Dewi Kunti
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Dewi Kunti - Javanese Stick Puppet
As a part of the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, Dewi Kunti has a colorful history, but she is mainly known as the mother of three of the Pandawa brothers, Yudhistira, Bima and Arjuna. A royal princess, she is noted for giving birth to her first child, Karna, through her ear in order to preserve her virginity.
In this representation of Dewi Kunti, she wears the traditional court headdress. Her hands are in the standard hand shape of the highborn, modest and unthreatening. She wears a batik sarong or kain, nipped at the waist with a broad band.
Known in Indonesia as Wayang Klitik, the flat style of puppet is a wooden adaptation of the shadow puppet, which is made of water buffalo hide. Like the Wayang Kulit (shadow puppet), the Wayang Klitik is reversible, carved and painted on both sides.
Puppet theater is an important entertainment in Java and Bali. In addition to dramatizing the ancient Hindu epics, such as the Ramayana and the Mahabaratha, puppetry is utilized for education and the teaching of ethics, history, philosophy and political doctrine.
Handcrafted in wood, this puppet was made in Central Java and previously used by a dalang or puppet master.
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