The Ramayana is a story as old as time and - at least in the Indian subcontinent and across much of Southeast Asia - of unparalleled popularity. More than two thousand three hundred years ago the scholar-poet Valmiki sat down to write his definitive epic of love and war.

The poem Valmiki composed is styled the Ramayana, or 'Romance of Rama' in Sanskrit. In its present form, the Sanskrit version consists of some 24,000 couplets divided into seven books.

The Ramakien is the Thai version of this epic and has an important influence on Thai literature, art and drama. It is regarded as the National Epic of Thailand.

Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha)