Sbek Thom is a Khmer shadow theatre that only takes place on particular occasions three or four times a year. It is dedicated to the divinities and features two-meter high, non-articulated puppets made of leather openwork. It is a form of theater dating back to the Angkorian period, just like the Royal Ballet and masks. The shadow theatre evolved from a ritualistic to an art form after the fall of Angkor in the fifteenth century, while retaining its ceremonial dimension.
To make the puppets, a single piece of leather is prepared in a special ceremony. Each character represents a god or goddess. The hide is dyed using a solution made of the bark of the Kandaol tree. The character is then drawn and tanned on the hide, cut out, and painted before being attached to two bamboo sticks.
Performances are traditionally in the evenings, beside a rice field or pagoda, with a large white backdrop hung between two tall bamboo screens. A large white fire, or nowadays, a projector is held in front of the shadows of the puppets’ silhouettes. The animators do specific dance steps to bring the puppets to life. There is also an orchestra and two narrators during the performance. The performances are based on the Reamker, a Khmer version of the Ramayana. Two sbek thom troupes are active in the first half of the twentieth century. They were in Phnom Penh and Battambang.
An exceptional and very archaic form of shadow theater, it has only one "sister" form: the nang yai of Thailand, both of which have been employed in temples and as part of ceremonial events. How these two traditions are related is not known. There is a possibility that Thai nang yai are related to the Khmer traditions in that they were adopted by the Thais among other elements of the Khmer culture. On the other hand, the Thai nang yai tradition spread from Auytthaya to Cambodia during its time as a vassal state of Thailand. There is, however, a slight stylistic difference between the Thai and Cambodian nang yai.
The Khmer Rouge regime nearly destroyed them, almost eradicating the art. Since 1979, performances of Sbek Thom have been revived by a few surviving artists. There have so far been three shadow theatres that have emerged from their ashes, passing on the skills and knowledge, including those related to puppet making. Nowadays, sbek thom is often combined with other forms of theatre and dance, both in innovative productions and to attract tourists.
References
(https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/sbek-thom-khmer-shadow-theatre-00108) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_play#Cambodia) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Cambodia#Shadow_Theatre) (https://www.soundsofangkor.org/english/dance-theater/sbek-thom-va/)