More than a puppet on a string in Thailand
A lone Thai puppeteer singlehandedly revives the demons, monkey gods, and fair ladies of old.
from the April 19, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
He made the movements of puppets even more lifelike through an ingenious innovation: aluminum coils wired to cords for manipulating the puppet's hollowed-out neck, head, and mouth. (Hands, wrists, arms, and legs are controlled externally with rods.)
The puppet master then began training his nine children in the arcane art of classical puppetry, staging performances for passersby in his poor neighborhood outside Bangkok.
Sakorn's family troupe debuted in 1985 – but not before Sakorn had first sought Master Krea's permission during an appeasement ceremony. Even today, before every daily show appointed performers kneel at a spirit shrine erected on stage to the dead puppeteer, murmuring pleas for his support.
Soon patronage by the country's venerated royal family catapulted Sakorn to national fame. In 1996, King Bhumibol Adulyadej named him a "National Artist," a singular honor accorded to keepers of hallowed tradition.
Then in 2000 his house burned down with all the puppets in it.
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Fire officials attributed the blaze to an electrical short circuit. Sakorn insists it was Krea's revenge. (His misfortune served as inspiration for a Thai horror movie in which a dead puppeteer's curse destroys anyone who handles his puppets.)
"We were all devastated [by the fire]," recalls Surin Yangkheowsod, the seventh of Sakorn's nine children who now manages the Traditional Thai Puppet Theater – also known as the Joe Louis Puppet Theater – on behalf of the retired and ailing patriarch. "Except Father. He gave us all his savings – 2,000 baht [about $50] – and told us to go buy materials for remaking the puppets."
They owed it to him to start again from scratch, Surin adds. "We feel it's our entire family's obligation to continue Father's passion and legacy," he says.
"We" means not only the patriarch's nine sons and daughters, but also his in-laws and 18 grandchildren. All the relatives train in traditional Thai opera, masked dance, hand-held puppetry, and popular theater.
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