Dancer dressed as Sugriva the red monkey king at performance in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- Unknown
- Location
- Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2006. Terms of use
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- Search LEARN NC for Bali, carvings, costumes, dance, Indonesia, kings, monkeys, performance, Ramayana, Sugriva, theater, Ubud, and woodcarving.
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A dancer is costumed as Sugriva, the red monkey king, at an August 1986 performance in Ubud Village on the island of Bali in Indonesia. He wears a carved and painted red wooden mask with large monkey fangs. The mask covers his face below the eyes. Long black hair is attached to the sides of the mask. The dancer also wears a golden crown, a tassled collar, and a red cloth costume with a long tail.
When Rama’s army comes to the vast sea around the island of Lanka, it is no longer possible to use Hanuman’s tail as a bridge. So Rama decides to build a stone bridge across the water. Hanuman and his uncle, the red monkey king Sugriva, send thousands of their monkey troops into the mountains to fetch stones for the bridge.
