Update: Tolpavakoothu

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

As a surprise photo-shoot for the photographers participating in my The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop™, I arranged for a private Tolpavakoothu performance yesterday evening. Despite having seen and photographing shadow puppetry (an ancient storytelling art form) in Bali, I had never doe so in India, where it is especially indigenous to southern Kerala.

The photo shoot took most of the early evening when we photographed the preparations, whilst the performance itself (the frenetic action of some half dozen puppet masters was something to behold) took just 45 minutes.

Tolpavakoothu traces its origins to more than 2000 years, and the Thrissur area claims a particular style of this art.

The above image is of one of the Tolpavakoothu puppets, and was made with my iPhone4s.

The actual photographs of the action will be incorporated in a future photo essay.