Manuscript with fortune-telling lore and illustrations of the stories of Rama, Sang Thong, and Manora

The heroic vulture Jatayus attacks Ravana in an attempt to rescue Sita on the middle pages of this manuscript from Buddhist Thailand. To the right the mortally wounded vulture king tells Rama that Sita has been abducted. On the two pages to the left the monkeys Sugriva and Hanuman speak with Rama, and then Hanuman is seen setting fire to Ravana’s city.

The order of these scenes does not make sense, but the purpose of this manuscript was not narration but fortune-telling. It illustrates important episodes from Thai legends, using them, together with astrology, to allow a specialist to read the fortunes of clients.

A complicated process leads to a particular page and fortune. The text on the middle pages here, for example, warns that trouble is coming. Sickness will be serious; a yellow-eyed woman will cause a quarrel; and so on.

A manuscript of this sort takes for granted that ordinary Thai people would know their Rama-epic stories well.

(Exhibition Label from The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe)