In an age in which we take mass-produced commercial computer-animated likeness of persons and animals for granted, it is easy to forget that there was a time when puppets were made and by hand and handled by an individual artist. This engaging book takes us on a world journey, back in times recent and distant, to explore and examine these traditions. Surveyed are European traditional puppets; shadow puppets of Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa; puppets in sub-Saharan Africa; the cradle of puppetry in India and Sri Lanka; puppets of China; the Wayang cultural heritage of Indonesia; trans-cultural development of puppetry in Southeast Asia; puppetry as classical and folk theater in Japan and Korea; puppets of Oceania; and puppets in the Americas - both native and imported traditions. And despite the influence of mass culture, traditional puppetry will find an audience of admirers for years to come.