Indonesian Wayang Kulit Paper Craft

Wayang kulit shadow puppets have been entertaining the people of Indonesia for thousands of years. Traditional wayang puppets are made from buffalo hide and are elaborately painted with bright colours and gold leaf. The puppets perform behind a thin white screen, which is backlit, to create intricate shadows. A dalang, or puppet master, controls the puppets and provides voices for each character.

Traditionally, wayang puppets are used to tell stories from ancient Hindu scriptures. However, these days they can be used to tell any kind of story. Wayang provide a wonderful opportunity to incorporate storytelling and visual arts into the Indonesian classroom.

Your students can use these wayang templates to create their very own shadow plays. They can use them to re-enact the Ramayana, or as a fun way to practice dialogue.

Wayang Templates:Traditionally, the stories told in wayang kulit plays are derived from ancient Hindu texts. As such, the characters used are specific and well known. Listed below is a brief description of each of the wayang character templates provided in this resource.

1. Gunungan is the tree of life. All wayang kulit plays begin and end with the Gunungan.

2. Rama is a prince and the eldest son of the King, Dasharatha.

3. Sita is a beautiful princess and the wife of Rama.

4. Laksmana is a prince and brother to Rama.

5. Ravana is a demon who abducts Sita.

6. Jatayu is a mythical bird who fights Ravana.

7. Hanuman is the king of the monkey army.

8. Arjuna is a master archer and great fighter.

9. Semar is the god of love disguised as a clown-servant.

10. Niwatakawaca is a malicious king.

visit twinkl.com.au

You Will Need:• wayang puppet templates

• stiff A4 cardboard

• coloured pencils

• scissors

• split pins

• woodern skewers

• sticky tape

Indonesian Wayang Kulit Paper Craft

Instructions

1 Print the wayang template onto stiff cardboard.

2 Colour in the puppet template.

3 Carefully cut out the puppet parts.

4 Join the moving parts of the puppet (the arms) to the main body with split pins.

5 Stick skewers onto the back of the body and any moving part using sticky tape.

visit twinkl.com.au