Song as Precedence to Dance: Understanding The Pedagogy of Learning Kinnari in Ventiane, Laos By Maria Christine Muyco and Nouth Phouthavongsa (This research is funded by the Japan Foundation Asia Center)

INTRODUCTION

Noi or Nok is the Lao term for bird. In the Children Cultural Center of Sailom Village in Vientiane, Laos, you can hear children singing the repeated word “noi, noi, noi…”. The introduction of a song about “A lady who is a bird,” (referring to Kinnari), is one of the first things that is known in the Center. This is precedence to the actual dance of kinnari.

Kinnari, side by side its lover, the kinnara, are protector gods in Buddhist and Hindu mythology. They are said to look after human beings from their home, the Himalayas. As celestial musicians, they are represented in musical instruments such as the Indian veena (lute) made after Kinnari, known as Kinnari Veena. In Southeast Asia, particularly, she is portrayed having a human head, torso, and arms; and a swan’s tail, wings, and feet. Inhabiting the Himavanta forest, she sings magical melodies with heartfelt poetry and dances gracefully. With her deep love and loyalty for her mate, she is admired and looked up to as a feminine symbol. This article focuses on what kinnari’ism means in Laos. In particular, it looks at the pedagogy used in the Center (which I refer to in short for Ventiane’s Children Cultural Center), the foundation venue for learning of the youth. The Center was established in 1994 with the initiative of the Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism whose objective is to promote national culture through children. The Center also provides library and educational services, publication of materials, and organizing of activities for children’s development. LANDLOCKED LAOS In Vientiane, there is an interesting mixture of Thai culture, Chinese, Burmese, and Vietnam that circumvent the landlocked Laos from various sides of its northern geography. On southern Laos, there are Khmer culture and further down, Malaysian and Indonesian Islamic influences. However, as their history is traced to the old Indian empire, their use of Pali language is traced to India and its Hindu practices. This explains their use of Ramayana in their theatre embodying themes from its stories and particular characters that represent certain ideals and values, which are reflected in their music and dance.

The Japan Foundation Asia CenterAsia Fellowship Report Maria Christine Muyco

Figure 1: Map of Laos (https://www.britannica.com/place/Laos/images)

Past scholars have written about Laos’ music. Terry Miller (1980, 1985, 1991) archives a broad spectrum of Laos Music recorded on-site, with particular focus on the Khene, or bamboo mouth organ; and the mawlum, a song genre. On the same year and thereafter, Therese Mahoney (1991-1992), writes about Lao Classical Music. As to poetry found in Lao songs, Carol Compton analyses text as related to the Lao life and culture. Laos music and dance bear a narrative that is shaped by myths and legends, folk stories, and literature combining natural environment with supernatural and spiritual elements.

Figure 2: One of the roof designs in Sisaket Temple shows kinnari on the left side of the photo, with kinnara, or the male half-bird on its right. Buddha is seen on top of them.

7/17/16 8 :41 PMLaos | h istory - g eog raphy | Britann ica.com

Pag e 2 of 6h ttp s://www .b ritann ica.com /p lace/Laos# ref509292

sometimes hospitable— with the neighbouring

Khmer (Cambodian), Siamese (Thai), and Myanmar (Burmese) kingdoms between

the 5th and the mid-19th century indirectly imbued Laos with elements of Indian

culture, including Buddhism , the religion now practiced by most of the population.

Both Buddhist and Hindu lores have shaped the visual, performing, and l iterary arts

of the country. Many of the indigenous and minority peoples of the remote

highland slopes and mountainous regions, however, have maintained their own

idiosyncratic ritual and artistic traditions.

Colonization by the French from the late 19th to the mid-20th century infused Laos

with a European cultural element, which intensified throughout the country’s

embroilment in World War II and the Indochina wars, as well as a civil war of its

own in the second half of the 20th century. Guided by Marxist-Leninist ideology,

Laos emerged from the turmoil in 1975 as a communist country. Economic reforms

of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including the development of tourism,

have strengthened Laos’s economy, gradually shrinking the country’s debt and

diminishing its dependence on international aid.

Laos is bounded to the north by China, to the northeast and east by Vietnam , to the

south by Cambodia, to the west by Thailand, and to the northwest by Myanmar

(Burma).

Dominating the landscape of Laos are its

inhospitable forest-covered mountains, which in the

north rise to a maximum elevation of 9,245 feet

(2,818 metres) above sea level at Mount Bia and

everywhere constitute an impediment to travel. The

principal range l ies along a northwest-southeast axis

and forms part of the Annamese Cordil lera (Chaîne

Annamitique), but secondary ranges abound. On the

Xiangkhoang Plateau in north-central Laos, the Plain of Jars (Thông Haihin; the

name derived from large prehistoric stone jars discovered there) consists of

extensive roll ing grasslands rather than a true plain and provides a hub of

communications. The karst landscapes of the central provinces of Bolikhamxay and

Khammouan contain caverns and severely eroded l imestone pinnacles. In the south

the Bolovens Plateau , at an elevation of about 3,600 feet (1,100 metres), is covered

by open woodland and has generally fertile soil . The only extensive lowlands l ie

along the eastern bank of the Mekong River.

The general slope of the land in Laos is downhil l from east to west, and all the

major rivers— the Tha, Beng, Ou , Ngum, Kading, Bangfai, Banghiang, and Kong— are

tributaries of the Mekong (Mènam Khong). The Mekong flows generally southeast

and south along and through western Laos and forms its boundary with Myanmar

and most of the border with Thailand. The course of the river itself is severely

constricted by gorges in northern Laos, but, by the time it reaches Vientiane, its

valley broadens and exposes wide areas to flooding when the river breaches its

See All Stories

BRITANNICA QUIZZES

What’s Bugging You?

Before They Were World

Leaders: Africa Edition

Which John Adams?

See More Quizzes

agoda.com/Hotel_Discounts

Land

Relief

Drainage

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

LandRelief

Drainage

Soils

Clim ate

Plant and an im al life

PeopleEthn ic groups and

languages

Religion

Settlem ent patterns

Dem ograph ic trends

EconomyAgricu ltu re, forestry,

and fish ing

Resou rces and power

M anu factu ring

Finance

Trade

Services

Labour and taxation

Transportation

Government andsociety

Constitu tional

fram ework

Local governm ent

Justice

Political p rocess

Security

Health and welfare

Education

Cultural lifeCultu ral m ilieu

Daily life and social

custom s

The arts

Cu ltu ral institu tions

Sports and recreation

M ed ia and

broadcasting

HistoryLan Xang

Under foreign ru le

Laos after the Geneva

Conference, 1954–75

The Lao Peop le’s

Dem ocratic Repub lic

STORIES QUIZZES GALLERIES LISTS Search Britannica...

SONG TEXT and MOVEMENTS

Figure 3: Children learning from Nouth Phouthavongsa at The Children Culture Center of Ventiane, Laos.

In the song, the story tells about Kinnari flying and eventually finding a river for bathing. Upon her descent to the flowing waters, she began her bath. She brushes her right hand back and forth her left arms length, and vice-versa, she does it on the other arm. She does this while singing. Aside from the narration about her, she herself is believed to sing and hum (noi, noi, noi, etc.) while bathing:

Lyrics in Lao English translation

Cha kao theung, eya sai samone. Heu...

Once upon a time, there’s a lady. (hums)…

Ki eya none noi, ki eya none noi She is a bird, she is a bird

Theo bin loy. Eu eu eya… Long fa. Eu…Vey ha heun. Flying up. (hums flying sound)… In the sky (hums) Very far.

Phothala eung eya binma…heu The bird is flying to find a river…(hums)

Tha eya pheut pheun long sou neune. Eye ya tin tha ey…

Then it saw the river and came down with a happy face. (Hums)

Song walee…heu Then it took a bath. (Hums)…

Leo wax waieu. Eya… Khongkha. Heu.. Swimming in the river. (Hums). This human bird. (Hums)

Tha eya laxay, bantheungchai… Swimming. (Hums). And bathing. (Hums)…

Khatsee. Ey…Sawee vanh… Brushing water from arms. (Hums)… Feeling fresh

Noi, noi, noi… (Hums about the bird)…

Figure 4: Song lyrics of the Kinnari with translation provided by Nouth Phouthavongsa.

To see how these lyrics are used in the song, the next illustration will show the transcribed score from the recording made on the children who sung at the Children’s Cultural Center.

__________

Figure 5: Melody of the Kinnari Song

What makes the Kinnari song singable is its comfortable and narrow range of pitches. It basically revolves around an octave, or sometimes an octave and a fifth in some few instances of the piece. Also, notes come smoothly in stepwise motion. The melody has

an easy recall. It uses a pentatonic scale, in particular, the anhemitones ranging from D, E, F#, A, to B. The scale of course can occur in a transposed version, depending on singers’ capability or preference. There is also an easy recall on lyrics as verses in the songs are interspersed with the repeated syllables of “ey” or “noi”. These repeated syllables serve as a melodic bridge to the next verse.

