Yoke thé

Yoke thé (in English miniatures) is the traditional form of Burmese puppetry. The marionette type of puppets are used. Performances are almost always held in operas. Yoke thé plays were first held sometime around 1780. At the beginning only the royalty could watch them. Later it became available for a wider audience.

Yoke thé puppeteer and his puppet

Yoke thé puppet play includes 27 characters. Some of them are the Hyin (horse), Myauk (monkey), Kyar (tiger), Minthar (prince), Minthamee (princess), Yathei (hermit) etc. It takes quite a bit of skill to control each puppet.

The music that can be heard is performed the traditional Burmese type of music band called the hsaing waing. The band usually consists of different gongs (kyi waing, maung hsiang), drums (pat waing, chauk lon pat), hne (double reed pipe), si (bell) and wa (clapper).