He comes from Telagapakis, a village in Petungkriyono, the highest and most remote district of Pekalongan Regency, where the road climbs through one of the last stands of primary rainforest on Java. His training happens at Madukara Arts Studio under his mentor, Aditya Sabda Anggita. His days are spent at SMA Negeri 1 Petungkriyono like any other sixteen-year-old.
The work he has taken on is not a hobby in the ordinary sense. A dalang voices every figure, narrates the story, sings the mood-setting verses called suluk, and cues the gamelan behind him by striking the puppet chest with a mallet held between his toes. There is no script. Everything is carried in memory.
His peers see none of that. Masih muda kok sudah main wayang kayak orang tua aja, they tell him — you're young but already performing puppetry like an old person. He does not argue back. He says he stays calm and goes on training.
The training has taken him out of the village: to neighbouring areas, to the regency's Pendopo at Kajen, and to a young dalang competition where he placed second. Gatotkaca is a standard test piece for performers his age, precisely because the flying scenes demand fast, controlled puppet movement — the technique the judges watch.
What he wants next is Institut Seni Indonesia Surakarta, on the eastern edge of the city, one of only a handful of places in Indonesia where puppetry can be studied to a degree. His reason reaches back further than any curriculum. He points to Sunan Kalijaga, who used the shadow screen to carry his teachings to ordinary people, and finds in that a use for what his classmates call old.
What was once a small baby suddenly becomes big.