The Monkey King’s Many Faces

In Kuala Lumpur, in Brickfields, there is a temple called Sree Veera Hanuman, whose vimanam is a green furry tail coiled 41 times into the shape of a tall dome.This tail drops through the temple’s ceiling, into its main sanctuary, where it joins the person of the monkey god, garlanded and enthroned.Regal serenity is not the only face he wears. In the temple he is rendered in North- and South-Indian styles. He kneels in black stone, sits bored and crosslegged in white marble, stands as gilt gold. He roars, tusked, with a Vietnamese crown on; meditates, still as granite, wearing a Balinese sarong.And he flanks the temple gates, not as Hanuman at all—or, rather, Hanuman in yet another face: Sun Wu Kong, twinned: riding magic clouds, wielding magic staves.+Wu Kong’s “Journey To The West” has been told many times.The Wan Brothers’ “Havoc In Heaven” (1964) features a svelte protagonist inspired by Chinese opera, whose antics are an unintentional comment on the Cultural revolution.Akira…