Arts: Storytelling, Dance, Music, Shadow Theatre, and Puppetry

Arts: Storytelling

Indonesia’s cultures often communicate histories, religious beliefs, social norms and morals through the spoken word or storytelling.
Traditional Indonesian folklore, known as hikayats or dongeng, play an integral part in passing wisdom from generation to generation.
One example is the Ramayana, a widely told story based on Hindu scripture, which has adapted over time to align with predominantly Muslim beliefs in Indonesia.

Indonesia’s culture is rich in traditional dance, with more than 3,000 original dance forms.
The Bedhaya/Serdadu dance holds significant meaning for the Java people, often used in royal festivities and ceremonies.
The Balinese Legong Dance, is a traditional and intricate dance, where the female performers form distinctive patterns with their fingers.
Many Indonesian dances also incorporate tale-telling attributes, bringing together both arts of dance and storytelling.

Gamelan, is a traditional form of orchestra music often involving xylophones, drums, and gongs. It’s one of the oldest and most important musical traditions in Indonesia, especially in Central Java, Bali and Lombok.
Keroncong is a form of urban folk music from the Portuguese, combining instruments like ukulele and flute. Keroncong songs often have romantic or nostalgic themes.
Dangdut is a genre of modern popular music combining traditional Indonesian styles with Arabic, Indian, and Malay folk tunes.

A quintessential part of Indonesia’s performing arts is shadow theatre, also known as Wayang Kulit. It showcases stories usually based on popular epics, presented with dramatic voices, music, and visual aesthetics.
Wayang Kulit uses leather puppets that create shadows on a fabric screen. The puppeteer, known as a Dalang, manipulates puppets, performs the voices, and acts as the conductor of the accompanying Gamelan.

Apart from shadow theatre, other forms of puppetry exist in Indonesian culture such as Wayang Golek (wooden rod puppets) and Wayang Klitik (flat wood puppets).
The stories told through puppetry often reflect Hindu-Javanese epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana and are moral stories integral to the local customs and beliefs.
Puppet shows are usually accompanied with music, creating a symbolic harmony between the art of puppetry, storytelling, and musical traditions at the heart of Indonesian culture.