THE RAMAKIAN OF THAILAND

Article by Gayle Castañeda

All dolls and masks are from the author’s personal collection.

It is quite common to see Rama and Sita dolls for sale in
antique stores and on the Internet, and if traveling to
Bangkok, Thailand, Rama, Sita, and other Ramakian
character dolls can be purchased there. Most of the dolls
appearing in this article were elaborately handmade at a
particular workshop in Bangkok, and some may date from
the 1970’s.

Presented here is the royal couple, with Sita on the left &
Rama on the right. Each doll is approximately 13” tall.


In this photo we see Tosakanth , the demon king,
in the process of abducting the princess.
Usually
Tosakanth is depicted with a green face, but with
the princess so close to him, he is feeling very
mellow, and his face has a golden hue.

The princess doll and the demon doll are each
approximately 11” tall.


The Tosakanth mask shown here has the normal
green color of this character and measures 24” high.

  • As was mentioned previously, Hanuman had a
    sizeable monkey army he commanded, but along the
    way to rescue Princess Sita, quarrels developed
    among some of the higher ranking monkey officers.
  • The Hanuman doll, the White Monkey General, is 7”
    tall, and the Hanuman mask is approximately 11” high.

Nilapat, the Black Monkey General, fought bitterly with
Hanuman as to who was superior, but Hanuman won
the challenge. That battle was a side story unto itself!

Here is a 9” doll representing Nilapat.


One of the minor characters in the Ramakian story is
this doll in blue, Waiyabut, a monkey warrior loyal to
Prince Rama. The doll is approximately 9” tall.


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We list here our major donors:


Anita Ladensack presented us with a 12” porcelain doll dressed in the attire of Seville, Spain. Obtained by donor in
2005.


From Margaret Woodard we received several textiles from Mexico, dated 1960’s – 1970’s.


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