Mask of "Hanuman" ("King of the apes") ·  India - Himachal Pradesh · ID: 3036032

Description

wood, dark brown grounding, remains of black paint, white and red pigment, concave vaulted facial plane with an overlong flat nose and a teeth-revealing mouth, slightly dam., cracks (left eye, right side of the head), paint rubbed off;
“hanuman” is a Hindu deity, who is an ardent devotee of “rama”, a central character in the Indian epic Ramayana. A general among the “vanaras”, an ape-like race of forest-dwellers, “hanuman” is an incarnation of the divine, whose fate it is to aid the hero “rama” in the struggle against the demon king “ravana”.