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Hanuman & Sovann Machha “The white monkey and the golden Mermaid” (Angkor Dance Troupe)

A dancer claps the hands of another as they kneel down. Hanuman's dancer wears a white monkey mask with a golden head ornament. His face has red spiral markings, and his smile and eyebrows are highlighted in green. His outfit is an elaborate embellishment of gold patterns. The Maccha dancer wears a golden crown which spirals upward. Her tunic is gold with golden embellishments, while her skirt is orange. She wears a golden mermaid tail tied to her waist.

In the Indian epic the Ramayana, called Reamker in Khmer, the queen Sita was captured and taken to the kingdom of Lanka, far out to sea. King Rama called on a famous army general, named Hanuman the White Monkey, to help him rescue his queen. Hanuman and his army of monkeys set about to build a bridge across the ocean to rescue the queen, but as fast they could pile up stones for the bridge, the stones mysteriously disappear. The white monkey general dived into the sea to investigate. What he discovered was a beautiful golden mermaid named Sovann Machha who has been carrying off the stones in an act of playful vandalism, and Hanuman confronts her. He could not be dazzled by her beautiful and falls in love. Although she initially resists, Hanuman used a variety of tactics to get her attention and eventually, as the story continues past this chapter, he wins her over as his partner in the fight against evil (Angkor Dance Troupe 2006).

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Image

Lowell National Historical Park, Code: LOWE

Lowell National Historical Park, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Latitude: 42.6464996337891, Longitude: -71.3309020996094

NPS.gov Collection

05/21/2006

05/21/2006

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Friday, August 16, 2019 12:07:51 PM

Friday, August 16, 2019 12:07:51 PM

Angkor Dance (5).JPG

Canon Canon, Canon EOS 5D

1/90 sec at f / 9.5

50 mm

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Sunday, May 21, 2006 8:29:00 AM

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