Shadow & Rod Puppets

People sometimes ask me which is the oldest form of puppetry. I believe it must be hand and shadow puppets.

Think about it for just a moment: cavemen (and women and children) sitting around a flickering fire in their cave. One especially artistically inclined tribe member tells a story about the great hunt.

He (or she!) illustrates the story by placing shadows on the wall with his hand—or, a piece of fur covers the hand to create the illusion of an animal in the hunt.

Thus shadow and hand puppets are born.

(Remember: when you see a picture with the colored paper clips below it, you can click on it and it will get bigger and clearer.)

Countries around the world claim credit for the birth of the first "real" professional shadow puppet show.

Ancient Chinese legends claim that in 120 BC, an emperor so missed his dead wife that he hired an entertainer or magician to bring his beloved wife back from the dead.

The story ends tragically as the shadow puppeteer created an illusion so real behind the silk screen that the emperor was enchanted and then finding himself deceived, Sciao-Wong (or Ciao Meng) lost his head for being so clever.

However, in the Sitabenga Cave in India, controversial proof exists of the semi-epic Mahabharata composed by Hunuman, which exists in the Ramayana, a 24,000 line epic poem.

It would make this tale, describing the life of Rama, son to the king Dasciadha, written in the 4th century BC the oldest documented shadow puppet show known to date.

Regardless of who claims the origin, this unique form of puppetry spanned the ancient world as we know it over 2,000 years ago.

So, you say, what are they made of and how do they work?

Most shadow puppet shows are performed behind a screen with the audience in front and the puppeteers in the back with a light source of some kind behind them.

In China, the screen was made out of silk; in India and Java, fine cotton, usually white or ivory in color; in Egypt and Turkey, it was made of parchment or paper.

The shows were usually performed at night with a fire, candles, or torches lighting up the puppets, casting shadows as they moved across the screen.

The puppets were generally flat and made of thin strips of leather, wood or metal. Paper-thin leather gained popularity as it was often colored to create beautiful colored shadows-the wood and metal ones cast only a black shadow on the screen.

The puppeteers usually worked the puppets in front of themselves or over their heads.