Khon

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This article is about the male masked dance drama of Thailand. For the Khön lineage of the Sakya Order, see Sakya Trizin.
Khon
A khon performance at Thammasat University
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Khon (Thai: โขน) is a genre of dance drama from Thailand. It is traditionally performed solely in the royal court, by men in masks accompanied by narrators and a traditional piphat ensemble. A variation of this genre with female performers is called khon phu ying (โขนผู้หญิง). In Cambodia, the analog of the Khon is a less refined version known as Lakhon khol.

Modern form

Modern khon contains many elements from the lakhon nai and nowadays, include female performers for female characters which were traditionally performed by men.[1] While the ogre and monkey characters still wear masks, most of the human characters do not.[2]

History

Khon is a Thai traditional dance which combines many arts. There was no exactly evidence that proves which era but it is mentioned in Thai literature “Lilit Phra Lo” which was written in King Naraii Maharaj era[3] that there was a show called “Khon” in that era.[4][5] The origin of Khon can be proved by the origin of the word “Khon”. The origin of the word “Khon” is not known. But, there are four possibilities. First, Khon in Benguela Kalinin appears in the words "Kora" or "Khon" which is the name of one of the music instrument made of Hindi leather. Its appearance and shape are similar to the drum. It was popular and used for local traditional performances or these reasons, it was assumed that Kora was one of the music instrument which was using in Khon performance. Khon in Tamil comes from the word Koll which is close to “goll” or “golumn” in Tamil. Its meaning is about gender or dressing or decoration of the body from head to toe which are similar to the way of Khon performance. Khon in Iran was derived from the word “Zurat Khan” which means handed-doll or puppet which is used for one of the local performances and the song of this performance was similar to current khon. Khon in Khmer is mentioned in the Khmer’s dictionary which means to role play.[6]

Gallery

  • Atthami Bucha Festival Laplae Uttaradit 03.jpg
  • Tosakan Khon Golden Mask.jpg
  • Khon Tosakun Ongkot.jpg
  • Khon Dance Frankfurt Germany 2006.jpg
  • Korea-Andong-Hahoe Folk Village-Thai dancer-01.jpg
  • Atthami Bucha Festival Laplae Uttaradit 02.jpg
  • Cast members of khon, 1900.gif
  • Siamese Actors representing a Princess.gif

See also

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Khon.
  • Dance of Thailand

References

Bibliography

  • Brandon, James R. (1967). Theatre in Southeast Asia. Harvard University Press

Notes

  1. ↑ Brandon pg. 67
  2. ↑ Brandon pg. 66
  3. ↑ http://www.finearts.go.th/node/317
  4. ↑ Khone Drama (Retrieved 9th Oct,2013) http://www.l3nr.org/posts/51516
  5. ↑ Sriworapoj Boonteun.โขน อัจฉริยลักษณ์แห่งนาฎศิลป์ไทย. Bangkok,Thailand: Rungsri printing company, 2552
  6. ↑ https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%82%E0%B8%99
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