In the technique of puppet making and puppetry art performance, the passage in Sung Thien Dien Linh Stone shows interesting discoveries:

"Swimming in the sluggish flow"- this proves that the puppets were attached to 3-4 m bamboo poles. (Because the tortoises could not swim sluggishly if the poles were shorter). Besides, the square of the ponds must be at least 10 x 10 m to suit the length of the poles. Therefore, the stage could not be a wooden tank due to he high pressure of the large amount of the water.

"Casting a side long glance to the river bank, ejecting water to the shore, looking upwards, bending down"- these four actions required three motion joints (one for hanging head two for other actions). Each motion joint needed two pulleys. And all of these joints were controlled through rope system along the poles in manipulation room.

"Ejecting water to the shore"- in order to do that, the traditional puppeteers used a system of pipes, glued together with lacquer (put inside the poles). The system of pulleys and ropes, therefore, had to put outside the poles to avoid the impact between the two systems. These ropes were not only hemp strings but also coated-with-wax silk strings, which were strong enough to be stretched.

"Gates are opened in grottoes, angels appear"-these must be a kind of chorus of puppets performed by a large-wooden-and-bamboo base of puppets. Under the base, there was a system of pulleys and silk strings connected to long poles to manipulate synchronous chorus of puppets. For example, in performing an action in the dance "wind is coming", the traditional artisans had to deal with complicated technique in puppet-making and puppet-operating.

The water puppetry performance are various, includes:

_ Everyday life activities: farming, duck-feeding, textile, husking…

_ Healthy entertainment: wrestling, horse-racing, swinging,
tree-climbing, lion dances, dragon dances, sword-fighting. Historical stories praise for the triumph of national heroes such as Ba Trung, Ba Trieu, Tran Hung Dao, and Le Loi…

_ Traditional operas plays (Cheo, Tong): Mau goes to Pagoda, Luu-Nguyen enter Heaven, Tay du, Son Hau, Tam Quoc (The tales of the three Kingdoms)…

Water puppetry shows are always short, recreate the everyday life working and the combat against invaders of Vietnamese people in a symbolic way.

In the old days, puppetry shows were performed without words. Later on, thanks to the development of national literature, accompanying words were applied to these shows. Water puppets were made of light, durable woods such as coral trees, fig trees…available around the edge of ponds. They were painted with an extract from lacquer-trees, which was used to paint boats, planted in North Vietnam. These puppets were statues, the nice pieces of the distinctive sculpture. They were painted with the colour of the traditional Ho Paintings: the colour of the sky, of the mountains, of the land, of the oceans…. All the colours were simple but lyric. Those statues were operated by pole-and-string apparatus that might be simple or complex one, and different types of pickets, robes…. The puppeteers had to stand waist-deep in the water in the manipulation room, behind the rattan curtain, to control the puppets on the stage.
Traditionally, water puppetry was performed in the day and mainly used drums, la and heavy sound such as crackers, "tu va"…. Advice in the shows quoted from Vietnamese folk verses, songs or folk plays. Water puppetry theatre always consisted three parts:

Firstly, water pavilion, occupied in the middle of the pond, there was a floating chamber of bamboo closed at the three sides with a bamboo screen hanging in the front. The puppeteers stood waist-deep behind the screen in the water to manipulate the puppets.