Twalen is a member of the pantheon of gods and demi-gods of Balinese mythology

Balinese mythology

Balinese mythology is the traditional mythology of the people of the Indonesian island of Bali, before the majority adoption of Hinduism.Balinese mythology is mainly a kind of animism with some widely-known characters and deities...

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He is considered to be a clown

Clown

Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...

 in contemporary Balinese stories. He frequently appears in the form of a servant in wayang

Wayang

Wayang is a Javanese word for theatre . When the term is used to refer to kinds of puppet theatre, sometimes the puppet itself is referred to as wayang...

. However, he is older and more powerful than all the Hindu gods, being really the elder brother of Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

 (Siwa in Balinese). His cognate in Javanese tradition is Semar

Semar

Semar is a character in Javanese mythology who frequently appears in wayang shadow plays. He is one of the punokawan , but is in fact divine and very wise. He is the dhanyang of Java, and is regarded by some as the most sacred figure of the kotak...

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