WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2017 (PURWOKERTO/BANYUMAS) - Today after school, Rudhi took us and two other teachers from the school to go to the Wayang Museum in nearby Banyumas. Now, what exactly is wayang, you might ask? Good question! I wondered the same thing. Wayang "is a form of puppet theatre art found in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, wherein a dramatic story is told through shadows thrown by puppets and sometimes combined with human characters." (I give up, Wikipedia-- you said it far better than I could)! When many people move these things, the shadows cast by them give off a large semblance of reality. Many of these shows take place at night until dawn! We found out that the wayang puppets are made from buffalo/cow hide, and can take months, if not years, to make. We were also told that we were the first Americans to visit that museum! While inside, we were lucky enough to watch an impromptu concert from the "Orchestra of Traditional Javanese Music and Dance," and they played for ten minutes on the old Javanese instruments. Very cool! Later, we got back in the car and drove to a nearby batik production factory and shop. Here, we were able to see culture up close- women in the process of making batik, and artisans and other workers in the process of spinning the fabric for it! It was very cool.
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