Monthly Photos　June 2021

Photos taken by ILCAA staff and associates are posted here once a month; most of them are taken during their field research in Asia and Africa.

(The copyright belongs to the photographers.)

A scene from “Prince and princess”

The Myanmar marionette reached its peak as a court art of the Konbaung Dynasty during the late 18th and 19th centuries. It was on the verge of extinction during the colonial period and was later revived with the support of tourism and the government's cultural policy, although it is said that the form of performance and the content of the show have drastically changed since the dynasty.
The photo shows a performance of “Prince and princess” at the end of the program at the Myanmar Marionette Theatre in Mandalay. It depicts the story of a prince who goes to study at a university in Taxila, which is considered to be an academic center of ancient India, and brings back to his own country a princess he met there. The prince's puppet was manipulated by one of the foremost performers of the day, who showed a skill that one would not expect from someone born in the 1930s.

25 August 2017
Myanmar Marionette Theatre, Mandalay, Myanmar
Photograph by Hideo SAWADA