Ramayana Ballet

Our last night in Jogjakarta, we went to see the Ramayana Ballet. It is known as the dance you have to see when you are in Indonesia. Unfortunately we could not see the outdoor version performed with Prambanan Temple in the background. Still it was a very cool production. The smaller of the white monkeys that you see in the video is performed by a little boy who was only 5. He was swinging and climbing all over the roofs of the stage all night long.

The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India, the other being the Mahabharata. It depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal father, ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king.