Ravana instructs his niece to impersonate Sita (Thai Ramayana mural)
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- Unknown
- Location
- Bangkok, Thailand
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2006. Terms of use
See this photograph in context
- The Ramayana: The Hindu epic The Ramayana is retold through the mural, painting, and dance of Southeast Asia. (Page 4.2)
Related media
Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for art, Bangkok, demons, Emerald Buddha Temple, murals, paintings, palaces, Ramayana, Ravana, royal clothing, Sita, and Thailand.
In the classroom
- See our collection of articles on visual literacy for ideas on using photographs meaningfully in the classroom.
In this Emerald Buddha Temple mural scene, the demon king Ravana instructs his niece to imitate Sita’s appearance and behavior. Ravana speaks and gestures his instructions from a high palace veranda to his young and beautiful niece who sits respectfully on the tile floor below him with her hands in prayer position. Ravana and his niece both wear Siamese royal clothes, gold jewelry, and tall crowns.
Ravana ignores the advice to return Sita given by both the wise hermit and his own brother the astrologer. Instead Ravana devises a plan to deceive Rama into thinking that Sita is dead so Rama will stop looking for her. Ravana intends to employ his niece as a double of Sita to try to fool Rama.
This image was photographed in August 1984.
