Indian shadow puppet

Shadow puppet; figure of Hanuman, Monkey God; on thick coloured parchment; no articulation; support rod missing.

Shadow plays, which can be regarded as an extremely early precursor of cinema, originated in Java and India some thousands of years ago and can still be seen today. The thin leather puppets are intricately perforated and painted and depict figures in folklore. They are manipulated by rods in front of a translucent screen, lit from behind so that the puppet is seen in silhouette. The puppet operators speak the dialogue and the performance is accompanied by music. Traditionally, the men in the audience sat on one side of the screen and the women on the other.