Khon – Classical Siamese Dance

Khon Dance. Teatro Argentina. Rome, 7 May 2018

In many years of photography with the various migrant communities, and during my travels, I have been lucky enough to attend many traditional dance performances, many from Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, some truly spectacular from China, the South American folk dances and the Indian ones.

However, without a doubt, one of the most incredible and wonderful performances I have photographed was that of Khon organized by the Thai Embassy in Rome, in 2018.

Photographing theater dance is very difficult, for the position in which we often find ourselves, for the lights not well managed that disturb the colors of the clothes, for how the dancers move on the stage space. But in this case everything was perfect, thanks to the beautiful setting of the Argentina Theater, one of the most beautiful in Rome, and to the use of lights that made each scene like a painting.

I leave you with these splendid images and have a good trip into the classical Siamese arts.

 

On the occasion of the 150th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Thailand and Italy the Royal Thai Embassy in Rome present “Khon – Classical Siamese Dance” performed by Thailand’s Department of Fine Arts.

Khon is an epic Thai drama danced using masks and based on the “Ramakien”, the Thai adaptation of the Indian epic “Ramayana”, born on XVI century.

From Wikipedia:

Khon is a Thai traditional dance which combines many arts. There was no exact evidence that dates its provenance, but it is mentioned in Thai literature's Lilit Phra Lo (c. 1529) which was written before the era of King Narai Maharaj.
Historical evidence shows that the Thai art of stage plays must have already been highly evolved by the 17th century. In 1687, Louis XIV of France sent a diplomat Simon de la Loubère to record all that he saw in the Siamese Kingdom. In his famous account Du Royaume de Siam, La Loubère carefully observed the classic 17th century theatre of Siam, including an epic battle scene from a Khon performance, and recorded what he saw in great detail:

“The Siamese have three sorts of Stage Plays: That which they call Cone [khôn] is a figure dance, to the sound of the violin and some other instruments. The dancers are masked and armed, and represent rather a combat than a dance. And though everyone runs into high motions, and extravagant postures, they cease not continually to intermix some word. Most of their masks are hideous, and represent either monstrous Beasts, or kinds of Devils. The Show which they call Lacone is a poem intermix with Epic and Dramatic, which lasts three days, from eight in the morning till seven at night. They are histories in verse, serious, and sung by several actors always present, and which do only sing reciprocally. The Rabam is a double dance of men and women, which is not martial, but gallant... they can perform it without much tying themselves, because their way of dancing is a simple march round, very slow, and without any high motion; but with a great many slow contortions of the body and arms.”
—La Loubère, Simon (1693). The Kingdom of Siam (ed. 1986). Oxford University Press p. 49

The origin of Khon is hinted at by the origin of the word “Khon”. Its origin is not precisely known, but there are four possibilities. First, “Khon” in Benguela Kalinin appears in the words “kora” or “Khon” which is the name of a musical instrument made of Hindi leather. Its appearance and shape are similar to the drum. It was popular and used for local traditional performances. It was assumed that kora was one of the instruments used in Khon performances. In the Tamil language “Khon” derives from the word “koll” which is close to “goll” or “golumn” in Tamil. These Tamil words relate to dressing or decorating the body from head to toe as in the use of Khon costumes. “Khon” in Iran was derived from the words “zurat khan” which means 'handed-doll' or 'puppet', used in local performances. Its songs were similar to current Khon.

 

Khon Dance. Teatro Argentina. Rome, 7 May 2018

Royal Khon Performance(โขนพระราชทาน) : Thai ballet and classical dance : Prelude Dance

Italian version