Pakistan's Amazing Street Puppet Shows! (Full Show w/ English)

Experience a string puppetry show on the beautiful streets of Old Lahore. Many artists perform as families. And as you see in this video, Dua Fatima and her younger brother, both from Multan, Punjab, Pakistan, are performing together. They perform at Lahore's Fort Food Street outside Coco's Den.

In a bigger family setting, the father usually creates the characters' voices and delivers the stories. The mother plays percussion (dholak), sings, and makes sound effects. The children or other family members serve as manipulation assistants and sometimes extra singers. An elder, usually the grandfather, could be a narrator.

To market their shows, the puppeteers, dressed in lively colours and sparkling turbans, usually parade from town to town and village to village, moving door to door, puppets in hand, ready to hold a performance at the spur of the moment.

In the past, they easily got bookings for performances and would leave a puppet as a souvenir. They performed puppet shows at religious festivals, fairs, harvest celebrations, and marriages. These were events of grand celebration and brought together all in the community. These days the puppet shows (called putli tamasha in Urdu) are harder to come by due to the advancement of TV, radio, and mobile internet.

👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

1) SUBSCRIBE! ✔ Click
Then smash the BELL ICON so you don't miss a 🔴live stream or video.

2) SUPPORT THE CONTENT I CREATE & GET SPECIAL BENEFITS 🙏🏻❤️

3) WANT TO TRAVEL TO INDIA?

4) WANT TO LEARN HINDI हिन्दी?

5) LET'S CONNECT 👋🏻

#PuppetShow #PutliTamasha #Pakistan #Lahore #Punjab #Urdu #Hindi #India #StreetPerformers #StreetPerformance #Puppeteers #Pakistani #Puppets #PutliTamasha

[KarlRock]

Do these performers come to your village? This reminded me of the various roaming performers that come to our village in India. They come unannounced and the entire village turns up to watch the show. It could be a circus performance, a musician, a play, or a puppet show. There's nothing like a live performance!

[shahidyt]

In this digital age, it is amazing that these arts are still alive.
Thank you for sharing. The icing on the cake would have been an interview with the artists behind the scenes

[VerhoevenSimon]

what a fantastic show, it's a shame that performances such as these are slowly disappearing.

[ishmaelsassoon]

Glad to see indian and pakistan are still keeping their intertwined culture and history intact, for some reason this felt nostalgic to me of a undivided India as if though i had experienced it before.

[shamamaa.d]

That was beautifully captured.. I felt like I was there watching. It Renewed my experience of childhood in Pakistan.

[Cherylm]

Thank you Karl for showing us I loved it. I've never watched a puppet show before this is my first time and I enjoyed it

[zedman]

I hope these ancient forms of entertainment and education are preserved for generations.

[MarWanshNomad]

Amazing 😍Pakistan 🇵🇰 has a very special culture, art and history 👏🇵🇰🗺️ thank Karl to show as this interesting part

[livinthefilm]

Akbar the Great was a Mughal emperor. He is often the protagonist in these shows. He died in 1605., yet is still alive in these shows.

[_nilavratbera]

Waah! This was a perfect treat for myself....Good Old

[henakhalidakhtar]

Love this show thankyou karl for doing all this for pakistan our art traditions abd culture is rich and beautiful

[sharishairi]

Such artistry! The puppets and their costumes were rendered in such beautiful detail and the puppeteer showed enormous skill- the puppets performed with great physical expression. Thank you Karl for sharing this wonderful show with us! ❤️

[r.otaviano]

I went to a puppet show in Jaisalmer (India) right before the pandemic. It was very similar. I love these shows.

[shafiqurrehman]

Hahaha amazing what a treat! To be honest Pakistani’s underestimate themselves as well. I am saying this because most of the time people from other countries show these talented people which we dont even know that it exists in our country..

[bandariyah]

Love this puppet show. So well coordinated and with such beautiful costumes!

[mohammadahmadrocks]

I'm addicted of your videos from Pakistan 😍😍

[alpha_sultan]

This is in lahore, i remember watching this with my family while I went on a bus tour around the city. You should really take that tour as you'll get to know more about the city's history and it's people.

[charlestonpinballarcade]

Awesome! Great to see and hear this type of talent still alive in today’s world.

[Shakeel_._Ahmed]

I really enjoyed this video Karl. Your Pakistan series has been awesome. You've been able to communicate with locals, you have some idea of the culture and that meant you've been able to produce quality content like this that others just haven't been able to do.

[WittgensteinsNiece]

Thank you so much for sharing a bit of these beautiful arts to us all. ❤️ from Austria 🇦🇹