On Saturday, Asia Society welcomed puppet master Ki Midiyanto and the Gamelan Kusuma Laras orchestra for an entertaining evening of traditional Javanese shadow puppetry. The unique theater form is a ...

What are some of the distinctive features of a performance that differentiate it from other forms of puppetry? Javanese shadow puppetry involves distinctive puppets that are art works in themselves.

Local Javanese rulers quickly saw advantages in ... used to identify himself with shadow puppet characters, and especially with Bima - a righteous, mighty fighter, who spoke like the common ...