Water puppetry (also known as water puppet performance) is one kind of traditional intangible cultural heritage. It can be seen as a specially created masterpiece of Vietnamese.
Water puppetry has come from the 11th century in Red River Delta in the north of Vietnam. It often takes place in village festivals, ceremonies, Tet holiday…..by some puppets performing plays or entertainment shows on ponds or paddy fields. Water surface of a chest-deep pool is used as a stage. Puppeteers stand behind a split screen which is painted colorfully by beautiful landscapes or temples…. and hold long bamboo sticks to control puppet actions. Puppets are made of wood mainly and curved out to be in human shape. Then artisan will decorate some details to make them more lifelike. So that a lacquered puppet is quite heavy. It could weigh up to 15 kg. . Being in water for several hours during performance and holding huge puppets are going to be hard challenges for them. If they don’t have a passionate love with their job, they won’t get over.
It can’t be an excellent performance without music background. The most common instruments are often used consist of vocals, wooden bells, cymbals, horns, monochord (Dan Bau), flutes, drums…. When mixing their tones together, musicians will create effect sounds according to flow of story. Playing water puppetry is the way of using skillfully movement instead of words. Music keeps rhythms, speed… and made atmosphere. Audiences are going to understand deeply not only by eyes but also by ears and message of performers will stay longer in their heart.
Water puppets:
Puppeteers:
