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Close-up detail of Sita's mother in palace (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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- Search LEARN NC for art, Bangkok, Emerald Buddha Temple, games, kings, leisure, murals, paintings, palaces, Ramayana, royal life, and Sita.
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This close-up detail from a mural at the Emerald Buddha Temple shows Sita’s mother, wearing golden clothes and a tall Siamese crown, speaking to several palace women.
In this detail taken from the left rear of the larger mural, we see the queen on a raised platform in a small pavillion talking with women who are seated casually below her on the tiled floor. Small groups of other women chat or play board games nearby.
On a raised pavillion at right in the larger picture (not seen here), the king tells his kneeling courtiers that only a prince who can lift, string, and shoot the bow of Siva will marry his daughter Sita. Sita is looking out from a window in the same pavillion at the top center.
This type of painting provides some information about the home and leisure life of earlier Siamese royal families, and Southeast Asians in general, as well as carrying the plotline of the Ramayana epic.
Of note is the lack of chairs for seating--people prefer to sit or sprawl on the cool tile floors. The women relaxing at the palace also are seen in their most casual clothes, including halter tops or sleevelss blouses.
This image was photographed in November 1982.
