If you have travelled around Thailand, there is a good chance you have already seen the Ramakien before anyone explained the name to you.
That was certainly true for me. Travelling through the country, I kept seeing these characters depicted in temples and on stages. White monkey warriors. Huge giants. Elaborate crowns, masks and costumes. They appeared in completely different settings, but clearly belonged to the same visual world.
Once you know what you are looking at, a lot of those pieces start joining together. The white monkey is Hanuman. One of the great giants is Thotsakan. Phra Ram and Nang Sida sit at the centre of the story. And the story connecting them is the Ramakien.
The Ramakien is widely described as Thailand's national epic. It is Thailand's retelling of the Rama story found in the Indian Ramayana, but centuries of Thai storytelling, literature, painting and performance gave it its own characters, episodes and visual identity.
The Ramakien story in a few minutes
The full Ramakien is massive. There are gods, giants, monkey armies, magical weapons, transformations, battles and side stories everywhere.
You do not need all of that to understand what you are looking at for the first time. Start with the main story.
Phra Ram leaves royal life and enters the forest with his wife Nang Sida and his loyal younger brother Phra Lak.
Thotsakan, the giant king of Langka, takes Nang Sida. Bringing her back becomes the central struggle of the story.
Hanuman becomes one of Phra Ram's most important allies and leads monkey warriors through battles, spying missions and some pretty wild supernatural adventures.
Phra Ram's forces fight Thotsakan and his giant army in the long campaign that eventually ends with Thotsakan's defeat.
That is the backbone.
It is enough to understand why Ramakien art is packed with armies, giants, monkey warriors and royal figures. The individual episodes get far stranger and much more interesting once you start digging into them.
Hanuman especially. He could very easily take over this whole article, so I am resisting that for now.
Where did the Ramakien come from?
The Ramakien grew from the much wider Ramayana tradition that began in South Asia and spread across Southeast Asia.
But there was never one moment where somebody simply translated an Indian book, changed a few names and called it Thai.
The Rama story had been circulating through the region for centuries. In Thailand it was told, performed, painted and rewritten over a very long period. Research published by the Journal of the Siam Society traces the Rama story through Thai folklore, literature, drama, sculpture and painting rather than treating it as one isolated text.
Oral stories, visual art and performance traditions existed long before the version of the Ramakien most commonly associated with the Bangkok period.
Surviving Ramakien traditions continued, but earlier written versions were lost or left incomplete after the destruction of Ayutthaya.
Under King Rama I, the story was gathered and rewritten into the version that became the most prominent form of the Ramakien in Thailand.
Thailand Foundation's history of the Ramakien describes the Rama I version as the most prominent surviving form today.
I think this history is much more interesting than saying, "Thailand has its own Ramayana."
It tells you that the story did what stories often do when they travel. People kept telling it. Artists kept changing how it looked. Performers gave the characters new life. Eventually the Thai version became recognisable in its own right.
How did the Ramakien become so distinctly Thai?
This was the part I wanted to understand properly.
If the story came from the Ramayana, why do the figures I kept seeing in Thailand look so completely at home there?
The answer is centuries of adaptation.
Names changed. Episodes changed. Characters developed differently. Thai court traditions shaped the literature and performance. Artists placed the story inside a Thai visual world of architecture, dress, ornament and landscape.
So when you look at a Ramakien mural, you are not looking at Thai artists trying to make an archaeological reconstruction of ancient India. You are looking at a story that had already become part of Thai artistic culture.
The most famous example is at Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok. The galleries contain 178 mural panels showing events from the Ramakien.
Think about that for a second. One hundred and seventy-eight panels.
This is not one decorative scene tucked into a corner. The story unfolds around the galleries as a huge painted narrative.
Five characters worth knowing first
Ramakien family trees can get complicated very quickly. Ignore that for now.
Learn these five names and a lot of Thai murals, performances and images immediately become easier to follow.
The Thai Rama. Phra Ram leads the campaign against Thotsakan after Nang Sida is abducted.
The Thai Sita. Her abduction by Thotsakan sets the central conflict of the epic in motion.
Phra Ram's younger brother and companion through exile and the war against Langka.
The Thai Ravana and Phra Ram's great opponent. Traditional Thai depictions give him ten faces, twenty arms and a striking green appearance.
Magical, clever, brave and frequently mischievous. Hanuman becomes one of Phra Ram's greatest allies and one of the most recognisable figures in the Thai epic.
There are loads more characters. Monkey generals, giant warriors, gods, hermits, mermaids and supernatural creatures all appear across the story.
We do not need to meet them all today.
You start seeing the Ramakien differently once you know the story
This is where researching it changed things for me.
I had already travelled extensively through Thailand. I had seen these kinds of figures in temples and seen them brought to life on stages.
I just did not always know how the pieces fitted together.
