Wayang golek puppet - Arjuna

Title
Wayang golek puppet - Arjuna
Year/Period
20th century
Region
Java
Object Type
Dimension
Object size: 81 x 37.8 x 7 cm,
Object size: XXXX-05634-001 16.1 x 7 x 17.3 cm,
Object size: XXXX-05634-002 65.7 x 37.8 x 5 cm,
Object size: XXXX-05634-003 47.1 x 2.8 x 1.4 cm
Accession No.
XXXX-05634

This puppet represents the character of Arjuna, the third of the five Pandawa (Pandava) brothers from the epic, the Mahabharata. He is a refined character as reflected by the downward gaze of the puppet.‘Wayang golek’ is a puppet theatre using three-dimensional dolls. The dolls are manipulated by the ‘dalang’ (puppet master) by rods connected to the hands and head. ‘Wayang golek’ can be classified into three types depending on the stories they are performing and they are Wayang Golek Purwa, which derives its stories from the Hindu epic, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, Wayang Golek Gedog, which uses the Panji stories and Wayang Golek Menak, using the ‘Serat Menak’ or story of Amir Hamzah, Javanese adaptation of the Persian epic, the Hamzanamah.