Wayang Purwa

Wayang purwa are cut from dried and thinned buffalo hide, chased with dozens of types of punch, painted, and mounted on horn gapit. Their shapes are far from human proportion: long necks, projecting noses, thin bodies, and eyes whose form states the character's nature.

East Javanese temple reliefs of the fourteenth century show wayang characters in proportions far closer to the human than today's leather puppets. The change came afterwards, and the usual explanation ties it to the arrival of Islam and the prohibition on depicting living beings. The explanation is plausible and cannot be directly checked, since no record states such a decision; what exists is two conditions at two dates and a change between them.

A complete set of wayang purwa runs to hundreds of figures kept in a wooden kotak, and the order of packing is part of the work: the puppeteer must be able to take out the figure he needs in the dark without searching. A full set is very costly, and most puppeteers do not own one but hire it, or use a family set inherited.

That determines who can become a puppeteer. With the chest pass also the repertoire of plays, the manner of sabet manipulation, and the relationship with the musicians, so that this occupation is transmitted through families and through apprenticeship rather than through an open market. Arts academies from the 1960s added a third route, and academy-trained puppeteers are now a significant share — a change recorded in the performance entry.