The Javanese of Indonesia are world renowned for their wayang kulit shadow puppets.  To their west are the Sundanese who prefer wayang golek wooden puppets—no screen, no shadow, just let us see the puppets.

The Javanese in Indonesia make the world's most intricate wax-masked batik.  Most batik comes from the Javanese artists around Jogjakarta. Some is still done the traditional way—hand-drawn with wax pens by Javanese women batik artists. 

Javanese hand-drawn (batik tulis—pronounced BA-teek TOO-lis) has been around for hundreds of years, especially around Jogjakarta, Indonesia.  Reportedly in the 1920s someone found a way to streamline this labor-intensive process of wax masking cotton cloth with intricate designs & patterns.

Batik is an almost world-wide phenomena, so everyone thinks they know what it is.  To most people it’s nothing more than highfalutin tie-dyed fabric.  That’s why it’s so hard to get people to appreciate the breathtaking amount of work that goes into Javanese batik.