Does this dragon string puppet look ferocious? Think of some stories that you know about dragons – are they ferocious or kind? Clever or silly? Dragons feature in myths and stories around the world and they have different qualities in each tradition. In China and Southeast Asia it is believed that they bring good luck and prosperity and they are rarely depicted as malevolent.

This dragon is from Burma (Myanmar) where there is a long tradition of puppet shows using string puppets. It is painted mainly in green with red and black decorations. You can see that very sharp white teeth in a red mouth have been painted, too. It has wings and a jointed tale in two parts. Its feet have five claws.

There are many different traditions about the number of claws on a dragon – some have three, some four and some five. One story from China is that a dragon has fewer claws the further it has travelled, which compares with Japan where the story is that a dragon has more claws the further it travels.  Another is that five clawed dragons are connected with the Imperial court in China. Interestingly, the traditional Asian dragon or Naga is usually a serpent, and it is only the European dragon that has wings. So we are not quite sure of the story behind this one – or maybe it was made for the tourist market.

This dragon is a simple string puppet. String puppets work by having a body made of movable parts that can be manipulated by pulling on the strings attached to each section. This one has strings connected to its tail, the tips of each wing, two on its head and one on the centre of its back. These are tied to one cross-shaped piece of wood called a control that is used to manipulate each part.