On Wednesday the first day of the month of Mehr, Ms. Poupak Azimpour, expert on Iranian ritual puppets visited the "Research Institute for History of Children's Literature", and provided valuable and interesting information on the history of Iranian ritual puppets. This was also an opportunity for the colleagues at the Institute to become familiar with historical aspects and functions of the puppets. It should be noted that ritual puppets are made for the occasions such as opening ceremonies, preparations for Nowruz ceremonies, making wishes and prayer for rain. One well known puppet is called Takeh which is used in Azarbaijan for welcoming Nowruz. Another example is Daughter of Rain, Kooleh Baraneh or Kooli Ghezak, which is made in Kurdestan and other parts of Iran like Khorasan,
Ms Azimpour has made extensive research in this area; she has conducted field studies in remote areas of Iran as well as theoretical studies through several libraries. Based on her research she has collected and compiled an encyclopedia of Iranian ritual puppets, consisting of thousands of names and terminologies related to puppets and puppetry. She has also published books titled "Takeh " about the way the puppet is used; and "Kooleh Barani & Huleh Barani" about the rain puppet in Kurdestan.
Ms Azimpour very kindly promised to co-operate with the Institute, especially in collecting puppets for the National Museum of Children's Culture and Literature.