Three bodies, one soul: Tradition and Burmese puppetry

ABSTRACT

‘Three bodies, one soul’, a central concept of Burmese puppetry, can provide a structure to understand the effort by the Mandalay Marionettes to revive this form. Instead of a single puppeteer, three bodies must be coordinated and synchronized in order to bring the soul of the Burmese puppet to life: the singer who speaks and sings for the puppet, the manipulator who moves the puppet, and the orchestra that provides music throughout. This article uses Hobsbawm's idea of ‘invented tradition’ to propose another sense of these three bodies in Burmese puppetry: a dynastic body from the court stage, a postcolonial body from the independent Burmese stage and a transnational body that performs on the international stage.

KEYWORDS:

• Burma
• puppetry
• tradition
• yoke thay