Buz- baz is a musical puppetry tradition found in northern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. The puppet is a goat which is controlled by a string connected to the wrist of the puppeteer. The goat is completely carved out of wood and made out of sequins and baubles and sometimes bells. The goat stands for two things. One is

markhor The markhor (''Capra falconeri'') is a large ''Capra'' species native to Central Asia, the Karakoram, and the Himalayas. It is listed on the IUCN Red List as Near Threatened since 2015. The markhor is the national animal of Pakistan, where i ...

, which means snake-eating goat of

Badakhshan Badakhshan is a historical region comprising parts of modern-day north-eastern Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China. Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Much of historic Ba ...

, and the ancient belief that mountain goats had powers. Along with the goat, there is traditional Afghan music that plays during the performance. The goat is in beat with the music because it is connected to an instrument called the dambura. This is possible because the goat is on a platform that has a string connected through a pipe to the instrument. So not only is the puppeteer in control of the goat but also plays the dambura at the same time.

Sources

*JSTOR: Buz- Baz: A Musical Marionette of Northern Afghanistan by Mark Slobin *Tea house music by Mark Slobin at http://afghanistan.wesleyan.edu Theatre in Afghanistan Puppetry in Afghanistan {{afghanistan-stub