Ramayana

Prambanan is a Hindu temple near Yogyakarta, built in the 9th century. The temple is illuminated at night, and there is an open-air theater in front of it (from which the temple is visible at night) where the Ramayana ballet is performed almost nightly.

The Ramayana tells the story of Rama. There are pretty costumes. Rama was able to use a fancy bow left by Shiva, and as a reward he got to marry Sita, the fairest of them all.





Then stuff happened. Much of the epic involves Hanuman, who is kind of my favorite on account of MONKEYS! And there were little kids who played some of the monkeys and kept falling over and being cute. None of these pictures came out, so here are some pretty girls:



The ballet picks up with the part called Sundara Kanda, where Hanuman sets fire to Ravana's citadel.



But then it gets a little iffy in Yuddha Kanda, where Rama is unsure of his wife's purity so he sets her on fire. Like ya do. She survived, and they lived happily ever after.



(That is until Rama becomes doubtful of her purity again an banishes her, and then she gets swallowed by the earth. That part isn't in the ballet.)