Thai Puppet Shadow Theatre

The puppet masters of the Asian Shadow Theatres still enjoy some popularity in rural Thailand. This shot was made during one such show, the occation was a 100th day memorial service (done during daytime) for my wifes deceased daughter. In the following evening we invited the participants of the memorial service to our home for some classical Thai entertaining. Her daughter loved this kind of theater, so to honour her taste and memories, we hired the entire crew for a night, to perform in our garden.

The performing troup was 17 members strong, and their show lasted for more than 3 hours, of which the audience laughed almost non stop. Watching such brilliant performance, even though my understanding of the jokes and stories were marginal due to language barriers, I still could appreciate the techniques and skills of such genius at work. Watching people laugh and being happy is a great way to spend an evening!

This is one of the last such groups still performing these kind of shows in Thailand. As can be seen here, they still manage to draw quite a crowd. Some food merchants took the opportunity too to combine working while watching the show.

I'm really grateful to have seen - and captured in QTVR - such a great entertainment.

Asia / Thailand

Lat: 14° 36' 43" N
Long: 100° 0' 45" E

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Low. Intentionally hazy, due to privacy concerns.

Canon EOS 30D, Sigma 8mm f3.5 EX DG. 360Presicion panohead, Manfrotto tripod. iMac 24". PTMac, Photoshop CS2, Cubic Converter.