Balinese dancer performing as red monkey king, Sugriva
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- Unknown
- Location
- Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2006. Terms of use
Related media
Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for Bali, costumes, dance, Indonesia, kings, monkeys, performance, Ramayana, Sugriva, theater, and Ubud.
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A male dancer plays the red monkey king named Sugriva at a Ramayana performance in Ubud Village on Bali Island in August 1986. The Balinese dancer steps forward in an active male pose with his arms held out to the side and slightly forward. His thumbs and middle fingers are held together in closed loops with his palms down, while his other fingers stick out, flexed upward.
The dancer playing Sugriva wears a carved red wooden mask and a red cloth costume. He also wears a gold crown and a black-and-white checked waistcloth that is used to clothe gods and their images on the Hindu island of Bali in Indonesia.
In the Ramayana, Sugriva is one of the uncles of Hanuman who is willing to send his monkey troops in battle with Prince Rama to retrieve Rama’s captured wife Sita.
