Wayang Golek Puppetry

Where the Javanese heartland uses flat leather shadows, the Sundanese of West Java use three-dimensional wooden puppets held on a central rod, with jointed arms worked by thinner sticks. The faces are carved and painted to type: refined heroes with narrow eyes and a downcast gaze, coarse characters with bulging eyes and red skin. There is no screen, so you watch the puppets directly, and the dalang stands them in a soft banana trunk along the front of the stage when they are not speaking. The repertoire draws on the same epics, with a Sundanese clown family, Cepot and his brothers, who take over the second half and work in local dialect.

What you actually see

• Carved wooden heads - faces painted to a fixed code of refined and coarse types.
• The banana trunk - the soft log along the stage front that holds waiting puppets.
• Cepot - the red-faced clown who dominates the comic half of the show.
• Carving workshops - shaping, painting and costume sewing in the villages around Bandung.

When to go

Short shows are staged for visitors in Bandung most afternoons, and workshops nearby will demonstrate carving on request. Full performances belong to weddings and village celebrations, most common in the dry months from May to September. Bandung sits high enough to be cool once the sun goes down, so bring a layer.

Honest expectations

The visitor shows are short and simplified, with the humour rewritten for people who do not speak Sundanese, and they can feel like a demonstration rather than a performance. Puppets sold on site are expensive and many are made for the trade rather than for use. Bandung traffic is heavy and crossing the city takes far longer than the map suggests.

Nearby

Bamboo angklung music venues sit in the city and tea estates climb the ridges south of it.