Most visitors to Thailand have the opportunity to experience the masked "Khon" drama, a uniquely Thai version of the Indian "Ramayana" epic, with tales of gods of ferocious demons. Khon was originally developed as an exclusively Royal entertainment, popular at the courts of Ayutthaya and later of Rattanakosin.

In addition to the exquisitely controlled grace and charm of the dance and its symbolic gestures (it takes over ten years to train a leading Khon actor), the most memorable features are certainly the gorgeous costumes with richly gilded crowns and colourful masks.
Each character in the Ramayana, or Ramakian as it is known in Thailand, has a different costume and headdress. Of the leading roles the most easily recognised are the noble God - King, Phra Ram, the demon, Thotsakan, and the local monkey general, Hanuman. There are more than a hundred support characters and most of them wear different styles of masks and headdresses which are lavishly decorated. The making of these masks is an art form that highly specialised and there are only a very few craftsmen in Thailand who have mastered this skill. One is M.R. Charoonsawat Suksawat.

Making Khon Masks
The cast of each Khon Mask, whether it is that of the demon king Tosakanth, hermits, monkeys or mythological characters, is based on a clay model. Once the clay model has dried, it is neatly covered with papier mache made of SA rice paper and placed out to dry in the sun. The papier mache mask is then cut in half and removed from the clay model, before being sewn together again. Papier mache is pasted over the stitches and left to dry.

With a cutter, the mask maker scrapes the papier mache surface until it is smooth and an additional layer of papier mache is applied. Once dried, the hardened black sap of the lak tree is heated until it is pliable and immediately applied on protruding features such as the eyebrows, ears and the elaborate headdresses. Yet anonther layer of papier mache is applied and the face is sandpapered. A paint brush is dipped in hte lap sap and highlighting lines are painted on the mask. Depending on the character, gold leaves and colored glass add glitter to the headdress or ornaments. The final step is the painting of the mask with acrylic paints. If it is a demonm mask, fangs made of pearl shells are attached on both sides of the mouth.

A skilled craftman will normally have about five or six maskes in different stages on the go at one time.

Some information from: Thai Studies by Wadee Kheourai.
All photographs are copyright Sriwittayapaknam School.