Wayang Kulit Gedek

Wayang kulit Gedek is the Malay term for the shadow puppet theatre of southern Thailand which is known as nang talung among the Thai people. This shadow puppet theatre using small leather puppets suppossedly originated in the southern Thai town called Pattalung, hence the name nang (theatre) talung (an abbreviated form of the namee Pattalung). Performances of this type of shadow puppet theatre can be found not only in southern Thailand, but also in the northern Malaysian states of Kedah and Kelantan, where it is performed in the Thai language or in a mixture of Thai and the local dialect of the Malay language, depending upon the particular region in which it is presented. The style of the small leather puppets and the general presentation of the wayang kulit Gedek take form in a distinctly southern Thai idiom, featuring the use of very thin,delicate, full-and profile faced puppets. The small orchestra also strongly exhibits Thai features with the use of various drums, bronze gongs, cymbals, and fiddles. Formerly in Thailand the Thai shawm called the pi or the pi Jawa was included in the ensemble (a feature still present in many ensembles found in Malaysia), but in more recent times in southern Thailand there has been a preference for the Thai fiddles saw oo and saw duang.

The remaining types of shadow puppet theatre, the wayang kulit Siam and the wayang kulit Melayu, are Malay types of shadow play performed by Malay peoples in the various regional dialects of the Malay language.

[ Wayang Kulit Jawa ][ Wayang Kulit Melayu ][ Wayang Kulit Siam ]
[ Wayang Kulit In Kelantan ][ Wayang Kulit In Malaysia ][ Main ]
[ Songket ][ The State Of Kelantan ]

Source : Malaysian Shadow Play And Music : continuity of an oral tradition, by Patricia Matusky.