Monkeys from Heaven

National Wildlife
June/July 2003

THE LEGEND of the sacred monkey traces back more than 20 centuries to an old Hindu epic of Hanuman, the god of monkeys. In a battle of good versus evil, Hanuman leaps from the coast of India to rescue his king’s abducted queen from the island of Lankah (present-day Sri Lanka). Setting the island kingdom ablaze with his tail, Hanuman distracts the queen’s captors and sets her free. Today, the fabled deity is still worshipped for his brave deeds—his charred face and limbs a national symbol of strength. Many devout Hindus regard the black skin of Hanuman langurs as proof that they are the living descendants of the monkey god. But the mysterious intrigue surrounding these monkeys doesn’t stop with their royal legacy. For decades, scientists have marveled at their social behaviors—some of them jarringly violent—as well as Semnopithecus entellus’s dogged ability to survive in a diverse range of environments, from the brutally hot sands of the Great Indian Desert to the snow-capped Himalayan Mountains. Next to man, the Hanuman langur inhabits a wider array of landscapes than any other primate in the world. Read the Article