[ 緬 甸 ]
- Myanmar -

Myanmar is a multiethnic nation neighboring India, Thailand, and Laos. It is a typical Buddhist country, and religion has an immense impact on social, cultural and artistic aspects of the nation.

The most renowned form of puppet theatre in Myanmar is string puppetry which first appeared during the Inwa period. Shin Maha Rahta Thara, a Buddhist monk, described in a poem a thing that appeared on top of the tree, hid behind the leaves, had different shapes, climbed up and down along the trunk, and was like “a dancing object controlled by strings.” Many believe that the object mentioned in the poem is a string puppet. Puppetry is often seen in foreign missioners’ and colonizers’ records after the eighteenth century.

The earliest dance tradition in Myanmar was performed by human dancers, and the earliest dramatic tradition was puppet theatre. The reason is that most theatrical performances were associated with religion, and puppetry helped avoid the desecration of humans playing the role of the god. Therefore, it is commonly believed that puppetry is the origin of Myanmar drama. Additionally, in some of the records documenting the time when Gautama Buddha was alive, there were already descriptions of string puppetry. The string puppet shows are also mostly about the birth of Buddha and Mahabharata. Hence, the development of puppetry in Myanmar is closely connected to Indian Buddhist culture.

Supported by the emperors, string puppetry had already been performed both in the courts and for the local public in the nineteenth century. There were even theatre auditoriums dedicated to string puppetry. Later when the British colonizers arrived, the planning and construction of railways further brought string puppet shows to different corners of Myanmar’s cities and countryside. After the Second World War, the government had been reviving and supporting the development of puppetry; however, traditional string puppetry gradually vanished in the 1990s as a result of the changing society. In 1993, the National University of Arts and Culture, Yangon made string puppetry a required course for students in drama, and has been collaborating with other government institutions and professional puppet troupes to preserve and pass on this traditional art.