Manora – When the Kinnara Dance Between Flights

As I was reading through the Thai newspaper this morning I saw that the Thai government was hoping to have Manora Dance listed on Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage representatives list. This brought back some fun travel memories that you might relate to. After all, isn’t it usually the curves and twists of daily travel that are the most memorable?

We had just finished capturing a beautiful sunrise on the Talay Noi Wetlands, on what had started out as a disappointing and gloomy morning, so we were happy and felt like anything was possible. Fon had been telling me about a beautiful dance from the South called, Manora or simply Nora; but so far she hadn’t been able to find a public performance. The more she told me about the dance, the more I wanted to photograph it.

Great! What’s a Manora Dance?

Manora dances recount the legends of Manohara, a character in the legend of Buddha’s life known as the Jataka. Manohara who was a half woman, half bird creature from Mount Kailash was captured by a hunter and presented to Prince Sudhana who was the heir to the ancient kingdom of Panchala. There is, of course, an India connection here as Mount Kailash is Shiva’s abode (in Tibet, now under China’s control) and the Kingdom of Panchala is the location of Mahabharata fame. Anyway, one thing leads to another and Manohara is forced to fly back home. She leaves behind a ring and directions for the Prince to follow her, while he was away fighting a battle. Sadhana tracks her to the Kimnara kingdom where after passing tests of strength and skill, her father consents to her marriage and they return to Panchala. Oh, yeah, they lived happily ever after.

The dancers’ costumes are exploding with color featuring fabric adorned with beads, a tail, and long curled fingernails. The dance is accompanied by a small ensemble consisting of percussion instruments and an oboe-like reed instrument called a Pi. I’m afraid that in the coming world of electric self-driving cars and AI robots, simple things like this will be forgotten and that’s what drives me to document them.

Do We Have to Go to Mount Kailash?

Fon started to ask the people tending the wetlands if they knew of any dance rehearsals and several of the locals’ ears perked up. It seemed that this person knew some of the musicians and another person knew a few of the dancers. For the next hour phone calls were made back and forth and at one point an entire dance troupeand band was located. Unfortunately, it turned out that some of them were out of town or busy with the exception of a mother and her two daughters.

Then There Were Three…

At first, the mother was worried about her children being late for school and a call was made to their teacher. It turns out that their teacher was also a dancer and she permitted the girls to be late since she was keen on promoting the Manora dance style. We followed our dance troupe to their rehearsal space, a large room with a beautifully aged wooden floor, and they prepared. Great attention was paid to make sure the costumes were perfect and soon they were going through their moves. Sure I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t a full blown stage show, but the setting and the girls’ enthusiasm made for fine photo and earned its place in our THAILAND 180º book among the 450 other photos.

Here’s a look at a professional Manora performance.

Travel Deeper

I find that experiences like this add so much value to traveling. Sure, visiting Thailand has many KA-BOOM moments just seeing the popular sights, but exploring rural Thailand and interacting with the friendly locals is a deeper experience and builds memories even more vibrant than the photos.