The white monkey of the Reamker.
ហនុមាន · Ha · nu · man
Cast by hand · Painted by you
$40
Out of stock · first batch late 2026
Mask, five pots of colour, a brush and the story card.
ហនុមាន · Cambodia
General of the monkey army. Warrior, lover, trickster. His face has been worn in Cambodian temple courtyards for centuries. It arrives here blank for the first time.
Hanuman reached Cambodia from India, and the Khmer made him their own. The Reamker, the Glory of Rama, is Cambodia's telling of the Ramayana, and it departs from the Sanskrit source in ways that say a lot about the people who adapted it.
Where the Hindu Hanuman is celibate and single-minded, the Khmer Hanuman has a romantic life, a sense of humour and a real talent for getting into trouble. He is more fun and considerably less obedient.
The earliest evidence of his mask is in inscriptions from the late tenth century under Jayavarman V. His acrobatic form turns up again on the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat and the Bayon, frozen mid-leap in sandstone centuries before the French arrived to be astonished by it.
Le Petit Journal, 24 June 1906 · King Sisowath’s dancers at Marseille
A Lakhon Khol mask is a full helmet built over a clay mould. Craftsmen lay on sheet after sheet of papier-mâché, model the jewels and foliage in wax directly onto the surface, then seal the whole thing in lacquer tapped from Melanorrhea laccifera trees in Kratie. Gold leaf goes on last.
Colour tells you who is who. Green for Rama. Yellow for Lakshmana. Brick red for Ravana. White for Hanuman and his eighteen monkey warriors. Every performer is identifiable across a temple courtyard at night by firelight, which is exactly what the system is for.
Wearing the mask, the dancer is understood to become the deity. Dancers say mastering the Hanuman role can take a lifetime, and they do not say it as a figure of speech.
Hanuman and Sovann Machha · Danseuses du Roi, Phnom Penh
The Khmer Rouge came very close to ending it. Between 1975 and 1979 masters were killed, costumes burned and lineages cut. Only the troupe at Wat Svay Andet came through intact.
The reconstruction was led by Princess Norodom Buppha Devi, who spent decades putting back what had been lost, working from the memories of the few who survived.
UNESCO inscribed the Royal Ballet of Cambodia in 2008. In 2018 Lakhon Khol Wat Svay Andet joined the Urgent Safeguarding List. Audiences at recent festival performances have run past 120,000 people.
The dancers before the President at the Élysée Palace
Wearing the mask, the dancer is not playing the god. He is the god, and everybody in the courtyard agreed to that beforehand.
The Hanuman that arrives at your door is poured by hand in our own plaster, finished smooth, and sent out with no colour on it at all. Every line the mask makers agreed on is still there under your thumb.
Paint him the traditional way, white face and gold crown and the colours of the Reamker. Or paint him the way a child sees him. There is no wrong answer, and a share of every one sold goes back to the free art classes that started this.
Plaster, poured one at a time, in the house on the Siem Reap River.
No colour. The sculpt is the guide: raised edges catch the brush and hold it where it belongs.
White face, gold crown, red mouth, the colours of the Reamker. Or your own.
What the mask is in its own tradition, before we cast it in plaster and send it out white.
Something not here? Write to hello@blankstory.co. One of us answers, usually the same day.
Yes. Water-based, non-toxic, and it comes off skin and off a table with a damp cloth. Built for a kitchen table on a Sunday.
A story card with the history and the traditional colours, so you know what you are looking at. No paint-by-numbers. The mask ships white on purpose.
Resin is cheaper to ship and it feels like a phone case. Plaster takes paint properly, keeps a sharp edge on every carved line, and has the weight that puts a thing on a shelf instead of in a drawer.
The first batch lands late 2026. Press Notify me and we email you the day it is in stock. Orders go out from stock the next business day.
Anywhere in Cambodia. Pick it up free at Peaceful Chaos in Siem Reap, have it brought to your door in Siem Reap, or sent by courier to any province. The delivery fee shows at checkout. You pay by KHQR from any Cambodian bank app.
Yes, and we would like that. Minimum order is one case of four, prepaid, and you can collect free from the office in Siem Reap or have it sent anywhere in Cambodia. Full pricing and terms sit behind a trade login. Write to us with the name of the shop and we will send a code the same day.
Out of stock · first batch late 2026
Hanuman lands late 2026. Leave your email and you will know the day it does.