Water puppets

Description:	Due to its climate, Vietnam is a very humid and wet country. For hundreds of years, Vietnamese people have raised crops of rice in fields of water, fished and tended animals to make a living. Water is very much a part of their world and is often the basis for folklore, belief and art. Water is so central to Vietnamese life that the word for country, nuoc, also means water. Its not hard to imagine how the idea of water puppets came to be! This unique artform, called mua roi nuoc (puppets that dance on water), is performed by special puppeteers who spend their entire lives learning this challenging skill. During a performance, they stand behind a large curtain in waist-deep water where they operate puppets with long bamboo poles. The poles extend in front of the curtain through a pool of water, on top of which the puppets move, dance and do all sorts of acrobatic feats. The surface of the water is their stage! Based upon ancient Vietnamese literature, scholars believe that water puppetry has been performed since the 11th century and possibly earlier. Kings of the Ly and Tran dynasties enjoyed water puppetry as entertainment in their courts. The tradition most likely began in rural areas of Northern Vietnam even earlier. Today, water puppets are performed on temporary stages during festivals in rural areas as well as on more permanent stages at important sites like the waterside pavilions at Thay Pagoda and Dong Temple. Once an almost extinct artform, water puppetry was resurrected in the latter 20th century and declared a national treasure. National performances are regularly given in the National Theatre in the capital city of Hanoi. A few water puppetry troupes continue to travel the countryside as well as internationally to help carry on the tradition. Performances include a variety of historical, legendary and mythical scenes and characters. While some tell of Vietnamese lore and legend, others depict the everyday lives of rural people, often rice farmers and fisherman. A performance usually includes 20-25 scenes, each telling a different story and featuring a variety of puppets. A small folk orchestra, comprised of eight musicians playing drums, gongs, bells, flutes, a xylophone and stringed instruments, sets the rhythm for performances. Traditional Cheo (a form of opera) singers chant and sing songs that tell the story being acted out by the puppets. Specific villages enact their own traditional stories with the puppets. The story of the jealous crocodile is commonly told among the central Highlands of Vietnam. The story goes that a crocodile was in love with a woman from a village, however a man from another village was in love with her. The crocodile fought the man and defeated him, winning the love of the woman.
Source:	http://www.digitalindy.org/cdm/ref/collection/tcm/id/1608
Collection:	The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
Rights:	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/;
Copyright:	Creative Commons (CC By-SA 3.0);
Geography:	Vietnam
Subjects:	Puppets Vietnam Vietnam -- Social life and customs Puppets -- Vietnam

Further information on this record can be found at its source.