Indonesia · Leather Craft / Sculpture
Pembuatan Wayang Kulit
Wayang Kulit are the intricately pierced and painted leather shadow puppets of Java and Bali, used in the wayang kulit shadow theater tradition inscribed by UNESCO in 2003 (Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage). Each puppet depicts a specific character from the Mahabharata or Ramayana — its physical form (proportions, eye shape, posture, color, headdress, costume) is iconographically prescribed and must be executed correctly to be ritually valid. The puppet-maker (wayang-smith or pengrajin wayang) works in buffalo hide, stretched, dried, and scraped to translucency, then pierced with hand-made punches in intricate filigree patterns that create the shadow's character. Finally painted in natural or synthetic pigments and fitted with buffalo horn and bamboo control rods. A master wayang maker may spend 2–4 weeks on a single puppet.
Risk level: Endangered · UNESCO Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage 2003; incorporated into Representative List 2008
Kain Leja is the traditional handwoven ikat cloth of the Tolaki people of Southeast Sulawesi — the indigenous community of the Kendari area.
The Bajo (Bajau) people are the sea nomads of Southeast Asia — historically living entirely at sea on their vessels, touching land only for fresh water, trading, and burial.
The Minahasa people of North Sulawesi — a Christian community with a distinct cultural identity from the predominantly Muslim Sulawesi mainland — produce a range of bamboo and wood craft traditions centered in Tomohon city and the…
The indigenous communities of Central Sulawesi's highland interior — particularly the Kulawi, Pamona, and Napu peoples of Poso district — produce a tradition of ritual ornament using glass trade beads, freshwater and marine shells, animal…
Sago palm (Metroxylon sagu) is the foundation of life in lowland Papua — simultaneously the primary food source (sago starch), the primary building material (leaf for thatching, trunk for flooring), and the source of a range of craft…
Makassar goldsmithing and silverwork is the hereditary jewelry tradition of the Makassarese people — the other major ethnic group of South Sulawesi alongside the Bugis — producing filigree, granulation, and repoussé work for ceremonial…
The making of warrior costumes, ceremonial swords, jewelry, and musical instruments used in the Sebeïba, an annual Tuareg ritual dance-and-song competition held in the oasis of Djanet in Algeria's Tassili n'Ajjer region, coinciding with…
The carving of wooden Mwana Pwo masks and seated ancestor-figure statues (popularly known by their Portuguese name, O Pensador, 'The Thinker') by the Chokwe people of northeastern Angola, extending into the southern Democratic Republic of…
The construction of full-body bark-and-leaf masquerade costumes worn by an initiate embodying the Kankurang, a protective spirit central to Mandinka circumcision and initiation rites practiced across the Manding provinces of Senegal…
Hinged, string-operated wooden masks carved to open during ceremonial performance and reveal a second figure within, most often depicting one being transforming into another, worn with a shredded cedar-bark costume during Winter Dance and…
The Tuvalu traditional costume craft — the production of the distinctive Tuvaluan dance costume (titi) from pandanus leaf strips, dried grasses, and shells for the fatele (community dance) performances that are the defining cultural…
Tibetan cham (འཆམ) masks are the ritual performance masks of Tibetan Buddhist monastery dance — related to but distinct from the Mongolian tsam (CRAFT-0612) in using a papier-mâché and lacquer construction rather than the Mongolian…