they say literally means, "let's go and look at the

leather."

The Thai word 'nang', meaning skin, hide or leather, has

also come to have the colloquial meaning of a movie

because the original screens used for various kinds of

entertainment shows were made of stretched animal

hide.

Long before the invention of movies though, such

stretched-hide screens were being used in shadow-plays

throughout the Southeast Asian peninsula and in Indo-

nesia beyond. In fact it is from the Javanese 'wayang

shadow puppets that the huge Thai 'nang yai' or "big-

leather" puppets were originally derived. These puppets

themselves are also made of leather, so the word 'nang'

has a double meaning in the Thai shadow-play — as it

refers to both the puppets and the screen onto which

their moving silhouetted shapes are cast.

Five times smaller than the large 'rung yai' puppets

are the southern 'nang ta!ung' variety, made and operated

from the peninsular seaport town of Chumphorn south-

wards through Lang Suan and Chaiya. Nakorn Si

Thammarat is said to have the best 'nang talung makers

and players, and the people of this province are known as

'chao talung. 'Talung is also the poetic name for the

southern provincial town of Phattalung.

whereas their smaller southern cousins are — quite un-

necessarily, since only their shadow is seen on the screen.

The coloring is just a part of the natural Thai love for

decoration wherever possible.

'Nang talung puppets are made out of young calfskin

dried in the sun. After drying, both sides of the skin are

scraped with a coconut shell until they're quite smooth,

and then lacquered with 'rak' from the "black varnish"

tree. The designs, always based on characters from the

'Ramakien' are drawn on with a scriber and then cut out

by chisel — a task calling for much artistry and skill.

Wooden sticks for manipulating the arms and legs are

attached.

Besides characters from the 'Ramakien', the fun-

loving southerners have introduced their own comic-

lively and down-to-earth.

In earlier times copper sulphate mixed with lime-

juice was used for green coloring; 'nam /ang' or juice from

the sapan-wood tree for yellow, and the same juice mixed

with alum for red. But these colors don't last, and now

a-days water-colors are used.

Several people in Bangkok presently make 'nang

talung puppets only about a foot high, for tourists to buy

lost much of their appeal because of the general increase

in the tempo of life and the encroachment of more

modern types of entertainment such as films and tele-

vision. For this reason, it is now almost impossible to hire

a troupe of 'nang talung' players for funerals, the most

common occasion on which this entertainment was

shown in earlier times. Displays were also given on such

auspicious occasions as anniversaries, New Year and so

on, particularly among the Mon communities in places

such as Pathum Thani, Pakkred and Phrapradaeng near

Bangkok.

In Phetchburi Province, however, there are still a

number of 'nang talung' troupes available to play at

funerals. In Bangkok only one such troupe is left. Its

The troupe, consisting of twenty players, also provides

'khan' and other traditional Thai entertainment. Some-

times the Fine Arts Department asks this troupe to play

on the occasion of a national celebration or for visiting

foreign dignitaries. The owner of the troupe has about a

thousand 'nang talung puppets depicting characters from

herited from his father, who got them in turn from his

teacher.

A 'nang tafung' performance needs a classical Thai

'pinphat' band with pairs of 'tapones' or double-headed

drums, giong toofe' (small drums), 'kong nora' or gongs,

'grap', something like wooden castanets, 'ching or small

cup-shaped cymbals, and a 'phi chawa' or Java flute. The

'nang' or screen, a large white sheet measuring fifteen feet

by twelve, gaily fringed with red, blue or green, is stretch-

ed upright on the stage, held in position from behind by a

banana tree. Lights behind the screen and behind the

puppets, but in front of the players who manipulate

them, shine onto the screen and through it, cast huge

shadows of the puppets on the side facing the audience.

It's more or less the same principle as what used to be

called "rear-projection" in the movie industry in the

years before electronics took over such processes. In the

old days of 'nang talung,' two bronze lamps boosted by

galvanized-iron reflectors were used.

The players also have to sing and act as narrators. In

earlier times, too, a troupe of eight players was considered

enough. Nowadays a larger band is needed, it's said, to