The Balinese puppets still bear strong resemblances to the so-called wayang-style reliefs in East Javanese temples, discussed above, which are believed to have shared a common style with the contemporary East Javanese shadow puppets. In the East Javanese period, shadow theatre is believed to have been adopted by the Hindu courts of Bali during the long process of its Indianisation. The earliest record confirming the existence of shadow theatre in Central Java dates from AD 907. This is often supported by the fact that part of the shadow-theatre repertoire is based on pre-Hindu story cycles, and that all the technical terms of the genre are Javanese and not derived from Sanskrit or other Indian languages. The other view maintains that Javanese shadow theatre has ancient indigenous roots. According to one theory, it came from India together with the Ramayana and Mababbarata epics during the long process of Java’s Indianisation. There are two theories concerning the roots of Javanese shadow theatre. ![]() Although these forms of theatre are highly developed, and wayang golek still thrives, they are clearly surpassed by wayang kulit in popularity and complexity. Shadow drama gave rise to other forms of puppet theatre, for example, wayang klitik with flat wooden puppets and wayang golek with three-dimensional rod puppets, which are discussed in separate sections. Video clip: The end scene from a wayang kulit shadow play, which is based on the epic Mahabharata Reijo Lainela
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