The apprenticeship of the dalang in Bali: the shadow theater wayang kulit's puppeteer

The wayang kulit, the shadow theater of Bali, belongs to the Indo-Buddhist tradition, that carne from Java in the fifteenth-century, and is one of the responsible for the indianization of Bali, by the use of Indian epics. The formation process of the dalang, the puppeteer, is complex, encompassing an extensive literary, linguistic, ritualistic and vocal learning. The dalang must articulate the ancestral myths and the contemporaneity, dispensing philosophical and religious teachings and commenting aspects of the society as well.