Although musical instruments basically accompany this song, the collaboration for this research primarily focused on the melody and lyrics. The procedural process is intrinsic to the education of learners in the Cultural Center whereby the pedagogy of teaching them is as important as the music/dance itself. In singing, they first listen to their teacher then write down the lyrics. Then, they repeat after the teacher word per word and line per line. After singing, the children were made to dance while singing. Thus, their actions coincided with the lyrics of the song in terms of signifying meanings through their body. DO NOT DANCE YET Teachers of music and dance in Laos have varied styles of teaching. However, Ms. Nouth Phouthavongsa, one of the teachers in the Center pointed out that her pedagogy goes beyond direct blackboard writing, copying, and acting on the lecture. She said she always starts her classes with warm-up exercises. Students do body stretching, knee bend, hand bend, and other physical challenges that will condition their body to the dance. Everyone is involved in the exercises including musicians or children who are learning instrument-playing and singing. When students learn the Kinnari song, their teacher starts to train them in dancing. Nouth Phouthavongsa provides the dance steps below:

The birds dance movements !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

!

!

! !

!

!

!!!! ! !walk walk jump to right !jump to left

about to!flight fly away 1 fly away 2 fly away 3

Figure 6: Alternative steps are given in this illustration giving the learners options to render the jump, flight, and bathing.

The actual singing and dancing are not even the immediate mode of action upon the arrival at the Cultural Center. The children aligned themselves in a row and altogether recited their count while executing physical exercises. These exercises are rigid such as stretching their fingers as far back as they can; pushing the limits of their thighs and extending their legs; flexing their waists bending them front and back; and other extraneous actions. Musical instruments were shown later and were performed as part of the ensemble for the song: the lanat ek (bamboo xylophone), kim (dulcimer), so ee (small bowed strings), and so uu – (big bowed strings). Their double-headed drum is called kong ping. Two types of cymbals were shown, the bigger one called chap is paired with finger cymbals called ching. The Center also has a kong vong (round gong) and khim (Lao harp). However, what they showed in the course of this research is the ensemble of lanat ek, uu and ee, kong ping, and ching that accompanied their singing. The correspondences of these instruments are shown below, based on a recording made with their ensemble with children singing while dancing:

fly away 4 fly move one wing slowly out 1 fly move one wing slowly out 2fly move one

wing slowly out 3

Fly lift one leg bathe one wing 1 in bathe one wing 2 out one wing down to floor

Figure 7: An example of instrument “correspondences.” Lanat ek, the ee/uu, kong ping, and

ching support the vocal part by its dual role, as melodic and percussive (keeping time) instruments.

The illustration shows the linear presence of heterephony as clearly seen in lanat ek and uu/ee instruments simultaneously playing the same melody with the voices. The timekeepers are the kong ping and ching. The kong ping plays its regular counts of 1, 2 (2x) and 1,2,3,4, pattern, which may be named as the 2+2+4 rhythmic structure. However, strong beats only occur in the first beats of 2+2; the +4 has with strong beats occurring . At the beginning, the finger cymbal, or ching comes in after the strong beat of the kong ping, but maintains its entry in every 4th pulse of the kong ping. Later however, in the change of time signature (2/4), it comes in right at the beginning of the measure and keeps its entry in every fourth pulse. I use the term “pulse” to distinguish this from “beat.” Beat has a “strong and weak” composition whereas “pulse” just means unit of time regardless of strong-weak contrast. The Center introduced its potentially excellent students: Sounitha Sommalath, Nittaya “Ammy” Bannavong, Anikanda Sihaivan, and Kulap Hansana who apparently showed more promise in music and dance skills than among their peers. This made us authors asked ourselves “What sets them apart?” In a holistic view, we see their physical bodies more supple, and they have grace and posture that meet the standards of good Laotian classical dancers. They are comparable with adult Laos dancers who are given credence to have stage performance in public, mass media, and diplomatic/cultural exchanges. These young initiates are eventually given exposures to steeper training where the challenge to become better, if not best, becomes the goal. Excellence is also being able to internalize music and apply or externalize its elements (melody and time) through the body. Singing as part of the pedagogy in learning the

