Teu” (Teu means “laugh” in ancient Vietnamese). The special character which appears in almost every water puppet shows is “Chu Teu” or “Mr. Various shapes of water puppet in Vietnam (Image by LoggaWiggler from Pixabay) It’s interesting to note that each puppet can weigh as much as around 15 kilograms! Most of the puppets look pretty, cheerful, humorous, and symbolic. They are made based on the human shape, polished and decorated with meticulous details, painted with vivid colors to highlight their own characters and finally coated in lacquer. The water puppets themselves are carved out of a special type of wood, which can easily float on the water. This tradition derives from rice fields flooding and back then people used such water puppetry as entertainment. Long bamboo poles and a string system are used underwater to steer the puppets through their various actions. The level of water is kept waist-deep of the puppeteers so that they can manipulate the puppets behind. The water puppet theatre’s stage, usually 4 meters square, which is called “thủy đình” (“thủy” means nước, “đình” is a communal house) is a large submerged pool, with a curtain in the middle separating the actors from the front-end of the performance. One outstanding difference between water puppetry and land puppetry is the set-up of the stage. Firstly, water puppet shows were just a communal performance during harvest time but then it had gradually become an entertaining activity for the Royals, especially in anniversaries and celebrations. The first evidence for this art form is a piece of writing in “Sung Thien Dien Linh” stone stele, dated from the kingdom of Ly Nhan Tong.
Historians believe that water puppetry originated from wet rice civilization in the Red River Delta of Northern Vietnam during Ly dynasty (1010-1225). Let’s explore this unique traditional Vietnamese art form with Exotic Voyages. While Vietnamese theater is heavily influenced by Chinese opera and comprises different genres such as cải lương, hát tuồng, and hát chèo, it is no exaggeration to say that water puppetry is the most indigenous cultural trait of Vietnam. Though water puppetry (múa rối nước) appeared more than 4000 years ago all across the world, it originated from the Red River Delta region in northern Vietnam. Home Travel Blog The Art of Water Puppetry in Vietnam
0 kommentar(er)
