Wayang Kulit — Tatah Sungging on Buffalo Hide

Take buffalo hide that has been cleaned and dried, 2 to 3 millimetres thick. Goat hide is also used, but it is thinner and tears more easily when punched.

Soak the hide briefly, then stretch it on a frame until it is completely dry. Hide that dries without being stretched will curl, and a curled wayang cannot sit flat against the screen.

Scrape both sides until smooth and of even thickness. A thicker area transmits light differently and will show as a patch in the shadow.

Draw the character's pattern onto the hide. Every character has a fixed form — the nose, the eyes, the angle of the head and the shape of the body all signal their nature. Form is not ornament; it is identity.

Cut the outer silhouette with a sharp knife. This silhouette matters most — from a distance the audience recognises the character from its outline alone.

Lay the hide on a wooden block. Punch from the centre outward. Starting at the edge leaves the hide without strength, and it shifts under the blows.

The tatah come in only two basic shapes — straight and curved — but in many sizes. One hole usually needs several strikes with different tatah.

Leave at least 1.5 millimetres of hide between holes. This is the limit that decides everything. Closer than that and the hide will break — while punching, or later in performance.

Lift the wayang toward a lamp from time to time and look at the shadow. Work the shadow, not the hide. A pattern that looks good in the hand may not read on the screen.

Colour in layers, starting with the dark colours and moving to the light. This order is what makes the transitions between colours smooth.

Paint batik motifs on the character's clothing with a fine brush. The motifs are not arbitrary — each character has motifs appropriate to their standing.

Fit a gapit of horn or bamboo down the centre of the body, and two thin rods to the two arms. A wayang's arms move; its body does not.

Play it in front of a lamp with a white screen. Move it close to the screen and the shadow sharpens; move it away and it blurs and grows. The dalang uses both deliberately.

The oldest still living. Wayang kulit, shadow puppetry using figures made from water buffalo hide, is considered the oldest free-standing puppet form, with the earliest references dating from the 800s. UNESCO declared it a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2003.

Two stages, two names. The process is called tatah sungging. Tatah is the punching: the hide is laid on a block and special chisels are struck with a mallet to punch holes through it. The chisels come in only two basic shapes, flat and curved, in a range of sizes, and most punches require several turns of the tatah to achieve the desired detail. Sungging is the layered colouring, working from bold to softer colours, including painting batik patterns on each character's clothing.

Who is the colour for? This is the question people ask. The audience on the screen side sees only a black and white shadow — the colour does not reach them at all. The colour is for the dalang's side, for the owner, and for the wayang itself as an object. Some hold that the audience may choose which side to watch from; others say the full workmanship is a matter of respect for the character, not of being seen.

Form is character. In wayang, the nose, the eyes, the angle of the head and the proportions of the body signal a character's nature. Narrow eyes and a lowered head mean refined and self-controlled; round eyes and a raised head mean coarse and forceful. An audience that knows the conventions can read a character before the dalang says a word. This is a fixed visual language, not personal style.

Distance and shadow. The shadow is sharp when the wayang touches the screen and blurred and enlarged when it is drawn back. The dalang uses this as a storytelling tool — a character arriving from far away, a spirit, or a great power is made blurred and gigantic. It is exactly the shadow geometry of the camera obscura and the magic lantern, used as stagecraft centuries before there were projectors.