This comprehensive book explores the Malaysian form of shadow puppet theatre, highlighting its unique nature within the context of Southeast Asian and Asian shadow puppet theatre traditions. Intended for a Western audience not familiar with Asian performance and practices, the text serves as a bridge to this highly imaginative form. An in-depth examination of the Malaysian puppet tradition is provided, as well as performance scripts, designs for puppet characters, instructions for creating a shadow screen, and easy directions for performance. Another section then considers the practical, pedagogical, and ethical issues that arise in the teaching of this art.

"Shadow Play" is the first in the series of “Kain Songket Mysteries” set in the northern state of Kelantan, Malaysia during the 1970s. Mak Cik Maryam, a smart and take-charge kain songket (silk) trader in Kota Bharu Central Market, discovers a murder in her own backyard, shattering the bucolic village world she thought surrounded her. While the new Chief of Police, a pleasant young man from Ipoh whose mother’s admonitions about the wiles of Kelantanese girls still ring in his ears, wrestles with the bewildering local dialect, Maryam steps up to solve the mystery herself. Her investigation brings her into the closed world of the wayang kulit Shadow Play theater and the lives of its performers—a world riven by rivalries and black magic. Trapped in a tangle of jealousy, Maryam struggles to make sense of the crime in spite of the spells sent to keep her from secrets long buried and lies woven to shield the guilty.

The ancient, time-honoured art form known as wayang kulit (literally, 'leather puppet theatre' or 'shadow puppet play') is found in many parts of South-East Asia, including the Malay Peninsula. The present book, an ethnomusicological study focusing on the musical sound and its role in the drama, explores an aspect of wayang kulit hitherto neglected by scholars. Based on interviews and recordings conducted by the author in the villages of Kelantan, as well as on her experience as a student performer in one of the finest and most skilled wayang kulit troupes in Malaysia, the book begins with a useful overview of the various types of wayang kulit in Malaysia. It then goes on to discuss the main theatrical conventions, puppet design, performance structure, musical repertoire, orchestral instruments, and characteristic features of the music of wayang kulit Siam, the most popular type of Malaysian shadow puppet theatre. Written in a pleasing, easily digestible style, this book will be of value to ethnomusicologists, sociologists, students and practitioners of the performing arts, theatre enthusiasts, and general readers interested in the arts and culture of South-East Asia.

This book offers an integrated study of the texts and images of illustrated Malay manuscripts on magic and divination from private and public collections in Malaysia, the UK and Indonesia. Containing some of the rare examples of Malay painting, these manuscripts provide direct evidence for the intercultural connections between the Malay region, other parts of Southeast Asia and the rest of the world. In this richly illustrated volume many images and texts are gathered for the first time, making this book essential reading for all those interested in the practice of magic and divination, and the history of Malay, Southeast Asian and Islamic manuscript art.