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‘Wayang suket’, an almost extinct children's toy
Children these days are not interested in playing with this traditional puppet, making wayang suket almost extinct.
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Yusuf now teaches visitors at Omah Kecebong, a restaurant-cum-outbound venue in Sleman, Yogyakarta, how to create 'wayang suket'. (Kompas.com/Silvita Agmasari)
Y
usuf’s fingers skillfully wove the grass to form wayang suket (a grass puppet). If you take a closer look at the grass, you can see that it forms a human body, complete with nose, head and hands.
“This is wayang suket,” the 74-year-old man told kompas.com, explaining that the five other puppets were the Pandawa Lima, five warriors from the Mahabharata epic. Although Yusuf did not put labels on the grass puppets, one can easily recognize the different characters by its sizes, such as the tall puppet for Bima and the twin puppets for Nakula and Sadewa.
The puppeteer said people could create wayang suket based on their imagination as there were no specific rules to make it.
Similar to other people his age, Yusuf grew up playing with wayang suket. “We created wayang suket while shepherding cattle,” he recalled.
[RA::Unveiling lessons of life with grass puppets:;http://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2018/04/08/unveiling-lessons-of-life-with-grass-puppets.html]
Alas, children these days are not interested in playing with this traditional puppet, making wayang suket almost extinct.
Yusuf now teaches visitors at Omah Kecebong, a restaurant-cum-outbound venue in Sleman, Yogyakarta, how to create wayang suket.
By purchasing a tour package, Omah Kecebong’s guests can take home wayang suket they make.
In addition to wayang suket, guests can also join a batik-making workshop, wear a kebaya and ride in an ox-cart. (jes/kes)
