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Nora, dance drama in southern Thailand marks_1
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  • Manage No, Sortation, Country, Writer ,Date, Copyright
    Manage No EE00001981
    Country Thailand
    ICH Domain Oral traditions and representations Performing Arts Social practices, rituals, festive events Traditional craft skills
    Address
    Of the 387 known Nora troupes in Thailand, 278, or about 70%, are concentrated in the four provinces along the shores of Songkhla Lake, which has long been the center of Nora traditions: Nakhon Si Thammarat (115 troupes), Songkhla (79 troupes); Phatthalung (49 troupes) and Trang (32 troupes). The remaining 109 troupes are scattered in provinces of Surat Thani (38 troupes), Krabi (17 troupes), Narathiwat (15 troupes), Chumphon (12 troupes), Pattani (9 troupes), Satun 6 troupes), Bang Saphan Noi district of Prachuap Khirikhan (6 troupes), Ranong (3 troupes), Yala (2 troupes) and Phuket (1 troupe). There are also several active amateur and youth troupes in educational institutes in Southern Thai provinces. Nora is also practiced in Thai communities outside Thailand, especially in four states in Northern Peninsular Malaysia: Perlis, Kelantan, Kedah, and Penang.
Description Nora is a lively and acrobatic form of dance drama and improvisational singing in local Southern Thai dialect. It is accompanied by strongly rhythmic music and elaborate costumes which embody a distinctive life force in Southern Thailand. Nora derives from community rituals in Southern Thailand that assemble families who perform Nora to honor their former Nora masters and expel harmful spirits. As central part vital community ritual performance, Nora helps the community to re-connect to its ancestors, to keep strong and to re-constitute itself by initiating new Nora dancers, healing illnesses, reconciling communal disorders and blessing all participants. Performances normally include a long oral invocation, followed by a performance centering on a lead character who dances with vigorous and elaborate movements of legs, arms and fingers. The lead Nora performer sings and dances scenes that are usually based on Buddhist Jataka tales – stories about the former lives of Lord Buddha – or those tied to legendary heroes, Phra Suthon and Manohra. The music ensemble plays highly rhythmic and fast-paced southern music, with the Thai southern oboe providing the melody and strong rhythms produced by drums, gongs, cymbals and wooden clappers. The main Nora performers – whether male or female – wear colorful and decorative costumes, with crowns or ‘Serd’ ornamented headdress, beads, bird-like wings tied around the waist, ornate scarves, and ‘Hang Hong’ or swan tails on the back providing the performers a bird-like appearance. Performers also wear long metallic fingernails that curl out from the fingers.
Social and cultural significance Nora is a community-based ritual and artistic form with deep cultural and social significance for Southern Thai individuals and communities. Nora practitioners pass down their ancestral inheritance in both their trainings and their performances. This helps to create solidarity in local Nora communities and to strengthen the vitality of this cultural tradition. Performances use Southern Thai dialects, music and literature to reinforce local cultural life and social bonds among local people. The 12 Southern Jataka and folklore pieces central to Nora ritual performances provide distinctive poetic and rhyme-schemes that structure their ceremonies. Nora helps solidify Southern communities, safeguard local oral and literary traditions, and continue musicals and costume heritage, along with valuing of artistic improvisation. Nora masters and performers embody and enact many social functions, from ethics education and conflict resolution to healthcare awareness. Beside entertaining audiences, stories in Nora performances use Jataka and local tales to teach about karma, seniority and adaptability to change. Performances have become more relevant since performers improvise verses which reference news and current political, economic and popular cultural events. This promotes community solidarity and resilience. Nora’s lineage system enhances social cohesion. By ritually creating family-like units through Nora ceremonies and performances, local people learn to realize and to deepen tolerance and compassion toward their neighbors. The openness of Nora-practicing communities is seen in the acceptance of women as Nora performers. Today, Nora communities take pride in the gender equality that they have long promoted and in their acceptance of practitioners from different walks of life.
Transmission method The knowledge and skills tied to Nora traditions now includes the music, dance, singing and various crafts, as well as organizing and running Nora troupes. These have been transmitted on three different levels: 1. Those transmitted by individual masters in their homes: Parents who know and respect famous Nora masters in the community may enroll their children in private classes, hoping that their children will become professional Nora performers. 2. Those transmitted by masters in community organizations, such as temples and community centres: Many organizations in Southern Thailand promote and organize Nora classes outside normal school time, and arrange for occasional public performances for their students. 3. Those transmitted by trained masters in educational institutions: About 30% of primary and secondary schools at all levels in the 14 Southernmost Thai provinces include Nora as an elective subject in their school curricula. In addition, schools organize and sponsor Nora student clubs to stage youth performances in and beyond their home province. They also enter student troupes in regional and national contests or competitions organized by television stations and the Ministry of Culture. Phatthalung College of Dramatic Arts and Nakhon Si Thammarat College of Dramatic Arts, two of twelve national dramatic arts colleges, also run full-time courses on Nora. Moreover, most universities in the South offer Nora as an elective subject or an interest group/subject, while two of them even offer Nora as a major subject, providing intensive studies and skill training, and enabling their graduates to become professional artists.
Community The senior-most masters are bearers of the Nora tradition. Each lineage has inherited a distinctive Nora performance tradition and duties from its lineage ancestors. These masters perform Nora rituals, lead troupes, act as lead singers and dancers, serve as ethical exemplars and mentors to troupe members, and often teach Nora in schools and higher education. Nora practitioners include performers, musicians, related craftspeople, and cultural heirs who participate in Nora ceremonies, whether or not they are performers. Many Nora practitioners are also teachers and students in local schools. Traditionally, Nora was performed only by male artists. However, more equal school education has opened up opportunities for girls and young women to become involved in different aspects of this art form, from dancing, playing music and singing, to costume making. Therefore, there are now many all-female, all-youth Nora troupes, including some young primary school students, who perform publicly across Southern Thailand.
Type of UNESCO List Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
Incribed year in UNESCO List 2021

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