Etc…

…

dance brings the students to a level of capability where they can ”multi-task” as the dance is by itself composed of different levels of expressions. Aside from singing, the interpretation of the song text is also relevant and the understanding of the text meaning, which is actually narrative. Interesting enough, the Kinnari in the Center was performed to us in sequence with other dances such as the “Siangkup noy” (sound of the frog) and Tonmay haysiwit (Save the Forest). These dances have common themes that open up the dancers’ consciousness about their natural environment, educating them as ambassadors of protected land. These themes and lessons are ingrained in them through aesthetic means, via the channels of music and dance. SENSE OF PLACE THROUGH RESOURCES Most materials employed by the Children’s Cultural Museum come from the biblioteca or Hasamut Heng Sat (National Library of Laos). It has archival materials of kinnari music-dance, and audio- videos recordings. There are various interpretations of the Kinnari from various theatres/performers through the years including performances in Luang Prabang and other regions of the country. Another form of resource in terms of representing Lao music and dance particularly concerning birds is The National Puppet Theater of Laos. This is both a traditional and contemporary venue for artistic expression combining music, dance/movement choreography, acting, and visual arts through puppet and props design. Theater Manager Vanhsy Soukchaleune shared about their production involving old and new works with bird music-dances, including stories and themes related to it. One featured program of this Theatre is a story lifted from Buddhist literature. There was a Brahmma who offered one of her daughters for marriage to Tamaba Guman, a handsome, brave, and noble young man. In order to earn her bride, he has to guess the answer for a riddle. If he is unsuccessful of answering the riddle, he would be killed; however, if he is successful, the Brahmma offered his head to be cut-off. In this production, two big birds played by Sompong Inthavong (male bird) and Laling Phenphilavong (female bird) were shown conversing about the riddle. Soutsada Pathammavong, the hero who became the Brahmma’s son in-law, listened intently to the conversation of the birds and realized that they were giving the answer. He hurried back to the palace and revealed the answer to the riddle. The five ladies in waiting for this handsome young man were played by the following puppeteers: Soutphasone Oudomphone, Chansamone Yodkhankeo, Chansamone Phommachanh, Chansamone Sisamouth, and Lem Thyphy. With the answer revealed, Ourdone Saysana, who played the puppet role of the Brahmma, announced that his four heads (the Brahmma’s) would be beheaded.

On the other hand, the second production number of the Puppet theatre featured an environmental play about saving the birds and their forest habitat. Rather very modern in approach, Director Vanalet Vetdavong explained that he leaves the narrative to his audience’s imagination although his theme is clear about environmental protection. Puppets were played by Chansamone Phommachanh (Baby bird), Mother bird: Lem Thyphy, Vanalet Vetdavong, and Vienthong Chanthavong (all huddled in one big blanket). Small birds were played by Laling Phenphilavong, Lem Thyphy, Vanalet Vetdavong, and Viengthong Chanthavong . There is also a unique character, the mouse with eyes by Chansamone Phommachanh. The production was made possible with technical staff Oudom Phommachanh and sounds operator Viengthong Chanthavong.

Children now and then are exposed to the shows of the puppet theatre where they learn more things about Laotian culture. Watching this kind of show also enhances their understanding of land and environment as an extension to singing and dancing. As interrelated forms of expressions, theatre arts that feature birds and environmental issues provide for every performer an enrichment of the soul. Conclusion The article features the Center as the wellspring of “becomings” where children (or the figurative chicks) earn their wings to become full-pledge bird dancers and musicians. At an early age, they are exposed to various stimuli of music and dance such as musical instruments, audio-video/multi-media materials, and mentorship of seasoned dancers, who eventually prepare them to formal performances. Kinarri-ism is developed in the process of one’s “becoming.” As shown in earlier examples of song and interrelated arts like the Puppet theatre, there is the embodiment of what it means to sing a narrative about a half-bird, half-human being. The Center basically showed the outcome of a holistic education, where children being trained are integrating their talents with literature (written and oral) as well as with other Laotian cultural expressions. BIBLIOGRAPHY Grant, Evans. “Ethnic change in the northern highlands of Laos”. In Laos: Culture and

Society, ed. by Evans Grant, pp. 125-147. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian

Studies, 2000.

Ghosh, Subodh Love stories from the Mahabharata, transl. Pradip Bhattacharya. New

Delhi: Indialog, 2005.

Krishnamurthy, K. Mythical Animals in Indian Art. Abhinav Publications, 1985. Miller, Terry, “Traditional Music of the Lao”. In Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol.

4: Southeast Asia, ed. by Terry Miller. Routledge, 1998. Vyasa, Krishna-Dwaipayana. Mahabharata of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, translated by

Kisari Mohan Ganguli. Calcutta: Bharata Press, 1883-1896.

No author, “Laotian Art”. In http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Laotian_art. Retrieved, July 20, 2016. RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS:

1. Children’s Cultural Center: Nouth Phouthavongsa and her students: Sounitha Sommalath, Nittaya “Ammy” Bannavong, Anikanda Sihaivan, and Kulap Hansana.

2. The National Puppet Theater of Laos: Director Vanalet Vetdavong, Puppet operators: Chansamone Phommachanh, Lem Thyphy, Vanalet Vetdavong, Vienthong Chanthavong, Laling Phenphilavong, Lem Thyphy, Vanalet Vetdavong, Viengthong Chanthavong, and Chansamone Phommachanh. Oudom Phommachanh and Viengthong Chanthavong also contributed their time through technical assistance.

About the collaborator: Ms. Nouth Phouthavongsa, is a faculty of the Laos’ National School of the Arts, and an officer of The Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, whose one of the tasks is to train young learners in the Children’s Cultural Center. She was endorsed by Thammavongsa Khampheng, Chairman, National School of Music and Dance. He set-up meetings with other Ministry’s officers to collaborate with me in my exploration of a Laos bird music-dance, particularly on the ideology or motivation behind this expressive art.