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Thailand: A scene from the Ramakien (the Thai Ramayana story) on stone around the Phra Ubosot (Main Chapel), Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha), Bangkok

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.

Originally built in the 16th century, Wat Pho is Bangkok's oldest temple. King Rama I of the Chakri Dynasty (1736—1809) rebuilt the temple in the 1780s.

Officially called Wat Phra Chetuphon, it is one of Bangkok's best known Buddhist temples and is nowadays a major tourist attraction, located directly to the south of the Grand Palace. Wat Pho is famed for its Reclining Buddha and renowned as the home of traditional Thai massage.