28 Puppets Continue....

Four Minister
Four ministers, with the king presiding, was a complete cabinet in ancient times. In line with this tradition, a puppet trope is said to be incomplete without any one of the four Ministers. They are;
1.The Prime Minister (or) Nan-Yin-Wun.

2.The Home Minister

3.Minister or secretarial

4.The Mayor.

In Myanmar, they all are generally call ‘Wun’ (or) ‘Burden’ meaning those serving high duty or undertaking burden of state. The two senior ones usually dress high hat of velvet, called ‘Bong’ handed with gold. They wear red and green long robes open at the front, edged again with gold and jewels, and silk jacket and “pasoes” (or) sarong. This sarong is a long piece of cloth. Prime minister with green hat usually wears a green robe and has to sit close to the throne or ‘Nan’ and so called ‘Nan-Yin-Wun’ the minister closer to the palace. Next to him is the home minister, dressed in red hat and robe of any color as specified by the kings order and silk jacket and pasoe. The two junior members wear similar long robes. But the head dress is different from senior ones. A white piece of rolled-up cloth is circled around the head with 2 ends tucked behind like a rabbit’s ears. The king used to have a similar head dress of white cloth, but with a single rabbit’s ear at the back. Traditionally in a puppet show, the ministers are narrator of the plots going to be unfolding. From them the audience comes to know about the foundation of the story usually are from 447 Jatakas of Buddha’s previous lives.

A Prince Puppet (Min-tha)
Parts played – (1) The prince- Hero
(2) The brother (or) son of a king (or) Prince
Description
The romantic hero, the prince- puppet is sometime known as ‘soft Prince (Min-Tha-Nu), in accordance with his singing / dancing role.
In every Burmese drama, a compulsory scene is the dance dust, which usually take place in the forest. The prince and princess may be in exile, due to the wiles of a jealous step mother queen, or the prince might be returning from Takkasila, after learning the 18 manly arts, winning the hand of the instructor’s daughter as best student. Or perhaps the prince has lost his way while hunting.
The dress, both jacket and sarong is a superb embroidery of best craftsmanship's.
A cross shaped embroidered chest piece is ‘Sa-lwe’, a royal insignia of king and prince.
The long sarong is found ‘correctly’ tucked up to the waist with the terminal piece hanging down from it. This is the only specimen where a gents’ sarong is correctly dressed close to tradition.

The Princess

Parts played – (1) Princess role in duet dance
(2) A heroine in most plays
(3) A Nat Kadaw or a Votaress or a Medium, with a red turban around the head and her hairs flowing down.
(4) An Apyo-daw (or) maid or honor. She dances without red turban, but hair flowing down behind.
Description
Her face always makes beautifully sculpture and painted. The jacket is most opulent, heavily embroidered with silvers, tinsels, and beads. After all her charming beauty is beyond description.
She is dressed also with elaborate imitation jewelry on her neck and breast. Her little comb pinned into the hairs is studded with diamonds!

The Prince Regents (Min-Thar-Gyi + Min-Thar-Latt)
If they are the uncles of the leading Minthar, they known as the Elder Regents (Min-thar-Gyi), or if cousins and friends, as the middling Min-tha (Min-thar-Latt). They are not as powerful as the king or the Heir Apparent Prince, but nevertheless of commanding appearance dressed identically to King or Prince. The state of their characters is made known by the coloring of the faces, white for virtuous, red for evil, respectively known as the Prince Regent 'White-face' and Prince Regent 'Red-face'. They are not dancing role marionettes, but sometimes the middling Min-thar might give a display of swordsmanship. The Prince and Princess singers, the Regent singer and the Than-Cho jesters are the four most revered speakers of a troupe.