{"product_id":"ravanan-tholu-bommalata-leather-puppet","title":"Ravana, the Ten-Faced King | Tholu Bommalata Leather Puppet","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eEvery other puppet in the Tholu Bommalata tradition shows its face in profile. Ravana alone looks straight at you. Ten heads. Twenty arms. The one who broke every rule the Ramayana set and made the epic worth telling.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eA hand-cut, hand-painted Tholu Bommalata leather puppet of Ravana in his Dashamukha form - the ten-faced demon king of Lanka. Made by artisans in Andhra Pradesh, following a two-thousand-year-old iconographic convention in which Ravana’s central face is the only face in the entire tradition rendered front-facing, looking directly out at the world. Mounted in the Handmade Tales frame with khadi-white cloth backing and concealed LED lighting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Only Face That Looks Back\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eThere is a convention in Tholu Bommalata that has held for over two thousand years. Every character, every god, every hero, every demon, every queen is shown in profile. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eExcept for one character. Ravana’s central face is rendered front-facing - looking directly out at the audience, through the white cloth screen, into the dark where the crowd sits. The nine other heads are arranged around this central face in profile, fanning outward. In a tradition defined by the rule of the sideways gaze, this is the most transgressive act of iconography in the entire canon. And it is entirely deliberate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p3\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eRavana is the Ramayana’s most complicated figure. He is a scholar of the Vedas and a devotee of Shiva, a king whose rule was just and whose kingdom was prosperous. He is also the man who abducted Sita and brought the wrath of Rama down on Lanka. The tradition does not resolve this contradiction. It holds it, in the only face that looks back at you and refuses to be read simply.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Handmade Tales","offers":[{"title":"Framed with Lighting","offer_id":47708648308910,"sku":null,"price":300.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Puppet Only","offer_id":47708648341678,"sku":null,"price":120.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0549\/6625\/5790\/files\/DSC_5981.jpg?v=1775560237","url":"https:\/\/shophandmadetales.com\/products\/ravanan-tholu-bommalata-leather-puppet","provider":"The Handmade Tales","version":"1.0","type":"link"}