The quintessence of the century-old water puppetry craft in Nam Dinh

Thon Ban Thach (con goi la lang Rach, xa Hong Quang, huyen Nam Truc, tinh Nam Dinh) tu nhieu nam nay noi tieng la mot trong nhung cai noi cua nghe thuat mua roi nuoc mien Bac.

Ban Thach village (also known as Rach village, Hong Quang commune, Nam Truc district, Nam Dinh province) has been famous for many years as one of the cradles of Northern water puppetry. The village has the famous "Nam Chan" water puppet troupe. In a puppet show, there are many different characters. To make the characters look beautiful and sparkling on stage, the lacquer artisans have to create the shapes very elaborately, according to the "secret recipe" that has been passed down for hundreds of years by their ancestors.

Mr. Phan Van Trien (47 years old) has more than 20 years of experience in puppet making. Mr. Trien said that not everyone can let a puppet soak in water for a long time without breaking. From the experience passed down from their ancestors for hundreds of years, the successors create a complete product from 3 stages: sculpting, painting and assembling. In which, the assembling stage is very important, assembling the parts, threading the strings to control the puppet.

Thong thuong se uu tien chon nhung loai go nhe va noi tren mat nuoc nhu: go sung, go cay hoa sua,...

Usually, priority will be given to choosing light and floating wood types such as: fig wood, milk flower wood...

After the puppets are carved, they are then polished and decorated with different colors of paint to enhance the lines and personality of each character.

“After painting and drying, the puppets need to be assembled in the correct position, creating an active shape, with movements and gestures during the performance. The products we create have diverse themes such as: rural life, folk songs, folk dances, animals in the four sacred animals, characters in fairy tales... For craftsmen like us, the more perfect the puppets are, the more they help improve the control techniques and the ability to express richly,” Mr. Phan Van Tram (46 years old) shared.