Vietnamese water puppetry, known locally as mua roi nuoc, which literally means ‘puppets dancing on water’.

These kind of water puppets are always made from wood of the jackfruit tree, a tree with the Latin scientific and botanical name Artocarpus heterophyllus (fig.).

The gable of this theatre at the Saigon National Museum is adorned with a chintamani, flanked by the four animals from Chinese paradise, i.e. the tortoise, the dragon, the (red) phoenix and the (white) tiger, some of them also featuring in the performance. The roof is supported by Chinese dragon-pillars (fig.), a typical feature in traditional Chinese architecture. In the picture above, a fisherman is using a tool used for fishing in shallow waters, which in Thai is known as soom pla (fig.).