Printer-friendly page

Fish and mermaids carry stones away from Rama's bridge (Thai Ramayana mural)

This mural detail from the Emerald Buddha Temple shows large fish and mermaids moving through cresting ocean waves to carry stones away from Rama's bridge. At right a merman and mermaid couple carry large stones held high over their shoulders and behind their heads. At left a demon creature who seems to be half woman and half sea snake carries another large stone. Large fish, including a giant blue one diving into a wave with a stone in its mouth, swim around the mermaids.

The demon king Ravana instructs his mermaid daughter to oversee the destruction of the stone bridge that Rama's monkey troops were building so that they could cross to Lanka and rescue Sita.

<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://statelibrarync.org/learnnc/sites/default/files/images/thai_rama_131.jpg" width="1024" height="698" alt="Fish and mermaids carry stones away from Rama's bridge" title="Fish and mermaids carry stones away from Rama's bridge" />
Usage Statement: 

Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

This item has a Creative Commons license for re-use.  This Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license means that you may use, remix, tweak, and build upon the work for non-commerical purposes as long as you credit the original creator and as long as you license your new creation using the same license. For more information about Creative Commons licensing and a link to the license, see full details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.