Khon

Show at National Theater on August 29, 2010

Feature & brief history

"Khon", the high class of Thai art is a kind of dancing with graceful tenderness and exquisite elegance. "Khon" has a long history since the Ayutthaya period. In the record of La Rou Bear, the Ambassador of France in the reign of King Narai the Great of Siam (A.D.1656-1688), it said that "Khon" performance was dancing with the sound of twang and instruments. The actors mask to hide their faces and carry weapons. "Khon" is various integration of arts and science ie. literature, dancing art, music art and craftsmanship. The feature of playing and dressing is taken from "ชักนาคดึกดำบรรพ์" (One kind of Thai ancient game). The excitingly sensational action of struggle and dance is applied from the first gesture of dancing of the teachers salute feature from "กระบี่กระบอง" (Clubs or other weapons, Contest with swords) including the arts of dub, conversation and music & song used for the show.

The main characteristics of "Khon"

The main characteristics of the show is masking of the actors called "สวมหัวโขน" (swm-haw-khon). "หัวโขน" (haw-khon) is the mask covering from head to neck. Two holes on mask are drilled for eyes seeing. The emotion is expressed through the dancing. Each dancing gesture and the mask are created differently upon the role of each character ie. the giant, the monkey, the angels, etc. The masks are decorated with colors, lacquer & plate (ลงรักปิดทอง) and decorative glass called  "หน้าโขน" (nar-khon).

Literature for "Khon"

Similar to the drama, Khon's story is played sorting in chronological order. The popular literature to play "Khon" is "รามเกียรติ์" (Ramayana), the story of battle between the giant and the human with the help of the monkey volunteering for troops of the man.