ARTS-ENTERTAINMENT – 3.

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Kalinga Seneviratne

HANOI, Jun 30 1998 (IPS) - Water puppetry, a unique Vietnamese art form has been known to rural farmers in the north of the country since the 11th century.

Today water puppetry is delighting tourists and others in the nation’s capital who only now are discovering one of the most remarkablke features of Vietnam’s cultural heritage.

“Water Puppetry is unique in the world and only our country has this art,” says Le Van Ngo, director of the Thang Long Water Puppet troupe. “We are working here for the development of our culture. The state gives us a salary and this is our main job.”

At a time when Vietnamese villagers are getting more into the market economy, the country’s opening up to the world and the tourism boom has helped to save this art form from a real possibility of extinction. Where once they were part of the planting rituals of northern villagers, today water puppet shows in the countryside are performed only during the New Year festivities and on special festive occasions.

In 1993, the government set up the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre here in Hanoi to popularise the art as a concert production. Situated on the banks of scenic Hoan Kiem Lake in the city centre, the Theatre stages a nightly 90-minute show for the benefit of foreign tourists, as well as southern Vietnamese visiting Hanoi.

The effort has been welcomed by cultural preservationists. After all, Vietnam’s history is one of successive wars that have left in their wake destruction of the nation’s monuments and heritage. It is difficult therefore to trace the origins of water puppetry, although it is known to have been performed for centuries now mainly in the Red River Delta.

Indeed, it is in that area where the only known ruins of water puppet theatres are found — at the pavilion of Thay pagoda, circa 16th century, and at the Dong Temple built in 1775. Some historical inscriptions found recently indicate that water puppetry was in vogue in the courts of the 11th century.

Tradition has it that water puppetry began as a ceremony to invoke the blessings of the deities for the rice crop to have sufficient water. The stage always was set in a pond by a pagoda in the midst of green paddy fields.

Huu Ngoc, chairman of the editorial council of ‘Vietnam Cultural Window’, a monthly English language magazine on Vietnamese culture, describes the Red River Delta as “an area that is hot and humid. The land is filled with rivers, and every village has a pond or lake that can be used as a theatre”.

The audience usually sits on three sides of the pond, while the fourth side includes the “stage” part of the water, as well as the manipulation room where the puppeteers are hidden.

The base of each puppet is submerged and fitted with a control mechanism of levers, pulleys and strings. The artiste inside the manipulation room use these levers and strings to constitute elaborate movements and dance sequences.

All these manoeuvering are done underwater, which means the puppeteers have to be submerged at least waist-high in water throughout the performance. A thick screen covers the manipulation room, thereby making the artists “invisible” to the audience.

The water puppets are made from the wood of the fig tree found on the edges of ponds and lakes all over Northern Vietnam. Each puppet is a riot of colours and is coated with resin from the lacquer tree to make it water-resistant. Various characters, including farm animals and fish make up each story that is always on some aspect of village life.

“During the time of French colonialism,” says Huu Ngoc, “urban people did not know about water puppets because they were performed only in the countryside and only for local villagers to see. As a result, water puppet scenery is entirely rural – rice paddies, bamboo gates, fishponds, banyan trees, wells and village temples.”

Performances are accompanied by live music and song, provided by a musical group playing traditional instruments like lutes, drums, wood and bamboo bells, gongs, horns and shells.

Percussion instruments in particular accompany gestures and keep up the rhythm of a performance or create an atmosphere of great animation. Firecrackers are also used to provide sound effects.

Here in Hanoi, the indoor theatre still has a pond for a stage and not a wooden floor. The manipulation room takes up the backstage area of the hall. The theatre is owned by the Vietnamese government, and has 50 water puppet artists and musicians employed full-time.

A school of art set up in Hanoi now trains people in this traditional art form as most members of the water puppet troupes being set up around the country do not come from the Red River Delta area.

The Thang Long troupe itself was formed in 1969. It began performing here at its indoor theatre five years ago, after the government opened its doors for foreign tourists. The troupe has since been playing to a packed house each night during the peak tourist season.

There are actually two troupes. One stays in Hanoi while the other goes overseas to popularise this art form. According to Le Van, his troupe has already performed in other Asian countries, North and South America and Europe. They have just returned from a trip to France and Belgium.

On the surface, nothing much seems to have altered in Vietnamese water puppetry despite its “migration” to the cities. But there have been changes, including the tradition under which it is performed. In the olden days, this was done through a guild or a professional craft association in each village.

A water puppetry guild was usually founded and headed by someone enjoying great prestige in the village. The guild’s role was first and foremost to take part in traditional village, but it was also a mutual aid society.

Local authorities donated land and ponds for the guilds and members pooled together their excess rice and money to help each other and to fund the continuation of the art from generation to generation.

Water puppetry was never seen as a means of making money, and there was no such thing as a “professional water puppeteer”. The puppeteer title was earned by participating in various aspects of the art form.

“If you want to see water puppets in their true environment,” says Huu Ngoc, “you must watch them in the cradle where they began, in the open air in a village of the Red River Delta.”

But this is hard to do today. Even tour companies here do not offer such trips. Instead, they organise daily dinner and theatre packages to the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre.

Le Van admits the art is getting commercialised, but he argues that by performing for foreign tourists and taking their shows overseas, Vietnamese traditional culture is being preserved and developed. “The government,” he adds, “pays us to do that.”