Sounding the Center

Download or read book Sounding the Center written by Deborah Wong and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2001-08-15 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sounding the Center is an in-depth look at the power behind classical music and dance in Bangkok, the capital and sacred center of Buddhist Thailand. Focusing on the ritual honoring teachers of music and dance, Deborah Wong reveals a complex network of connections among kings, teachers, knowledge, and performance that underlies the classical court arts. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork, Wong lays out the ritual in detail: the way it is enacted, the foods and objects involved, and the people who perform it, emphasizing the way the performers themselves discuss and construct aspects of the ceremony.