Hanuman Sak Yant: Meaning, Story and Our Hanuman Pieces
In short
A Hanuman sak yant is a Khmer sacred tattoo of Hanuman, ហនុមាន, the monkey hero of the Reamker, Cambodia's Ramayana. The Hanuman Yantra is worn for protection and to keep bad things away, and for power, strength, agility, cleverness, success and good luck. We tattoo it on the back, the shoulder and upper arm, and the forearm.
Hanuman is the monkey hero of the Reamker, and the yant Cambodian fighters wore for courage and protection.
What does a Hanuman sak yant mean?
A Hanuman sak yant is for protection and for strength. The Hanuman Yantra is worn for protection and to keep bad things away, and for power, strength, agility, cleverness, success and good luck.
In the past, Hanuman was the sak yant of warriors, soldiers, commanders and fighters. They believed its meaning made their minds and feelings stronger and could protect them in war and in fighting. So the yant works on the mind as much as on the body.
For the other Khmer designs and what each is for, read what Khmer tattoos mean.
Who is Hanuman in the Reamker?
Hanuman is the king of all the monkeys and the commander of King Ream in the Khmer legend of the Reamker. He is carved on the walls of Angkor Wat and of other temples in Cambodia. His weapon in the Reamker is Preah Khan, the sword.
Hanuman is the monkey hero of the Reamker, the Khmer telling of the Ramayana. He helps Preah Ream (Rama) rescue his wife Neang Seda (Sita) from the ten-headed demon king who holds her on the island of Langka.
The Khmer scholar Saveros Pou describes him as one of the leading officers of Preah Ream's monkey army and the son of the wind god, a demi-god rather than an ordinary monkey. In the Khmer text the monkeys of the army are given "unquestioning loyalty and devotion to their masters" and "a martial skill tinged with magic" (Saveros Pou, Indigenization of Ramayana in Cambodia, Asian Folklore Studies, 1992). Those are the qualities a Hanuman yant asks for.
Magic runs through his story. As The Cambodia Daily retold the Reamker in 2002, Hanuman can change his shape, and at one point he makes himself so large that his tail becomes a bridge for Preah Ream's soldiers to cross to Langka. In Cambodian painting his son Mechanub looks just like him except for a fish's tail: his mother is Sovann Maccha, queen of the fish (The Cambodia Daily, 2002).
Why a hero of the Reamker is tattooed in Cambodia
The Reamker is not only a story in Cambodia. The anthropologist Ang Choulean told The Cambodia Daily that "in traditional Cambodia, characters [of the Reamker] were considered deities", and that scenes from the epic were played to bring rain in times of drought. The same article dates gold statues of its characters to the 6th century at Angkor Borei, notes the scenes carved on the walls of Angkor Wat and Banteay Srei, and describes an old painted version of the story from the 1860s at Wat Bo, here in Siem Reap.
The Khmer yant draws on Buddhism, on Brahmanism or Hinduism (myth, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata), and on Khmer legends and literature. So a hero of the Ramayana, retold as the Reamker, is at home in a Khmer sak yant, written in Khmer script.
Is a Hanuman yant Hindu or Buddhist?
Both, in the Khmer way. Hanuman comes from the Indian Ramayana, but in Cambodia the story was reshaped by Theravada Buddhism: Saveros Pou shows how Khmer authors remodelled its heroes along Buddhist lines, and Ang Choulean told The Cambodia Daily that the tale took on Buddhist meaning in Cambodia, as a 16th-century written version shows. More on the roots of the tradition in where Khmer tattooing comes from.
Who wore Hanuman in Cambodia?
Warriors, soldiers, commanders and fighters: they wore it to make their minds and feelings stronger and to be protected in war and in fighting.
Cambodian reporting says the same. In 2009 the Phnom Penh Post found that "Cambodian fighters are often adorned with intimidating images of a dragon, tiger or the monkey king Hanuman", and a tattooist told the paper that his Cambodian customers were mostly "police, soldiers, and fighters like boxers and martial artists" (Phnom Penh Post, 2009). In 2001 The Cambodia Daily met a tattoo master near Oudong whose own Hanuman, sword in hand, sprang from his left shoulder (The Cambodia Daily, 2001).
Hanuman is one of several fighters' designs; for the rest, read protection and warrior tattoos.
Our Hanuman sak yant designs
Most of our Hanuman Yantra show Hanuman kneeling on one knee, a weapon raised, above two lines of Khmer script and a row of small symbols. Some pieces set him at the centre of a full back, or below the Nine Buddha Yantra.
Send us a message if you would like this design, or a Hanuman in another size.
Where does a Hanuman sak yant go on the body?
On the back, on the shoulder and upper arm, or on the forearm. On the back, Hanuman kneels upright with the script below him; on the arm, he fills the outside of the shoulder and the script runs below him on the upper arm.
Some designs have their own place on the body, and most sak yant go above the hip. Designs of the Buddha, gods, great hermits, some animals of the gods, commanders and kings cannot be tattooed on the legs. Hanuman is the son of a god and an officer of Preah Ream's army, so do not plan a Hanuman sak yant on the leg without asking Chantha first. More back and shoulder work is on our work page.
Is a Hanuman sak yant right for you?
It is, if that is what you want from it: protection, keeping bad things away, power, strength, agility, cleverness, success and good luck. In Cambodia it was the tattoo of people who faced danger and fights. Women wear it as well as men, on the upper arm, the upper back, or below the Nine Buddha Yantra: read sak yant for women.
A Hanuman yant is sacred, and you choose it with the person who will tattoo it, not from a picture online: read how to choose a design.
Getting a Hanuman sak yant at our studio
You start with a message. A large Hanuman takes time: an original Hanuman tapped by bamboo took one client five hours in 2023. Large pieces need a first consultation to talk through the details, while small designs, about the size of a hand, can be done in a single visit. The yant is hand-tapped with a rod or done by machine, with a blessing that sets the intent of the artwork and blesses you with protection, luck or power. Read what happens at a session, step by step, and see how we price a sak yant on our visit page.
Meet Chantha and his teachers.
