hours. First, each puppet is meticulously carved out of buffalo hide and then painted. The audience can view the performance by watching the shadow puppets behind the sheet, or can watch "backstage" which is also interesting. As you can see from the pictures, there is classical Javanese music and singing during the performance, and the puppet master tells the story in Javanese. So after 2 hours I can sympathize with my some of my beginner students about how it feels to listen to a foreign language and not understand a thing.
