The demon king Ravana riding a mythical bird

If we expect Ravana to have multiple heads and pairs of arms, and to ride a donkeydrawn chariot, as he often does in India, we will not recognize him here. In Bali he is usually shown with a single head, and rides a demonic creature with the wings and tail, and sometimes other features, of a bird. This winged demon can be seen bearing Ravana in Indonesian temple reliefs from more than a thousand years ago.

Here Ravana carries a fabled sword he received from the god Shiva, which he used during the abduction of Sita to slice off the wings of the heroic vulture Jatayus, who was trying to protect her. His mount is, except for its hands, very birdlike, and the sculptor has gone to great effort depicting the textures and colors of its splendid plumage.

Little is known about how such figures were used in nineteenth-century Bali.

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