My mother, Angela Hobart, who has died aged 86, was a social anthropologist who specialised in the study of the sacred art of Balinese shadow puppetry, by which poet-priests tell stories, projecting shadows of puppets at night under the flickering light of a coconut oil lamp.
She first encountered shadow puppetry when living in Bali in the early 1970s, and conducted research into the topic for many years afterwards, resulting in two books on the subject, Dancing Shadows of Bali: Theatre and Myth (1987) and Healing Performances of Bali: Between Darkness and Light (2005).
