Shaped by the eruptions of Mount Merapi and layered with more than 2500 years of history, Yogyakarta stands at the heart of Java’s spiritual and cultural landscape. Ancient temples, royal traditions and centuries of warfare intertwine across the region, from the soaring spires of Prambanan to the vast stone terraces of Borobudur. Beneath the shadow of the volcano, myths, kingdoms and sacred rituals continue to shape the soul of the city.

Shadow puppetry is an ancient performance craft that tells stories of gods and demons drawn from epic tales across Southeast Asia. These stories are never fixed in meaning, they are reshaped over generations by the way they are passed down. After their final curtain call, the puppets are retired into stillness, their carved forms placed in museums across the world, where they rest without movement or voice, preserved as objects rather than participants in the worlds they once

In the Sonobudoyo Museum, stone deities stare from centuries past, their gaze heavy with ritual. Shadow puppets hang frozen in mid motion, their painted faces preserving long forgotten stories. Kris daggers lie silent but potent, bearing the memory of the hands that once wielded them in ceremony and battle. Every carved inscription, sacred rite and precious artefact is someone’s voice from a vanished world, preserving the devotions and practices that once shaped civilizations