About Ramayana


About Ramayana

The Ramayana tale is the epic story of Prince Rama as he is exiled to the forest with his beautiful and faithful wife, Sita, and his loyal brother, Laksmana. The Ramayana was originally developed in India and was then introduced to other Kingdoms in Asia with Sanskrit ties, including present-day Java, Bali, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia. As the story was introduced to other cultures, it evolved into localized forms.

The Story

The story begins with Rama, Laksmana, and Sita together in the forest. There they see a beautiful golden deer and Sita requests Rama and Laksmana capture the deer for her. While in the forest, Rawana sees the beautiful princess, Sita, and wants to take her as his bride. He devises a plan to abduct Sita when she is alone in the forest.

As Rawana and Sita travel back to Rawana’s kingdom, the heroic garuda bird, Jetayu, attempts to save Sita; but he does not succeed. When Rama finds that his wife has been abducted, he requests assistance from the powerful white monkey king, Hanoman.

Will Rama and Sita be reunited? This dramatic epic tale depicts scenes of love, sadness and epic battle.

Sendratari

Sendratari is a form of Balinese dance-drama that was developed by artists as early as the 1960s. Sendratari, literally “art-drama-dance,” combines drama with a large dance troupe, accompanied by gamelan musical ensemble, and dalang (narrator).

It is a contemporary performance form that was developed by combining traditional performance elements in an innovative manner. The music for Sendratari Ramayana was composed by I Wayan Beratha, celebrated master musician, teacher, and composer.