The Ramakien - Thailand Ramayana

The Ramakien (The Ramakien (รามเกียรติ์, "Glory of Rama", sometimes also spelled Ramakien) is Thailand's national epic, derived from the Hindu epic Ramayana. The word is derived from Sanskrit word Ramakhyan (Ram + Akhyan) where Akhyan means a long story or epic.

A number of versions of the epic were lost in the destruction of Ayutthaya in 1767. Three versions currently exist, one of which was prepared in 1797 under the supervision of (and partly written by) King Rama I. His son, Rama II, rewrote some parts of his father's version for khon drama. The work has had an important influence on Thai literature, art and drama (both the khon and nang dramas being derived from it).

While the main story is identical to that of the Ramayana, many other aspects were transposed into a Thai context, such as the clothes, weapons, topography, and elements of nature, which are described as being Thai in style. Although Thailand is considered a Theravada Buddhist society, the Hindu mythology latent in the Ramakien serves to provide Thai legends with a creation myth, as well as representations of various spirits which complement beliefs derived from Thai animism.

A painted representation of the Ramakian is displayed at Bangkok's Wat Phra Kaew, and many of the statues there depict characters from it.

1.The above text courtesy on Ramakien is from the wikipedia web site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramakien

Mr.Sampong Yusoontorn

of Bangkok, Thailand who is a Great Philosopher and Research Scholar and Good Humanitarian having a great aim of educating the people through his presentations. Through his slideshare presentations and also through  facebook he is sharing his infinite wisdom to all people. Through slideshare he shared more than 1300 different presentations on Art, Culture, Psychology etc. many topics. He has 1618 followers on slideshare.

 Mr.Sampong Yusoontorn prepared one presentation on" Ramakien - Ramayana Story of Thailand".
http://www.slideshare.net/bright9977/the-ramayana-story

Sampong Yusoontorn encouraged me very much trough slideshare and gave many valuable and encouraging comments for some of posts which i shared in my Heritage of India and also my other blogs. Sampong Yusontorn sir thank you very much for your kind encouragement to me.

Below are the images of "The Ramakien - The Tahiland Ramayana" from the slideshare presentation of Mr.Sampong Yusoontorn.I use these Ramakien images with the permission of Mr.Sampong Yusoontorn.Sampong sir thank you very much for giving permission for using your presentation.

It is a pleasure to every Indian that our Ramayana - The Rich Heritage of our Incredible India is indeed itself a Living Tradition or Sampradayam which lead not only the Indians but also to the many people of World those who follow the Path shown in our Incredible Epic Ramayana. Another country other than India, the Thailand preserved our glorious Ramayana in their own way in their folk art form "The Ramakien". The Ramakien murals are similar like our Kerala mural paintings, Kalamkari paintings, Madhubani paintings and also resemble like many tanglible and intangible art forms and mural paintings of India. What a great Epic Ramayana which gave inspiration to the many countries and cultures across the globe. I hope this Ramakien post and these murals are giving inspiration to so many people and also i guess many painters inspired from these Ramakien murals and they draw similar like patterns. 

Hats off to our Great Epic RAMAYANA.Incredible India.