Tradition · Thai masked dance-drama
Khon
Also known as Khôn, Thai masked dance drama, Khon Ramakien, โขน
Thailand's masked dance-drama of the Ramakien, a court art in which silent dancers, many of them masked, in glittering costume act the story while narrators and a piphat ensemble supply the words and music. Rama II reworked his father's Ramakien specifically for khon. Simon de La Loubère saw it at the Ayutthaya court in 1687, and UNESCO inscribed it in 2018, in the same session as Cambodia's lkhon khol.
- Function
- Arts & performance
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
Its dancers never speak: the meaning is carried by a codified gesture language, and only the ogre and monkey roles are now normally masked. La Loubère thought it looked 'rather a combat than a dance'.
Connections (4)
- Ramayana traditionRamakien
Khon performs the Ramakien and was shaped by its royal authors. Rama II, son of the king who supervised the standard recension, adapted his father's text for khon, giving Hanuman an expanded role and adding a happy ending, with narrators reading the verse from the side of the stage while masked dancers mimed. In the past the king's own sons danced the monkeys and demons. UNESCO describes khon as glorifying Rama, incarnation of Vishnu, against the giant king Thosakan.
- Court associationAyutthaya, Thailand
Khon is an Ayutthaya court art. The word appears in the poem Lilit Phra Lo of about 1529, and in 1687 Louis XIV's envoy Simon de La Loubère described the Siamese 'Cone' at Ayutthaya: masked and armed dancers whose hideous masks represented monstrous beasts or devils, and who seemed to fight rather than dance. The form survived the city's destruction in 1767 and was rebuilt at the Bangkok court, where it has been cultivated since.
- AnalogueLkhon Khol
Thai khon and Cambodian lkhon khol are sister forms: traditionally all-male masked dance-dramas of the Ramayana, danced to narration and orchestra, the Thai telling the Ramakien and the Khmer the Reamker. Khon grew as a court art, while the best-kept lkhon khol is performed for a village's guardian spirits, and at its thirteenth session in November 2018 UNESCO's committee inscribed both together, khon on the Representative List and Lkhon Khol Wat Svay Andet on the List in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.
- TransmissionYama Zatdaw
Myanmar's scholars agree that their Ramayana dance-drama came from Thailand. Thai dancers and musicians taken captive after Ayutthaya fell in 1767 performed and taught it at the Burmese court, and in 1789 the crown prince ordered the plays brought from Siam translated. One difference stayed: Burmese players lift their masks to speak their dialogue, whereas Thai khon masks are never lifted and the dancers never speak. Only in pure dance do the two match.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, "Khon" and "Ramakien". Simon de La Loubère, Du Royaume de Siam (1691), as quoted there; UNESCO, Khon, masked dance drama in Thailand (2018).
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