A pavilion is set up in the middle of the middle of a pond, with puppeteers standing waist-deep in the water behind bamboo curtains (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - Founded in the 11thcentury under Ly Dynasty, Dong Ngu village’s unique form of water puppetrycontinues to draw crowds today, with unparalleled mystery, mastery andcommitment from its performers.
Rotund and jolly looking, Teu, narrator of theplay, invites the audience in the traditional way, offering them betel leavesand areca nuts to chew.
The children are most excited at receiving thebetel leaf and areca nut, though they cannot consume it.
They are excited because Teu is walking onwater, gliding rather, and even jumping/bobbing a bit to the cheerful, livelymusic in the background.
Teu is a water puppet who can go farther thanother traditional peers because his puppeteer uses a system of pulleys andwires rather than the stiff bamboo poles usually used in traditional waterpuppetry.
This sophisticated technique, a precursor to themodern robot, is particular to Dong Ngu village in the northern province of BacNinh.
The greater reach and flexibility of thetechnique also allows Teu to offer flowers to distinguished guests attendingthe play during ceremonies held before the play starts.
Villagers in the Red River Delta and otherrice-growing regions in the north of Vietnam have for long staged water puppetperformances to celebrate the end of the rice harvest, at religious festivalsand other important occasions.
Founded in the 11th century under the LyDynasty, Dong Ngu village’s unique style of water puppetry continues to drawcrowds today, the mastery and commitment from its performers able to entertainpeople of all ages from all walks of life.
Today, Nguyen Thanh Lai is considered the mostactive artisan devoted to preserving and promoting the traditional art. At 47,he is old enough to be experienced and young enough to enthusiasticallyorganise performances and introduce the Dong Ngu village water puppetry styleto audiences nationwide.
Though Lai was born in the cradle of waterpuppetry, he took it up as a career by accident. He was a mechanic who repairedcars in Hanoi.
In 2000 he was involved in an accident andreturned to Dong Ngu village to recuperate. In those days, he spent his freetime watching old artisans perform and manipulate the puppets. He was sofascinated that it changed his life, totally.
He decided to learn seriously and become a waterpuppeteer. With his aptitude and experience for mechanical things, he soonbecame one among few artisans in the village to master the technique of makingpuppets.
“Most of Dong Ngu villagers know how to controlthe puppets but there are not many people who can make them,” he said.
The water puppets are made of lacquered wood.The best wood to make the puppets is that of the cluster fig tree which is light,soft and durable , allowing the puppets to float easily on the water surface.
Another unique aspect of Dong Ngu puppetry,which makes it from other forms in the Red River Delta is the quan ho (loveduets) songs that accompany the plays,” said Lai.
“Bac Ninh province is the cradle of quan hosinging. That’s the reason why we perform quan ho in most of our water puppetryplays.”
Teu is the most notable character in waterpuppetry, telling stories and making people laugh with his actions. Lai andcolleagues have created some new pieces, like the Mouse’s Wedding, inspired bythe Dong Ho folk painting, Moi Trau (Offering Betel) and Fairies’Dance.
Their repertoire includes classical piecesfeaturing historic legends and the daily life of Vietnamese farmers includingbuffalo fights, fishing, swimming contests and lion dances.
Kids in the audience get basic lessons in water puppetry (Photo: VNA)Once he became well versed in the art, Laiestablished his own Luy Lau Water Puppetry Company in 2010 to preserve andpromote the traditional art “in a modern and creative way.”
The troupe has created stable jobs for manyartisans. His troupe has performed in many festivals, in their hometown andneighbouring regions. Besides, they have contracts to perform regularly at theEthnic Minority Culture Museum in the northern province of Thai Nguyen, theVietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi and Tuan Chau Tourist Site in the northernprovince of Quang Ninh.
“At the Tuan Chau Tourist Site, we perform sixshows a day in summer and three shows a day in winter,” he said.
Duong Van Giao, 60, highly appreciates theefforts of young artisans like Lai. Without him, Dong Ngu water puppetry wouldnot have revived, he said.
While the Dong Ngu water puppetry has a1,000-year-old tradition with unique characteristics, like other traditionalart forms, the wars that the nation was forced to fight destroyed all thepuppets and the thuy dinh (water pavilions – theatre for water puppetry, thatwould occupy the middle of the pond, with the puppeteers stand waist-deep inthe water behind a bamboo curtain).
With many Dong Ngu villagers serving in thearmy, the art disappeared for several decades.
Thanks to artisans of the Dong Ngu PuppetryGuild and the Luy Lau Water Puppetry Company, it has been revived, preservedand developed.
“We began to restore the art in 1985,” saidGiao. “We contributed bamboo and wood to build another thuy dinh and makepuppets.”
