Shadow play treasures return to Thailand
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An American couple has given dozens of centuries-old framed and delicately carved cow skins for grand shadow plays to the Thai government so the items can be returned to their origins.
“They have historical value,” Culture Minister Sukumol Kunplome said yesterday.
Sukomol said Dr Sarah M Bekker and her husband Konrad Bekker bought the items from a German woman who said a Thai grand shadow play performer sold them to her in 1910.
The cow skins feature the characters and scenes of Thai grand shadow plays, mostly about the Epic of Ramakien [Thai version of Ramayana]. They are from the early Rattanakosin Period.
The Bekkers contacted the Thai government through the Thai embassy in Washington DC, in 2009. The embassy consulted Thailand’s Fine Arts Department before deciding to accept the key tools for shadow plays.
The items had been exhibited previously at a museum in Germany.
Sukumol yesterday said in all, the Thai government had received 30 items from the Bekkers.
She said they could be categorised into three groups. The first comprises 13 big-sized pieces each between 120 and 150 centimetres in width and between 150 and 175cm in height. The second group is of seven medium-sized pieces each between 90 and 120cm wide and between 85 and 140cm high. The third group of 10 pieces are between 40 and 75cm wide and 75 and 150 centimetres in height.
“Although the items have some wear and tear, they remain so beautiful,” Sukumol said, adding that their fine details are very close to the country’s most treasured set for the grand shadow play, “Phra Nakhon Hwai”.
Sukomol said the 30 carved cow skins are now at the warehouse of national museums in Pathum Thani’s Klong Luang district.
