Lordly Shades Wayang Purwa Indonesia
Antiquarian & Collectible Ethnography Young Adult Non-Fiction Illustrated Reference Performing Arts Indonesian Cultural History Wayang Kulit & Shadow Puppetry Southeast Asian Art
Lordly Shades: Wayang Purwa Indonesia is the rare 1985 English-language picture book that unlocks the secret world of Javanese wayang kulit for Western readers. Pandam Guritno—one of Indonesia’s most respected dalang (master puppeteers)—distills a lifetime of performance knowledge into 96 pages of vivid photographs, line drawings, and concise explanations that show how every shadow, color, and sound carries symbolic meaning. Young-adult and adult collectors alike gain a front-row seat to the epic Mahabharata and Ramana scenes as they appear on the white screen, while Guritno decodes the carved buffalo-hide puppets, gamelan cues, and lamp angles that turn flat figures into living gods and demons.
Vintage collectors prize this paperback because it was printed in Jakarta in very small numbers and rarely surfaces in the secondary market in any condition. The oversized 10"×14" format allows the full drama of the gold-leafed gunungan (tree-of-life puppet) and the fierce visage of Arjuna to breathe on the page, making the book as much a gallery as a reference work. Because every spread pairs museum-quality photos with Guritno’s insider commentary, you can study the difference between Central Javanese and Surakarta court styles without leaving your reading chair.
This copy shows the honest wear of 40 years—light cover scuffs, clear tape along the spine, and one inner hinge that is just starting—but remains complete and free of writing, dog-ears, or ex-library stamps. For enthusiasts of Indonesian art, shadow-puppetry, or Southeast Asian cultural history, Lordly Shades offers both a scholarly introduction and a striking visual artifact that later reprints have never matched.
Refer to our eBay listing for a full condition report and many more high-quality pictures of this item.
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