Balinese and Javanese masks are usually elaborately decorated, whereas the more primitive ethnic designs of East Nusa Tenggera are typically chunky, dark woodcarvings with shell and bone inlays. The best known puppets are those from Java. Wayang golek and wayang kulit puppets are elaborately decorated to depict the specific characters of the epic tales, but it is the talent of the dalang that brings them to life and gives voice to the puppets. Pottery Prehistoric earthenware pots dating back to more than 3,000 BC have been found in Sumba and South Sulawesi. What is striking about these discoveries is not the age, however, but the fact that the process of making pottery has hardly changed in 5,000 years.
Local clay is shaped by hand, then fired in open bonfires, usually made from waste farm produce.
As a result, pottery has developed hand in hand with farming, and pottery villages can be found in every province. Tools are very basic, yet decorations can be enormously elaborate. Pottery making as an artform reached its apogee in the 14th century Majapahit Empire, where intricately decorated ceremonial objets adorned the palaces in addition to the usual array of household utensils. Woodcraft The rainforests prevalent throughout Indonesia have supplied abundant wood for tool making and decorative work. The most ancient forms of woodcraft were weapons and ancestral wooden posts - totems dedicated to honouring the spirits of ancestors.