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Stone stele at Prambanan Temple shows Rama walking with monkey allies
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- Unknown
- Location
- near Yogyakarta, Indonesia
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2006. Terms of use
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A stone stele at Prambanan Temple shows Rama walking with monkey allies. Realistically portrayed, the monkeys and people in this carved bas relief walk together in line to the right of the image.
Wearing tall Javanese-style crowns and waistcloths, the monkey god Hanuman walks in front of Rama, while Rama’s brother Laksman walks behind. Rama and Laksman carry large bows. Hanuman carries a large sword slung over his right shoulder. Naked monkeys holding swords and clubs accompany the royal heroes.
Prambanan is the largest remaining Hindu temple complex on the island of Java in Indonesia. It was built and dedicated to the god Siva during the ninth and tenth centuries CE. There were once hundreds of small temple structures in this vicinity, but most were so damaged before conservation began in 1918 that they cannot be rebuilt.
Among the approximately fifty remaining smaller temple sites at Prambanan are three large temples dedicated to the gods Siva, Vishnu, and Brahma. Scenes from the Ramayana are carved into the these stone temples’ walls. For reasons still not fully understood, the Prambanan temples were abandoned soon after their completion. Leading theories include possible natural disasters such as earthquakes, and the gradual ascendance of Muslim kingdoms on Java after the fourteenth century.
Classical Javanese dance performances of the Ramayana usually are held seasonally at Prambanan temple during the evenings. A 2006 earthquake in Central Java, however, caused considerable damage and the temple’s temporary closure for repair. Prambanan in a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In the Ramayana, Rama is always aided in his battles with demons by the monkey god Hanuman and a group of clever monkey kings.
This image was photographed in July 1986
