DUSHANBE, September 19, Asia-Plus — An international festival of puppet theatres, entitled “Chodari Khayol” (Screen of Fantasy), will open in Dushanbe on September 25.
The festival coordinator Kenja Ibrohimov told Asia-Plus that the Dushanbe and Chkalovsk (Sughd) puppet theatres will represent Tajikistan in the festival that will run through October 2,
The festival, staged by Tajikistan’s Ministry of Culture (MoC), is expected to brig together puppet theatres from six countries, including Tajikistan, Germany, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Uzbekistan.
Puppet show is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment. Puppetry is a very ancient art form, probably first originating about 30,000 years ago. Puppets have been used since the earliest times to animate and communicate the ideas and needs of human societies. Some historians claim that they pre-date actors in theatre. There is evidence that they were used in Egypt as early as 2000 BC when string-operated figures of wood were manipulated to perform the action of kneading bread. Wire controlled, articulated puppets made of clay and ivory have also been found in Egyptian tombs. Hieroglyphs also describe ”walking statues” being used in Ancient Egyptian religious dramas.
