Little puppet master

Little puppet master

Meet the country's youngest nang talung puppeteer

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE
Little puppet master
Sakon Suwannakhot, Thailand's youngest nang talung puppet master, performs at the Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Art Centre.

Last month, hundreds of people were enjoying the traditional southern Thai shadow puppet performance known as nang talung. At a show at Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Art Centre in Bangkok, they were mesmerised by the puppeteering, singing and dubbing skills of Thailand's youngest nang talung performer, Sakon Suwannakhot. This nine-year-old boy from Phra Phrom, Nakhon Si Thammarat, started practising the art at the age of seven. Today, he is the puppet master of a seven-member troupe under the Talung Dharma Youth Project of Wat Phra Phrom.

"I had been watching nang talung and liked it a lot, especially the shows in Lan Saka. I like the beauty of the shadow puppets. So I asked my parents to buy the Queen, Hermit and Hero puppets for me when I was six," Sakon said.

At the performance at Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Art Centre, Sakon, then a third-grader at Wat Thao Khot School, brought out his best by performing two folk tales before a few hundred viewers. He skilfully controlled and voiced almost 30 shadow puppets, sang along with the rhythmic, fast-paced traditional southern music, and occasionally put in jokes -- a signature of the practice. Most of the audiences felt the excitement, fear and sorrow of the characters, though they just saw the movements of the shadows of the puppets behind the white-cloth screen, and heard Sakon's different tones of voice and the music.

Amid concerns that the popularity of traditional art may recede, Sakon shows that a young person can still keep the cultural heritage alive. In fact, nang talung still attracts crowds in the southern provinces, especially when well-known masters are behind the screen.

According to Sakon, he developed his passion for shadow puppets by listening to such shows on the radio every morning, when his mother would tune in to them.

The boy recalled that three years ago his elder brother suggested he apply for a puppet training course taught by Manoch Pengthong, a nang talung instructor, under the Talung Dharma Youth Project at Wat Phra Phrom. Since then, he and several other local boys have stayed overnight at the temple to practise every weekend.

"It took two to three days for me to understand the basics. I had to listen to rhythms, especially those of drums and other percussion instruments, first, and then start my singing lessons. It wasn't difficult because I enjoy it. I kept practising until I knew automatically what to do next," Sakon said.

He practised mastering the Hermit character first. This is usually the puppet which comes out to introduce each story with dhamma and other teachings. Nang talung has a set of characters, notably the jokers, and the art relies much on storytelling and improvised jokes rendered in rap-like phrases.

Sakon is a hardworking, smart and fast learner, and abbot Phra Khru Veerasudanorn often assigns the boy to recite nang talung poems relating to dhamma before Buddhists at the temple. The boy collected some reward money and spent it buying more shadow puppets to practise with. Word-of-mouth spread from temple visitors to the whole community about Sakon's talent. Since then, wherever he's gone, he's been asked by locals to sing for them.

After some training, Manoch, the teacher, allowed his students to take turns performing nang talung during temple celebrations. In less than a year, Sakon became qualified to perform all acts and scenes from two folk tales. Later, Manoch took Sakon to participate in the teacher-worshipping and commencement ceremonies with master Sripat Kuasakul of Surat Thani -- a rite of passage for professionals -- and Sakon has since become a nang talung puppet master.

Sakon performed his first show during the celebration of Visakha Bucha Day at Wat Maha That Worawihan in Nakhon Si Thammarat, on Aug 7, 2014. The performance wowed the audience and several nang talung masters.

Since then, Sakon has led the troupe to perform all across Nakhon Si Thammarat and nearby provinces. "I recite the poems in everyday life as well, such as while taking a bath," Sakon said. "There have been times when I forgot the lyrics to and must do mutto [improvisation]."

His instructor, Manoch, who was born to a nang talung master family in Surat Thani, explained that the mutto is the way puppet masters recite a kind of poetry called klon paed by combining eight words and trying to end with the vowel "ar", making it easy to compose the next line.

According to Manoch, nang talung combines all manner of art, including leather carving and painting (for puppet making), literature (for writing scripts), music and performing arts, as well as rituals which have psychological effects on performers. To him, nang talung is the most difficult type of performing art because only one person must accomplish multiple tasks, from singing, mastering many puppets and doing different voices for all the characters. In addition, puppet masters must have a sense of humour and tricks to attract audiences' attention.

Today, Sakon has excelled enough to perform two entire folk tales -- entitled Kaew Pracham Muang (The City's Symbolic Gem) and Khaimook Dam (The Black Pearl) -- and parts of some others, such as Namjai Mae (A Mother's Kindness). Each of these stories contains moral lessons and can be mixed with other subjects, such as history.

Currently, the Talung Dharma Youth Project at Wat Phra Phrom offers training for more than 10 local children aged four to 12.

To Manoch, the name of the project is inspired by the fact that art serves religion. His father, also a master, once said the screen of nang talung stands for the Four Truths in Buddhism: Suffering, Causes of Suffering, the End of Suffering and Paths to the End of Suffering. Shadows represent illusions, which just go past our minds. If we're obsessed with illusions, we suffer. The light in the middle of the screen stands for the enlightened mind, while the puppet-mastering stands for a means to reach enlightenment. Religious meanings are hidden even in certain characters, like the Hermit and god Shiva. In all, everything about nang talung can be learned as religious teachings through comparison and personification.

Sakon added: "Each story has its morals. For example, The City's Symbolic Gem is about people who like to show off their precious things until ghosts come to steal these things from them. In this tale, the king asks his consort why she loves to show her gems."

Last year, the Ministry of Culture presented Sakon with an award for being a youngster who's contributed to religion, art and culture at the provincial level. Despite much praise, the boy still practises hard while continuing to do other things he likes, such as painting and writing. Sakon said he wanted to become an art teacher, and he was once shortlisted in a national painting contest.

His beautiful sketches and captions about nang talung prompted National Artist in Literature Makut Onrudee to look him up, and that led to support for him and his troupe to perform in Bangkok last month.

"I like to play funny characters, especially Yod Thong. I'm a naturally funny person, and I like creating my own jokes," Sakon replied when asked what character he favours the most.

He admitted that he still has a lot of practicing to do, despite his popularity, because he's confused with the voices of certain characters. Whenever he wrongly dubs characters, he'll start the dialogue over.

Manoch added that Sakon sometimes sings and speaks too fast when his emotions get the better of him.

To Manoch, in the eyes of grown-ups Sakon is just a child. Most audiences will not get upset when he makes mistakes because they know he's just a boy. But Sakon has made much more progress than other children his age, capable of performing whole stories without even consulting the scripts.

"I like everything about nang talung. I want to go professional, but I must practise more," Sakon said. For many, it's incredible for a little boy to become a puppet master and perform at this level. Sakon has shown that the southern art, sometimes forgotten by the rest of the country, is still alive and well.

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