Efforts to Preserve Wayang Krucil

Kompas/Defri Werdiono

Dalang Paiman, 69, plays a wayang krucil that belonged to the family of Mbah Saniyem, in her 90s, of the Wiloso subvillage, Gondowangi village, Wagir district, Malang regency, East Java, on Saturday (1/2) night. Wayang krucil, made of wood andestimated to be over 200 years old this year, is usually played once a year in the month of Syawwal, exactly one week after Idul Fitri.

After spending the preceding few months inside a coffin, on Saturday (1/7/2017) evening, the wooden puppets of Mbah Saniyem, a resident in her 90s of Wiloso hamlet, Gondowangi village, Wagir district, Malang regency, East Java, were “reawakened.”

Puppeteer Paiman, 69, played the puppets in front of over a hundred locals at the Gebyak Syawalan Wayang Krucil event commonly held a week after the Idul Fitri holiday at the end of the Ramadhan fasting month.