• 
• 

Published on February 1, 2008

Culture Minister Khun-ying Khaisri Sri-aroon reported yesterday that the Office of Traditional Arts had finished restoring 16 traditional drama puppets and 71 of the 81 shadow puppets found six months ago.

She said the office would make a set of shadow puppets to put on display at the former premier's residence, while the old ones would be placed in a permanent public exhibition.

MR Kukrit's son, ML Rongrit Pramoj, said the office had restored the finds to their original condition at a cost of only Bt80,000 - a small price compared to their historical value.

Since MR Kukrit's residence is already registered with the Fine Arts Department as a national treasure, Rongrit said he planned to register the ancient puppets as well.

He said he planned to organise a permanent exhibition of the puppets, along with others from the reigns of King Rama I and King II, to educate people about their heritage, and might publish a book about the restoration of the puppets.

Manu Metsuwan, an expert from the Office of Traditional Arts, said the find included 50 shadow puppets for the Ramayana epic that were more than 100 years old - a much larger collection than a 25-character set discovered by the Fine Arts Department.

He said the shadow puppets were likely to have been made by royal craftsmen during the reign of King Rama V, judging from the finely made patterns and the use of beautiful colours rather than just black, which is generally used for shadow puppets.

The Nation