The psychocultural significance of the Balinese shadow theater from the perspective of its master practitioners

The shadow theater has traditionally played a centrally important role in Balinese society. The typical performance serves as a didactic tool for civic regulation, a moral guide for individuals within that society, and an integral part of religious ritual ceremonies. This dissertation is a study of the underlying context of a profound transformation that is currently taking place in this seven-hundred year-old institution. As a result of several factors which I will enumerate and analyze, the modern performers of the wayang kulit see their art through different eyes than their older, more traditional counterparts.;The study concentrates on the results of seven months of field research I conducted in Bali, Indonesia in 1994-1995. During that time I interviewed all the known dalang, students, and professors of the graduate cultural art institute in Denpasar (STSI), and several well-known native scholars of Balinese culture and religion. The focus of the material is the difference of opinion among both traditional and modern dalang of the religious and sociopolitical significance of the shadow theater in Balinese society. Among topics discussed are the training and knowledge requirements of the Balinese dalang, their function in Balinese society, the social, philosophical and religious meaning of the wayang kulit for the people of Bali, its use by the Indonesian government as a means of information dissemination, notable changes in recent years, and its future as an institution in Balinese culture.