Wayang Thithi : Talk & Performance of Multiculturalism and Musealisation

Indonesia maintains a high level of ethnic diversity, with 1,340 ethnic groups scattered across its 17,024 inhabited islands. Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Diverse in Unity) is the national credo for managing cultural unity and equality so that no culture is superior or inferior. Sometimes these cultures come into relations of exchange. We can see the sincere acculturation between Javanese and Chinese culture in Wayang Thithi, a shadow puppet art that emerged in Yogyakarta in the 1880s. There are only two museums conserving Wayang Thithi a.k.a. Wacinwa (Wayang Cina Jawa), Sono Budoyo Museum in Yogyakarta with 283 puppets and Yale University Art Gallery with 345 puppets. These precious collections of Wayang Thithi will remain as cultural material in gallery and museum showcases until the Musealisation of tangible and intangible heritage brings these collections alive in a defined program of Multiculturalism and living heritage.