Nang Yai Shadow Theatre

Nang Yai Shadow Theatre

Wat Khanon, Ratchaburi

Nang Yai is a form of traditional Thai puppet theatre dating back to medieval times, when it was an entertainment for royalty. The plays depict episodes from the Ramakien, Thailand’s national epic, with a plethora of gods, humans, and other characters of an intermediate status, such as Hanuman the Monkey King. In Thai mask theatre, Hanuman is always depicted with a white face, since he’s one of the good guys. There is also a black monkey who symbolizes evil. The color-coding helps you keep track of who is doing what to whom on the stage.

Today, the art of Nang Yai is preserved at only a few sites in Thailand, most notably at Wat Khanon, a temple complex in Ratchaburi Province. Wat Khanon offers Nang Yai performances at 10 a.m. every Saturday and maintains a museum to preserve and display original shadow puppets. The puppets used in the performances are replicas; the project of replicating the originals was funded by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. A few weeks ago, a fellow PCV and I attended a performance at Wat Khanon. 

The word nang yai literally means “big hide” – the elaborate figures used in the play are incised into cowhide, painted, and attached to a frame for carrying them during the performance. Here are a couple of photos taken in the museum, where you can get up close enough to see details.

As you can see, the figures don’t have moving parts. They are held and moved by dancers who act out the story recited by a narrator and accompanied by music.

The performances are free. My PCV friend and I sat close to the front of the auditorium, surrounded by schoolboys who had arrived in two large buses. I had a hard time keeping the taller boys' heads out of my photos during the performance. The students had no doubt been briefed by their teachers about what they would see. We, alas, had not -- so I can only show you some of what I saw, but can't interpret it for you. Here is a brief video of the musicians playing before the performance began.

 Sorry the video ends so abruptly – the music is quite repetitive though, so maybe this brief snippet gives you an idea.

As you can see in the videos below, the performers are all men and boys. In the first one, you hear the narrator speaking – his voice was so strong and his speech so clear that I could almost follow what he said – but sadly, not quite. For example, you can hear him say “keng kan” (=competition) but who was challenging whom wasn’t clear to me.

 In the next video, you see the performers assembling for some kind of crowd scene, accompanied only by the music this time.

In the next video, you see that one of the performers is behind the curtain, rather than in front. I'm nor sure what the significance is as far as the dramatic action is concerned.

I have quite a few more videos of this performance but, not knowing the story, don't feel comfortable posting them. I need to learn more about Nang Yai before writing more about it. I've read that the Ramakien epic was derived from the Hindu Ramayana, and that the shadow puppet theatre form was adapted from an Indonesian model. But I don't know what is considered to be the essential "Thainess" of either the Thai epic or the Thai shadow theatre, let alone how to interpret the performance we saw.  Stay tuned. Meanwhile, here’s a link to a website with some historical information if you are interested.

http://www.thaiwaysmagazine.com/thai_article/2410_nang_yai/nang_yai.html