ABSTRACT
The Thiri Rama is a script written in court language in the mid-nineteenth century to be performed for Myanmar royalty. The text of the Thiri Rama has recently been linked with 347 sandstone plaques carved in relief with scenes of the Ramayana found at the Maha Lawka Marazein pagoda in a remote area of northwest Myanmar. The framework of the Thiri Rama follows that of the original epic, the Ramayana, written in Sanskrit some 2,500 years ago in India and attributed to the poet-sage Valmiki. The story opens in the kingdom of Lanka Dipa where aggressive demons have arrived and threaten to take over the kingdom. The story moves forward in rapid sequence unveiling the genealogy of Dathagiri. Rama and Thida are deeply in love and they marry. Rama and the demon king meet in battle; Rama chops off all ten of heads of the demon king with his powerful arrows and he dies.
