India 2008
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India temple spire
Eth-Noh-Tec‘s Nancy Wang and Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo (of California, USA) led a delegation of storytellers, story lovers and artists to Chennai, the vibrant coastal capital of Tamil Nadu, South India, where we were hosted by the Chennai-based World Storytelling Institute, led by Eric Miller.
Chennai began as a fishing village. We listened to and told stories with people in Chennai’s seafishing communities, and with people in villages in the countryside. We participated in workshops led by professional storytellers and visited ancient temples by the seashore.
“Tharisanam: Vision of the Other,” was the theme of our journey, as we shared our cultures as ordinary people in extraordinary ways, in story swaps formal and informal. Among the story and story-related arts we were exposed to, and began to learn to perform, are:
Irula people telling stories
- Kathaiyum Pattum (Story and Song): Storytelling in the home
- Villupattu (Bow Songs): A professional folk form of storytelling
- Kathaiyum Pattum (Story and Song): Storytelling in the home
- Hari Katha (Katha Kalak Chebam): An orthodox Hindu form of storytelling about divine figures
- Kathaiyum Pattum (Story and Song): Storytelling in the home
- Therukoothu: Street theater
- Oppari: Lament songs
We heard in Tamil “O-ru ka-lat-thi-le, O-ru o-ru-le…”: “In those days, in a certain place…” Indeed, we heard many tales: male-centered and women-centered tales; animal tales; tales about fate, demons, gods and goddesses, and heroes and heroines; humorous tales and stories about stories.
Women singing Oppari ballads
We joined in this exciting people-to-people and story-to-story adventure to one of the oldest continuous civilizations of our world! We took the “country road,” the oral story tradition both sung and spoken. This has been a source not only of India’s “Great Traditions,” but also, it is said, even of Greece’s “Oedipus” and Shakespeare’s “King Lear.” We were privy to folk tales that have been passed along by family members and villagers from one generation to the next, for thousands of years. Many of these stories have never seen the pages of a book.
What Our Participants Said
“You have opened up the international world of storytelling to so many. Your energy and desire to make the experiences you offer exciting are incredible! Thanks for all of your efforts….of which we only have an inkling.” – Lynn Morgan
I’m still savoring the India trip. It was such a wonderful experience. Thanks for making it happen. – Amy Cherot