dalangn.
/daˈlaŋ/ The central performer who recites the story and manipulates the puppets in Indonesian and Malaysian shadow-play (see also quot. 1817).
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > puppetry > [noun] > puppeteer > Indonesian or Malaysian
dalang1817
1817 T. S. Raffles Hist. Java I. vii. 335 In general, the Dálang, or manager of the entertainment, recites the speeches, while the performers have only to ‘suit the action to the word’.
1910 R. J. Wilkinson Papers on Malay Subjects: Life & Customs iii. 52 The narrator of this tale speaks of himself as dalang.
1937 M. Covarrubias Island of Bali viii. 237 The dalang is an artist and a great spiritual teacher.
1958 H. Forster Flowering Lotus i. 16 In front of us..sat the dalang, the story-teller and manipulator of the puppets.
1976 Times 31 Aug. (Malaysia Suppl.) p. iv/5 The puppeteer, called a dalang, serves a long apprenticeship and has great skill, speaking the whole of the unwritten dialogue in different voices for up to three hours.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1989; most recently modified version published online March 2018).
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n.1817