Wayang kulit, also known as wayang purwa ("shadow play"), is a type of puppet theater that is indigenous primarily to Java, the most populous island of Indonesia, but that flourishes also on the Indonesian islands of Bali and Lombok and in the state of Kelantan on the Malay Peninsula. Wayang kulit is performed by a sacral puppeteer (dalang), who, accompanied by the percussive yet flowing music of the gamelan orchestra, moves intricately crafted leather figures in front of an oil lamp to cast flickering shadows on a white screen as he chants mythological narrative in old sanskritized Javanese or other languages. Variants of wayang kulit include the wooden-rod puppet form wayang golek among the Sundanese of West Java and a human dance drama (wayang wong) patterned after the puppet plays.

Wayang kulit traditionally lasts all night—from 9 PM to 7 AM—and is a rite as well...