In Phnom Penh, Cambodia we saw the leather puppets but not the show. Often the story relates to the Ramayana or Mahabharata epics reminding you that once Indonesia was Hindu and later Buddhist so some story telling traditions of their past still exist. You may not see the puppets but only their shadows clearly on a screen behind which the puppeteer stands and deftly manipulates the puppets to tell his story. They make puppets cut out from flat leather sheets that are mounted on thin bamboo strips. In Indonesia, they have shadow puppets show. Source : U tube video of shadow puppets in Indonesia At the end of the show, all the puppeteers come up to the stage and take a bow while we applaud. so they have an auditorium especially built for it where you will sit in comfort and enjoy the show. It is not the type of itinerant puppeteers that you will find in other countries because it requires a water tank, curtains etc. On one side of the stage are the musicians in their colorful costumes and traditional musical instruments while a narrator tells the story enthralling the audience. The story is about water dragons or such or fishermen in boats so it is a delightful way to move the puppets through water. You only see the puppets in the water that they manipulate through strings or thin bamboo strips attached to the lower part of the puppet that is under water so you do not see the strings or the bamboo either. There is a water tank or pool with a curtain behind which stand the puppeteers so you do not see them. If you see the water puppet show, you will understand why it is called water puppet show. I was particularly impressed by the fact that not so long ago the country was at war and no one could enjoy any type of show in the evening but now the country had peace where anyone could see the shows so it was a great progress. When we went to Vietnam a few years ago, we had the chance to see the “water puppet show “ in Ho Chi Minh City that is quite famous. This blog looks at what we have lost and what some people are trying very hard to preserve.
Synopsis : The introduction of modern era of satellite based entertainment that we watch in our flat screen television everywhere has brought about a gradual disappearance of certain time honored traditions like puppetry in many parts of our planet.
0 kommentar(er)
