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The art of water puppetry is unique to North Vietnam and goes back at least a thousand years. It probably originated with farmers having some fun in flooded rice paddies. The beautiful, hand-carved wooden puppets are attached to long sticks underwater and controlled by men and women who stand waist deep behind a bamboo scrim. A small orchestra includes flutes, gongs, drums, a bamboo xylophone, singers and the plaintive, single-stringed dan bau. We caught this show at Roi Nuoc Thang Long - an indoor theatre in Hanoi. |
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