● Material Reference · Desk-Verified Dossier
Perforated Water-Buffalo Parchment
Kulit KerbauScraped, sun-cured, translucent water-buffalo rawhide chiselled with thirty-plus steel tatah punches and gilded with gold leaf for Wayang Kulit puppets.
Classification
Material
Origin / Scope
Indonesia
Connected Rooms
1 Tradition
Bibliography
1 Source
Archival note & context
Raw water-buffalo hide is soaked, stretched on a bamboo drying frame, scraped symmetrically thin with an iron blade, and cured for months until stiff and translucent.
Master carvers (penatah) punch thousands of lace-like interior perforations (tatahan) that allow oil-lamp light to project delicate filigree onto the linen kelir screen.
Used in traditions
1Sources
1What’s on this page is sourced from the citation below.
| Source | Publisher | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| Wayang Puppet Theatre — Craftsmanship of Kulit Carving | UNESCO ICH, 2008 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |