Indonesia: Visit to Village Puppeteer

It was very pleasant, if hot, to wander in this small west Javan village… with several more nature photographs to share with you all.

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Rain lily (Zephyranthes rosea).

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unknown.

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unknown.

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St Joseph’s spider

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Gelatinous fungus.

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White bracket fungus

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Goatweed, (Ageratum conyzoides) is an introduced weed from South America.

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In this same village we made a visit to the home of a puppeteer.

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The man of the house carved and painted the puppet’s heads.

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Careful work.

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Part-finished puppet head.

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Other members of his family made the puppet’s costumes.

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The workroom was a bit of a jumble.

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Hundreds of puppets were ‘in storage’ awaiting their next public performance.

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And here are some close ups of some of the puppet faces he has made.  Some were gruesome, others were frightening and others were happy individuals.

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Can you imagine the nightmares some young children may have after attending a show?

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Some of them not so pretty!

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a supercilious fellow

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I wonder what the joke was?

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The man who carved the heads was also the main performer.

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Up to 13 other family members make up an orchestra of drums, gongs…

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… and wooden xylophones.

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It had been a fascinating visit to this place of unusual craft and local cultural entertainment. And we had a rather special farewell from a shy little boy… ta ta!

David

All photographs copyright © JT  and DY  of  jtdytravels

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One comment on “Indonesia: Visit to Village Puppeteer

  1. Mitzi Eisenberg says:

    Fabulous. Thank you for sharing this unique art form.

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