Yoke thé (lit. miniatures) is the Burmese name for marionette puppetry. Although the term can be used for marionettery in general, its usage usually refers to the local form of string puppetry. Like most of Burmese refined art, Yoke thé performances originated from Royal patronage and were gradually adapted for the wider populace. Yoke thé are almost always performed in operas.
Burmese marionettes are very intricate and dexterous as they employ 18 (for male characters) or 19 (for female) wires, each puppet controlled only by one puppeteer.
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The probable origin of Burmese marionettes is given as around 1780 during the reign of Singu Min and is credited to the Minister of Royal Entertainment, U Thaw. From its inception, marionettes grew in popularity in the courts of the Konbaung dynasty. Little has changed since its creation by U Thaw, and the same set of characters developed by him have been in use til today. Till the conquest of Upper Burma by the British in late 1885, Yoke thé troupes enjoyed royal patronage and thrived due to the financial support.
A Burmese marionette troupe must have 27 character figures.
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A hsaing waing, a traditional Burmese orchestra usually provides the music. The puppeteers themselves usually provide the voice of the characters.
The Burmese court was concerned with preserving the dignity of its members and marionettes were often used to preserve the esteem of a person who had erred. The king could reprimand his children or his wife in this way by asking the puppeteers to put on a parable correcting errant children or careless wives about their reckless ways. While the reprimand would be obvious to anyone who was "in the know" it would largely pass unheeded by the people looking on, something that had a great deal of value in a court that could, and did contain hundreds of people.
The Burmese marionettes also served as a conduit between the ruler and his subjects. Many times, people would ask the puppeteers to mention in a veiled fashion a current event or warning to the ruler. Thus, information or popular discontent could be transferred on without any disrespect, as marionettes could say things that a human could be punished for with death.[1]
Yoke thé troupes, like most artisans in pre-colonial Burma alongside the Sangha enjoyed great royal patronage. However, like most forms of traditional art work, the support dried up upon the colonisation of Upper Burma by the British in November 1885 following the Third Anglo-Burmese War.
In the late 1990s, General Khin Nyunt of the ruling junta lent official support to the Marionette actors and troupes[2], reviving a rapidly dying tradition. Nowadays, marionettes are very common in tourist attractions and also amongst the populace, as they resume their role of relatively safer political satire and popular discontent.
A new genre of Yoke thé is emerging where a yoke thé character and a real life actor perform the same feat, usually with the yoke thé puppets able to mimic and sometimes out perform their human counterparts.
Htin Aung, Maung; Folk Elements in Burmese Buddhism. London, New York; Oxford University Press, 1962. Khin Zaw, U; Burmese Culture: General and Particular. Yangon; Sarpay Beikman Corporation Press, 1981.
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