Traditions of Storytellings in Asia

UNESCO recently declared Korean P’Ansori to be ‘a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage’. P’Ansori (Korean “story singing”) A form of sung folk narrative. The form seems to have originated during the reign of Sukchong (1675-1720).

One of the most revered traditions of oral storytelling is the hakawati. As intricate and complex as a weaving pattern, this motif­rich narrative style darts in and out of stories, offering unending drama where the storyteller begins one tale, deftly leaves it mid­way to pick up another and then has a third story emerging from a subplot of the first and so on. All this is done using the tools of allegory, folklore, satire, music and a visual spectacle of grand sweeping gestures and facial expressions to finally create an enthralling experience for his listeners. Hekaye in Arabic means the story and haki means to talk. The one who talked and told a story was a hakawati.

Naghali is narrating of a story or an event in verse or prose with special tone, feelings and expression. A naghal (storyteller), playing the roles of different characters by himself, usually narrates epics and mythical stories in coffee houses [Ghahve­kha nes]. Naghali still survives and naghal narrate stories taken from Ferdowsi’s Shah Nameh and other ancient stories. Naghal are divided into two groups: those narrating all kinds of stories and those just narrating stories from Shah Nameh (Shahnameh khani). Naghali has been common all over Iran since the Safavid dynasty.

“The dastan (Turkic epic) is ornate oral history and an important part of the Turkic literature of Central Asia. Traditionally, dastans have been repositories of ethnic identity and history, and some constitute nearly complete value systems for the peoples they embrace.