PUPPET - WAYANG GOLEK DEWI PERGIWA

This is one of two puppets purchased in 1997 by Astit Olszowy during one of her many trips back to Indonesia. The puppets were purchased from a Batik shop in Jogjakarta, located in Central Java. Astit was born in and grew up in the Central and West Java region of Indonesia. In 1989 she me Richard Olszowy and not long after they were married and Astit moved to Australia where she lived in Bedfordale with Richard and her son. Astit though was keen to keep a strong connection to her Indonesian heritage. She would regularly return to Indonesia to visit family as well as go on holiday and when there would by a variety of traditional craft items to decorate her home.
Astit was also a very active member of the wider Perth Indonesian community and became a part of a group, the Selendang Sutra Indonesian Dance Troupe, that promoted and performed traditional dances from Indonesia. The troupe performed all over WA, promoting dances and traditional costumes from all over Indonesia. On her trips to Indonesia Astit would often by fabric and materials from local markets to make the costumes from.
This puppet is wayang golek puppet of Dewi Pergiwa a character from the Hindu epic of Mahabharata. The story dates back to India in the 3rd century BCE. It is regarded as the longest epic poem ever written with over 200,000 individual verse lines and an estimated 1.8 million words in total making it ten times the length of the Illiad and the Odyssey combined. The story is very important to the Hindu religion.
Wayang Golek puppetry emerged from from the island of Java in the 17th century CE. It was used as a way of spreading religion through the region. Today it is a popular form of traditional entertainment, often telling stories from the traditional Hindu epic poems Ramayana or the Mahabharata. In 2003 UNESCO designated Wayang puppetry (wayang kulit, flat leather shadow puppets, wayang kiltik, flat wooden puppets and wayang golek) as a Masterpiece of the oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.