Tholpavaakoothu

I heard about Tholpavakoothu, a Shadow puppetry, from my father. In his childhood days this art was performed during the Temple festival in Palghat from 10 pm to day break. I never got a chance to see it in Kerala. It was an amazing moment to see it in Singapore as a part of Kalaa Utsavam 2014.

Tholpavakoothu

Tholpavakoothu is a unique shadow puppet theatre from Kerala which is preserved as a family tradition by the Pulavars community. Temples in India were places to impart knowledge and different art forms thrived in there in times. Tholpavakoothu is a ritualistic art form dedicated to Bhagavati, the mother Goddess and performed during the Temple Festivals, Utsavams. This puppetry is performed in Koothu Mandapam, a specially constructed theatre in front of the temple during the months of January to May. During the times when the entertainments were mainly by live performers many art forms thrived in Kerala. Tholpavakoothu was a way to narrate the epic stories using puppets. The stories are narrated in a dialect of Tamil language with an admixture of Sanskrit and Malayalam words.
The show which we went for was based on selected verses from the famous Tamil Epic "Kamba Ramayana". The entire epic has 71 characters represented by 160 puppets in four main categories of sitting, standing, walking  and fighting. There are puppets to depict nature, battle scenes and ceremonial parades.The screen is illuminated by coconut shells and lit by using coconut oil with cotton wicks and placed equidistant from each other on the Vilakku Mandapam which is made of wooden beam behind the curtain. The instruments used are Ezhu Para, cylindrical drum made of jackfruit wood, Ilathalam (cymbals), Shankha (conch), Chenda and Maddalam (drums), Chengila (gong) and Kurum-kuzhal (short pipe). Depending on temple tradition performance lasts for 7, 14, 21, 41 or 71 days.

Rama, Sita and Lakshmana

Panchavati 

Surpanakha mourning the death of her son

Surpanakha luring Lakshmana to marriage

Maricha in the form of golden deer

Maricha crying out to Sita and Lakshmana while dying

Ravana kidnaps Sita

Jatayu raging war with Ravana

Bali killed by Rama's arrow

There is humour in the narration to entertain the audience with dialogues of the characters. The battle of Bali and Sugriva is narrated hilariously that you can visualize the battle of two monkeys, pulling each other by hair, biting and calling out names at each other. The puppets are made of deer skin and are held by thin stick on one hand of the puppeteer while the limbs of the puppets are manipulated by a thinner stick held in another hand which makes the puppets so live and moving.

Battle scene in Lanka

Rama kills Ravana in the battle

Pattabhishekam of Rama

Tholpavakoothu is still performed in more than 100 temples all over Palghat, Trichur and Malappuram District. The troupe consists of eight artists. The training is no more confined to the community Pulavars. Pulavars is the title bestowed on a person who has undergone training in puppetry, puppet making with knowledge of Tamil literature, especially Kamba Ramayanam. The troupe at Koonathara, in Palghat District, was founded generations back and revived by late Guru Krishnan Kutty Pulavar. This is now the only surviving puppetry troupe in Kerala to preserve the art form and train the new artists in the traditional repertoire. The troupe which had performed in Singapore, was led by K.K. Ramachandra Pulavar, elder son of late Guru Krishnan Kutty Pulavar, assisted by his family.

K.K. Ramachandra Pulavar (L) 

Puppeteers with the puppets

Puppetry is performed in other states of India too, as Bommalata in Andhra Pradesh, Togalu Gombeyata in Karnataka and Ravana Chhaya in Odisha.

In Chinese Culture, puppetry had originated during Han Dynasty, the stories narrated were of events between various war kingdoms and Buddhist stories. The puppets were made of paper sculptures and later replaced with hides of oxen or donkey and hence got its name Pi Ying. The troupe is made of five people, one operates the puppets, one plays the suona horn and a yu-kin, one plays banhu fiddle, one is in charge of percussion instruments and then the singer. This ancient Shadow puppetry is fast becoming a dying art form in China.

Pi Ying

Shadow puppetry around the different cultures goes by Wayang kulit in Indonesia, Nang Yai in Thailand, Turkish shadow play Karagöz and Hacivat was widespread in Ottoman empire with characters representing all of the major ethnic and social groups in that culture.

Wayang Kulit

Karagoz

In some of the puppetry, modern day tales are being included to reach out to different societies. This is a tribute to the artisans who have kept alive this art form all through the changing times.