From travelling to understanding
Once you know a few names, the visual language starts making sense. That white monkey figure might be Hanuman. A huge green giant can be Thotsakan. What first looks like an elaborate decorative scene can turn out to be one small moment from a story people have been telling for centuries.
That is one of my favourite things about learning more about somewhere you have travelled through.
Something you walked past, photographed or watched years ago can suddenly have another layer to it.
And the Ramakien is not restricted to painted walls. Characters from the story also appear through Khon, Thailand's masked dance drama.
UNESCO describes Khon as bringing together dance, music, vocal performance, literature, ritual and craft. It was added to UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2018.
That helps explain why these characters can feel so present even if you have never sat down and read the epic itself.
The story has several ways of reaching you.
And then there is the way it all looks
You do not need to be a mythology expert to remember Ramakien characters.
Hanuman's white monkey form is hard to miss. Thotsakan's green giant appearance is completely different. Then there are towering crowns, detailed costumes, masks, gold, patterns and incredibly controlled poses.
Even before you know their names, the characters have presence.
The image catches you first. The story makes you remember what you were looking at.
That is a big part of why Hanuman became interesting to me as a CITTRA subject.
A white monkey warrior is already visually brilliant. But once you know that he belongs to a Thai epic you have seen represented in real temples and on real stages, the image has something behind it.
So is the Ramakien just the Thai Ramayana?
Related? Absolutely.
Identical? No.
The central Rama story connects them, which is why calling the Ramakien the "Thai Ramayana" can be useful when somebody has never heard of it before.
But once you start comparing the two properly, you find Thai names, different episodes, changes to characters and a long history of local adaptation.
Hanuman is a brilliant example. If you only know him from one version of the Ramayana, the Thai Hanuman can be quite a surprise.
Keep following the story
Next: Ramakien vs Ramayana
The next guide looks properly at what Thailand kept from the wider Ramayana tradition, what changed and how the Ramakien developed its own identity.
Continue with Ramakien vs Ramayana: What's Different in Thailand's Version? .
Explore the place behind the story
There is a lot more to Thailand than one epic
Thailand Keep exploring the food, temples, symbols, stories and everyday details behind the country.From the story to the art
The real Thai stories behind the prints
This is exactly why Hanuman and Khon work so well as CITTRA subjects for me.
I had already seen these characters and performers in Thailand before I properly understood where they came from. Learning about the Ramakien gave those images a completely different context.
That is the connection behind this collection. The artwork starts with real Thai characters, performance and visual culture rather than using "Thai mythology" as a loose decorative theme.
Explore the artwork
Ramakien & Khon prints
Three different takes on the characters and performance traditions behind the story, from Hanuman to Khon.
Ramakien FAQs
What is the Ramakien?
The Ramakien is Thailand's retelling of the Rama story from the wider Ramayana tradition. It is widely described as Thailand's national epic and has its own Thai names, episodes, character traits and artistic traditions.
Is the Ramakien the same as the Ramayana?
No. The Ramakien grew from the wider Ramayana tradition and shares its central story, but centuries of adaptation in Thailand produced important differences in characters, episodes, names and visual culture.
Read the full comparison in Ramakien vs Ramayana .
Who wrote the Ramakien?
The Ramakien is not the work of one single author. Rama stories had circulated in Thailand for centuries. Earlier versions were damaged or lost after the fall of Ayutthaya, and a major version was later compiled and rewritten under King Rama I. Other Thai rulers and writers also produced Ramakien material.
Who is Hanuman in the Ramakien?
Hanuman is the magical white monkey warrior who becomes one of Phra Ram's most important allies. He is known for bravery, loyalty, intelligence and mischief, and became one of the most visually recognisable characters in the Thai version of the epic.
Who is Thotsakan?
Thotsakan is the giant king of Langka and the main opponent of Phra Ram. He is the Thai counterpart of Ravana and is traditionally depicted with ten faces, twenty arms and a green appearance.
Where can you see the Ramakien in Thailand?
The best-known example is the long series of Ramakien murals around Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok. Characters and stories from the epic also appear in other forms of Thai art and through Khon masked dance drama.
From my own travels, what stands out is that these figures are not something I encountered in only one setting. I have seen them depicted in temples and brought to life on stages.
Why is the Ramakien important in Thailand?
The Ramakien has had a long influence on Thai literature, painting and performance. Its characters are also central to Khon, while the mural galleries at Wat Phra Kaew turn the story into one of Thailand's most substantial visual narratives.
Sources & further reading
I used cultural, heritage and academic sources to check the history behind this guide. These are good places to continue if you want to get much deeper into the Ramakien.
- Thailand Foundation — Ramakien: Thailand's National Epic
- Journal of the Siam Society — The Rama Story in the Thai Cultural Tradition
- UNESCO — Khon, Masked Dance Drama in Thailand
- Smarthistory — Wat Phra Kaew and the Ramakien Murals