Topeng Dance
Topeng Dance Indonesian masked dance predates Hindu-Buddhist influences. Native Indonesian tribes still perform traditional masked-dances to represent nature, as the Hudoq dance of the Dayak people of Kalimantan , or to represent ancestor spirits . With the arrival of Hinduism in the archipelago , the Ramayana and the Mahabharata epics began to be performed in masked-dance. The most popular storyline of mask dance, however, originated from the locally developed Javanese Panji cycles , based on the tales and romance of Prince Panji and Princess Chandra Kirana , set in the 12th-century Kadiri kingdom . One of the earliest written records of mask dance is found in the 14th-century poem Nagarakretagama , which describes King Hayam Wuruk of Majapahit - wearing a golde...