Thursday, August 22, 2013

FIRST DRAFT : HANUMAN'S KHON MASK AT NATIONAL MUSEUM




Khon is Thai's royal performance art that were assumed to be first played in Ayutthaya period. This performance has been preserved since then, so each period had various style of it own but it bloomed the most in Rattanakosin, King Rama VI era. Khon performance derived from the story of 'Ramayana' which is about a Hindu God that reincarnated to the Earth to fight with the Giant's king to help his him from his own dignity, with the help from the monkey soldiers.

As the performance composed of many elements, Khon mask will be one of the many elements that people would think of first when talking about Khon. The mask itself also has many features that used to identify each character identity such as different types of mouth, eyes, skin's color and crown. Therefore, the actor need to practice hard to perform as the character. And the mask is a tool to help an actor change his or her self to another, to narrate the story.

Hanuman is the King of Monkey in the story of Ramayana which played an important role by helping King Rama (God reincarnation) kill the Giant's King. The Khon mask of Hanuman were made to goes with his look and abilities, so the normal Hanuman Khon mask is in white skin, mouth open, short crown and there is a crystal in its mouth. However, the mask at National museum is different, because it made up of mother of pearl and steel mesh by King Rama II in the beginning of Rattanakosin Era.

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