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History of Wayang

Wayang shadow-puppet (Bali, early 20th century)Wayang is a generic term denoting traditional theatre in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. There is no evidence that wayang existed before Hinduism came to southeast Asia sometime in the first century ce. However, there very well may have been indigenous storytelling traditions that had a profound impact on the development of the traditional puppet theatre. The first record of a wayang performance is from an inscription dated 930 ce which says "si Galigi mawayang," or Sir Galigi played wayang. From that time till today it seems certain features of traditonal puppet theatre have remained. Galigi was an itinerant performer who was requested to perform for a special royal occaision. At that event we know he performed a story about the hero Bima from the Mahabharata.

Hinduism arrived in Indonesia from India even before the Christian era, and was slowly adopted as the local belief system. Sanskrit became the......

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Approximate Word Count: 2177
Approximate Pages: 9 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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