THE STORY BEHIND THE MASKS
The Ramakien: The Epic Story Behind Every Khon Show
Every Khon performance draws on the Ramakien, Thailand's national epic — here's who Phra Ram, Sita, Hanuman and the demon king Tosakan actually are.
See Khon Show Bangkok dates on GetYourGuide ↗The Ramakien, Thailand's own Ramayana
The Ramakien is Thailand's national epic, adapted from India's Ramayana but reworked over centuries with Thai settings, names and cultural detail layered in until it became a distinctly Thai story in its own right. It's the single text almost every Khon production draws its scenes from — you can think of it as the shared source material for the art form, the way a handful of Shakespeare plays supply most classical Western theatre. Knowing even the outline of the plot before you see a performance makes a real difference, since Khon doesn't explain backstory on stage — it assumes the audience already knows roughly who these characters are and what they want.
Phra Ram and Nang Sida, at the centre of the story
The epic follows Phra Ram, an exiled prince, and his wife Nang Sida, whose abduction by a demon king sets the whole story in motion. Their relationship — separation, search, and eventual reunion — is the emotional spine the Ramakien keeps returning to across its many episodes. In Khon, both are human/divine roles rather than masked demon or monkey characters, performed unmasked in heavy stylised make-up and a tall gilded headdress, with movement that's more lyrical and restrained than the acrobatic combat scenes given to the monkey and demon roles. If a staged excerpt features Phra Ram and Sida directly, expect a slower, more courtly register of dance than a battle scene.
Tosakan, the demon king of Lanka
Tosakan is the Ramakien's central antagonist, a demon king ruling the island kingdom of Lanka, conventionally depicted with ten faces and twenty arms — a stylised way of showing his supernatural power rather than a literal physical description. His abduction of Sida is the inciting event for most of the epic's major conflict, and battle episodes involving Tosakan and his demon armies are some of the most visually dramatic scenes Khon productions stage, full of masked combat and acrobatic choreography. His mask is one of the most recognisable in the whole Khon tradition, built with a closed mouth in the demon-mask convention and finished in the green associated with his character.
Hanuman, the loyal monkey general
Hanuman, the white monkey general who serves Phra Ram, is arguably the Ramakien's most beloved character in Thai popular culture — a mischievous, resourceful, immensely powerful ally whose loyalty and cunning drive much of the plot's resolution. He commands the monkey army that eventually helps Phra Ram cross to Lanka and rescue Sida, and his scenes tend to be the most physically energetic in a Khon programme, full of acrobatics rather than the slower courtly movement given to human roles. Hanuman's mask is white with the open mouth used across all monkey characters, a detail worth watching for if you want to pick him out from the demon roles in a crowded battle scene.
Why productions only stage fragments
No single Khon performance attempts to tell the entire Ramakien — the full epic is enormous, and a complete telling would run across many performances rather than one evening. What you'll actually see is a chosen episode: perhaps the abduction of Sida, a specific battle between Phra Ram's and Tosakan's armies, or the building of a causeway to Lanka. Which episode gets staged varies by venue and by date, so don't assume two Khon shows you've heard described are telling the same part of the story. It's worth treating each performance as a self-contained excerpt rather than expecting a complete beginning-to-end narrative arc in a single sitting.
The Ramakien is everywhere in Bangkok, not just on stage
Scenes from the Ramakien don't only live in Khon theatres — they cover the walls of the Wat Phra Kaew cloisters at the Grand Palace in a famous series of murals, and the story's characters turn up across Thai art, literature and even street names. If your day includes both the Grand Palace and a Khon performance, you're effectively seeing the same national epic twice, once painted and once danced, which is worth knowing before you go — recognising a scene from the murals can make the stage version click into place, and vice versa.
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