Rama in golden chariot outside castle walls (Thai Ramayana mural)
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- Unknown
- Location
- Bangkok, Thailand
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2006. Terms of use
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A mural painting at the Emerald Buddha Temple shows Rama, painted with a characteristic green face, in a golden chariot positioned with his followers outside white castle walls. A river runs past the walled city at right, and rocky mountains and vegetation are painted outside the walls.
The palace architecture seen inside the city walls is typically Thai, again giving the illusion that the Ramayana epic (written in India in roughly the fifth century B.C.) is set in Thailand. All Thai kings since the 1700s have named themselves Rama, and the capital of Siam (now Thailand) prior to Bangkok was called Ayudhya, after the Indian capital in which the Ramayana tale was set.
This image was photographed in November 1982.
