Rama's army marches to demon island of Lanka (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 4.6)
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Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for armies, art, artistic conventions, Bangkok, Emerald Buddha Temple, flags, horses, landscapes, murals, paintings, Ramayana, royal clothing, and Thailand.
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Rama’s army marches through the forest towards Ravana’s demon island of Lanka, as seen on a mural at the Emerald Buddha Temple. The landscape scenery includes low trees and large, round boulders.
Rama’s officers ride on horses and wear the most colorful and elaborate clothes. One carries a triangular flag. Foot soldiers carrying swords and lances are dressed uniformly in red shirts with blue cloths wrapped around their waists. The modern-style, short-sleeve shirts may be a recent addition included during a re-painting of the mural.
The top of a golden tower protrudes into the lower foreground of the image. The building is associated with a different but adjacent scene on the mural. The overlapping configuration of different but sequential scenes on the Emerald Buddha Temple murals are one of their distinctive charms. The layout of unbordered images sometimes challenges the viewer to figure out which elements belong to which scene.
This image was photographed in November 1982.
