Local elders say the tradition began more than 400 years ago, when court mandarin Trần Triều Đông settled in Tế Tiêu in 1573, teaching the villagers both rice farming and puppet making.

The official Tế Tiêu troupe was created in 1956. Today it has about 20 members, keeps roughly 100 different plays in its repertoire, and owns thousands of handcrafted puppets.

Wars almost destroyed the art, but in the 1960s veteran artisans such as Lê Năng Nhượng and Phạm Văn Bể revived it, rebuilding the community’s performance tradition.

Now most audiences are tourists visiting the village, and the troupe’s leader, artisan Phạm Công Bằng, worries that the art could become obsolete unless new ways to sustain it are found.

According to Bằng, the puppetry links the village’s collective memory to its daily life, preserving stories of harvests, legends and historic events; at the same time, a vibrant tradition could become a unique attraction that brings future tourism and economic benefits to the community.