Cambodia · Puppet Making / Theatrical Craft
សបែកតូច (Sbek Touch)
Sbek Touch (សបែកតូច — 'small hide') is Cambodia's second shadow puppet tradition — distinct from the large UNESCO-inscribed Sbek Thom (CRAFT-0511) in both scale and technique. Where Sbek Thom puppets are 1–1.5m whole-figure puppets manipulated from behind by two operators, Sbek Touch puppets are 30–50cm articulated figures with movable limbs — each limb connected by a pivot pin and operated by thin bamboo rods. The critical making knowledge is the joint system: each limb joint must allow full rotation without the pivot pin binding — this requires the hide disc (thang) at the joint to be cut to an exact diameter relative to the pivot pin diameter: the hole in the thang disc must be 0.1–0.2mm larger than the pin — tight enough to hold the limb extended but free enough to pivot.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Cambodia national ICH list (Sbek Touch distinct from UNESCO Sbek Thom)
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