Shadow Puppet show
Travel Location: Siem-Reap,Cambodia
Surprisingly having been booked out the previous night – we were lucky enough to be the only ones tonight and therefore had our own private viewing, which the kids thought was pretty special.
“Lakhoen Sbeks” (as known in Khmer) was placed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage list as an abstract art since 2000. The ancient art of shadow puppetry in Cambodia dates back a thousand years. There are three different types of puppetry:
Sbaek thom – this is the Royal form of Cambodian puppetry – meaning literally large leather or big shadow puppet. The story represents the Ramayana epic and they perform only during the night and have no articulated limbs. Each puppet depicts one or more character posed within an ornate frame.
Sbaek Por – created in the Chaktomuk period (1859 – 1904) – puppets are smaller and colourfully painted and played during the daytime in front of the screen. These puppets have no moving parts, but only superficial carvings, and represented people rather than gods.
Sbaek Touch – small leather puppets – have articulated limbs and moving jaws. These puppets are used to perform ancient stories adn everyday life. These were the puppets we saw on the night. They were made from buffalo skin – hence they stank close up!!
The show consisted of three stories:
White or black monkey King – A long time ago there were two monkeys constantly fighting for occupying a forest where they use to hunt for food. One day the white monkey saw the black monkey destroying veges in the villages, and sure enough a fight occurred. Suddenly an old woman passing by decided to tie up the two fighting monkeys and brought them to the wise hermit. After lecturing the two monkeys with sound advice he set the free back in the forest.
The buffalo fighting – Once upon a time a man was walking to the river with his buffalo. On the way he met a woman also walking with her buffalo. He approached the woman to bet on the result of a buffalo fight. The man’s buffalo died. The man then asked the woman to give him the winning animal (the cheek of him!). They fought as she refused. The police arrived and lectured them on unlawful gambling. Afterwhich he set them free to go back to their homes.
The Reamker story – A Khmer adaptation of Ramayana (an epic narrative of Indian origin). A Prince (Preah Ream) is exile to the forest. Following many adventures, including the abduction of his wife, Neang Seda, by the evil giant, Krong reap, and her eventual rescue with help of an army of monkeys. The prince returns home in triumph and claims his throne.
The whole show went for an hour and was served with a 4 course meal of absolutely delicious Khmer food. The show was accompanied by a traditional Khmer musical band and as we were the only people there we were able to talk to the band players and find out the name of their instruments – not that I can recall them now! All in all we had a fantastic night!
From Zara’s diary:
Tonight we went to the shadow puppet show – we had the whole place to ourselves because it was a week night. The food they served us was a bit spicy so they gave Theo and I a special meal of fried veges and rice which was not spicy. The servers were really friendly and thought Theo was really cute, they played with us after the show.
The puppets were made out of buffalo skin, it was really tough and smelled horrible. The people working the puppets behind the screen were really clever as they moved the puppets according to the story – even their mouths moved when they talked. We couldn’t understand because they were speaking in Khmer but we understood the general idea of the story. Our task is to try to find and buy a shadow puppet in the markets, but I don’t want it in my bag smelling out all my clothes!
