<![CDATA[Masked puppeteer theatre in Java and Madura is commonly described as secular entertainment, yet the Topeng Dheleng of Sumenep, Madura, remains bound to rokat, a rite for warding off misfortune. In this genre all performers are masked men, every voice is supplied by a single puppeteer, and the repertoire favours the Mahabharata and Ramayana over the Panji cycle; previous studies have treated it chiefly as an aesthetic, historical, or documentary object. This article examines the genre as both a cultural performance and a ritual performance. Using a qualitative, descriptive-inductive design, it analyses an all-night performance by the Rukun Perawas group at a wedding in Semaan Village, Dasuk District, Sumenep, in June 2024, drawing on participant observation, video documentation, and semi-structured interviews with a puppeteer, a performer, and a mask maker. The data are interpreted through Turner’s distinction between rites of passage and calendrical rites, Schechner’s efficacy–entertainment continuum, and the concept of cultural performance developed by Singer and Carlson. The performance unfolds in three stages, closing with the Rokat Pandhaba, and transmits communal values of mutual assistance, economic solidarity, and conventionalised cross-gender representation. It is a rite of passage for the couple but acquires a calendrical character across the community, and its most entertaining scenes draw the densest audience participation. Ritual efficacy and theatrical appeal therefore reinforce rather than compete with each other, and safeguarding the genre as intangible cultural heritage must attend to its ritual function as well as its aesthetic form.]]>
