Thank you for downloading this episode of a history of the world in a hundred objects from BBC Radio 4. When the young Barack Obama was taken to Java to live with his new Indonesian

stepfather he was astonished to see standing astride the road a giant statue with the body of a man and the head of an

ape. He was told that it was Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god. But what was a huge Hindu God doing in the streets of modern Muslim Indonesia?

The answer is, I think, a fascinating story of tolerance and absorption.

A relaxed compromise between religions, unlike any of the other multi-faith societies that we're looking at through the objects of this week.

And it's a story that can almost be summed up by a puppet and by the ancient Indonesian art of Shadow Theatre.

Shadow puppets veer dangerously close to idolatry.

It's a very, very interesting mix of how something so seemingly un-Muslim sits a

interesting mix of how something so seemingly un-Muslim sits in a community that's very very Muslim.

A history of the world in a hundred objects. Shadow puppet of the character Beema.

Made in Java during the 17th or 18th century.

Throughout this week the objects I'm engaging with take us into the consequences of the great movements of religion across the world and the coexistence of faiths around 400 years ago.

Today's object is a shadow puppet from Indonesia where shadow

puppetry is still a celebrated living art form that's both entirely

traditional and also full of contemporary politics.

Through this puppet and his companions,

we can explore a great religious and political

transformation which began in Southeast Asia 500 years ago

and which still affects the region today. The puppet in front of me

is from the Indonesian island of Java and it's one of several hundred that we have in the

collection. It represents a male character it stands about two feet high, and he's shown in stark dramatic profile.

His name is Beema.

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