Giao’s team performed at festivals held in theneighbouring villages. At the end of the performance, they insisted of beingpaid in equipment like loudspeakers instead of money, because it was expensivethen.
Despite his age, Giao doesn’t mind standing inthe water for long periods of time, but said his hands are no longer strongenough to control the puppets for hours.
“But I’m willing to help Lai train the nextgenerations of puppeteers professionally,” Giao said.
“We have to aim to train an artisan to controlall puppets. And all performers should be able to make and repair the puppets,”said Giao.
Furthermore, in the future, small-sized puppetswould be produced so that tourists and visitors can buy them as souvenirs, hesaid.
The artisan also said attention should be paidto training people in playing musical instruments and singing, because musicwas an integral part of a water puppetry performance.
Lai agreed. “Quan ho is a part of whatdistinguishes Dong Ngu water puppetry,” he said.
“The live music brings forth emotions, inspiresand excites both audiences and performers.
“The experienced singers can perform in harmonywith the puppeteers, even help them hide some errors. For example, once apuppeteer making Teu climb the areca palm lost his grip and the puppet felldown. The singer immediately stopped the song and cried ‘ouch’. The audiencedidn’t realise the mistake. They believed that the fall is a part of the plot.”
Nguyen Thanh Lai is considered the most active artist in preserving and promoting the unique form of water puppetry in Dong Ngu village, Bac Ninh province (Photo: VNA)Lai has had his daughter Nguyen Mai Linh Huong,13, learn ca tru (ceremonial singing) and quan ho. She’s become the youngestmember of the troupe, singing together with the band as they accompany thewater puppeteers.
"I have performed with my father’s troupemany times and I like the perfect harmony between the two folk artstyles," she said.
"I actually prefer the playback singing tosinging on stage.
“Children of Dong Ngu Village love to play withthe puppets since we are little, but it was only when I was 10 that I couldstart learning because my hands were not strong enough to control the puppets,”she said.
They often stuck flags on water hyacinth plantsto make a stage for themselves and played with the puppets, she added.
The artists do not divulge the secrets behindtheir impressive skills that keep audiences riveted.
To have a farmer jump on a buffalo without anysign of the puppet’s strings or other form of control takes a lot of patienceand practice.
Nguyen Dinh Hiep, 35, said controlling thepuppets with pulleys and strings was much more difficult than using bamboopoles.
"One puppet can move by a dozen stringswhich can easily get tangled. If the puppeteer is careless, the puppets can getstuck and it can be impossible to disentangle them quickly on stage," hesaid.
“We use all our energy, concentration andemotions to make the puppets soulful and lively,” said Hiep.
He said even harder than the performance was thepreparatory work of setting up the stage.
“We perform for an hour, typically, butinstalling the stage can take several days and many hours soaking in the water.We have to prepare all the machines and equipment.
“It’s like a torture if we have to perform incold weather, so before the performance we eat ginger and drink nuoc mam (fishsauce) to keep the body warm,” said Hiep.
Like other artists in the troupe, Hiep dreams tohave an indoor theatre for water puppetry in the village.
“Having a stable stage would help us a lotbecause we won’t have to set up the stage and dismantle everything at the endof the performance. It would save much time and effort.”
“On the other hand, if we have an indoor stage,we can take advantage of light and sound to make the show even more attractiveand impressive.”
Hiep said ruefully that when a performance isheld during the day, the audience can spot mistakes as well as tricks used bythe puppeteers.
“Like magic shows, when audiences don’t know thetrick, it gets more fascinating.”
Promising future
Hiep and other artists in Dong Ngu Village won’thave to wait long to realise their dreams. The provincial People’s Committeehas approved a 17 billion VND (750,000 USD) plan to preserve and promote waterpuppetry, said Nguyen Nho Thuan, vice chairman of the Culture andInformation Bureau of Thuan Thanh district.
“We will support Dong Ngu Water PuppetryGuild and Luy Lau Water Puppetry Company at the same time and create all goodconditions for the artists to perform.”
“We will also continue to work on documents relatedto Dong Ngu water puppetry to propose that the Ministry of Culture, Sportsand Tourism recognises this art form as a National Intangible Heritage.”
Thuan said the local authorities understand thedifficulties and efforts of the artisans. A project to building the Centre forPreserving and Promoting Dong Ngu Water Puppetry will start next year andwill be finished by 2020, he said.
The artisans will have a place to worship andpay tribute to the ancestors of the art, organise training courses, and displayinformation and objects introducing the art.
The local authorities will also join hands withother partners, especially travel agents, to launch tours to discover thevillage’s beauty spots, cultural vestiges and traditional heritage of ThuanThanh district.
The tours will connect Dong Ngu villagewith neighbouring destinations like the Dong Ho folk painting village, DauPagoda and Keo Pagoda.-VNA
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