Old video from Thailand shared as monkeys heading to Ayodhya for Ram temple ceremony

What is the claim?

A video of a troop of monkeys galloping down a road is viral on social media with the claim that it shows ‘a monkey army’ heading towards the city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh for the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple. The monkeys in the viral video have been linked to the mythological monkey army of the monkey god Hanuman from the Hindu epic Ramayana.

This footage has been widely shared by multiple Facebook users in Assamese, a regional language of India, with similar assertions. A notable post from January 20, 2023, included the caption, “A beautiful scene of the monkey army of ‘Bajrangbali’ flocking to Ayodhya before the inauguration of the Lord Sri Ram Temple in Ayodhya (translated from Assamese)." It has been shared over 51 times.

However, it turns out that this video is three years old and originates from Thailand. It is unrelated to the recent Ram temple consecration in Ayodhya on January 22, 2024.

How did we verify?

Conducting a reverse image search with a keyframe from the viral video led us to a news report titled “Hungry monkeys brawl over food as coronavirus hits tourism in Thailand.” This report, published on The Guardian's official YouTube channel on March 13, 2020, includes the viral footage starting at the 0:29 mark. 

The video report that was published in the Guardian. (Source: YouTube/The Guardian)

The report explains that the video captures a large group of monkeys clashing over a pot of yogurt on a street in Lopburi, a city northeast of Bangkok known for its monkey population. The video was reportedly filmed during the COVID-19 outbreak, a time when fewer tourists were available to feed them.

Additionally, the same video appeared in a March 11, 2020, report by Sanook, a Thai-language news website. This report pinpointed the location as the road in front of the Phra Kan Shrine. 

The Facebook post by Sasaluk Rattanachai. (Source: Facebook)

A Facebook user, Sasaluk Rattanachai, originally posted this video on March 11, with additional footage and photos from the same incident, mentioning Lopburi as the location.

Comparison between screenshots of the viral video and Google Maps of the same location. (Source: Screenshots/Facebook/Google Maps)

Furthermore, by using information from these sources, we successfully geolocated the exact spot seen in the viral video to the road in front of the Phra Kan Shrine in Lopburi, Thailand. This confirmation conclusively indicates that the video's location is not in India.

Previous similar claims have been debunked by Logically Facts, including an old video of vultures falsely linked to the Ram temple consecration, associated with the mythological bird Jatayu from Ramayana. Another fact-checked case involved a video of bears in a village, erroneously connected to 'Jamvant' from Ramayana, a character resembling a bear. This video, originating from Madhya Pradesh, was shared with claims of the bears heading to Ayodhya for the inauguration event.

The verdict

The viral video, filmed in front of the Phra Kan Shrine in Lopburi, Thailand, during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, has been inaccurately linked to the Ram temple consecration in Ayodhya. Thus, we have marked the claim false.