6. Buddhist monuments in Cambodia

“King Indravarman I (877–889) was important in Khmer history both for his territorial conquests and also his construction of a great reservoir at Angkor.”^[1]

The immediate predecessor of the kingdom of Angkor was the Khmer people and Angkor vat was be seen as the seat of Khmer reigns, it was surrounded by a water-filled moat 200 meters across with stepped embankment made of huge moulded sandstone blocks, representing the ‘milky-Ocean’ on the western side, as the temple faces west, this Ocean-like moat is cross through 11.6 m wide causeway: this causeway is paved with sandstone blocks and has Naga railing having at regular intervals beautifully carved five or seven hooded heads of Nagas.

The western frontal approach was via an earth and stone causeway leading to the central gateway. Flanked at some distance on either side by two larger entryways for elephants, the causeway leads to the main gateway of the fourth enclosure. The fourth enclosure, built of laterite blocks, representing great wall around the Maha-Meru, covers an areas of 1025x 800m. The other three sides of the enclosure are also provided with gateways built of sandstone blocks, but the western one is the most imposing running to a length of 220 meters three towers guarded the elaborately colonnaded entrance areas. The outer gallery contained relief friezes measuring in total length more than 500 meters. The temple proper was designed as series of three concentric rectangular galleries enclosing successive stages of the temple pyramid.

Symmetrical towers shaped like the lotus bud were raised at the four corners of both of the two inner galleries, topped by a crowning tower at the center about 210 feet high.

“Angkor wat is divided into four enclosures and stands on a three-stepped pyramid. Its central tower soars over 200 feet above the Angkor plain.”^[2]

The five central towers were symbolic of peaks of mount Meru, the mountain of the gods;^[3] the lotus-bud pattern suggested vitality, as well as beauty and fragrance. All nine central towers were originally gilded in gold. Tower in its ruined condition, the effect of the temple today is highly impressive. An elaborate frieze relief carving portrayed at multiple levels the entire temple tradition, including adventures of god’s most famous avatars Rama and Khrishna. It was placed against the interior wall of the vaulted corridor surrounding the temple area proper. Pillars supported the outer edge of the roof.

Thus, Angkor vat, shrines became elaborate arrangements of walls, moats and bridges surrounding a raised platform, usually with five towers to correspond to the five peaks of Meru and dominated by a single sanctuary, housing cult images of deified ancestors that further linked the ruler and his family with the divine, as Marilia Albanese has judged:

“The building and maintenance of shrines to the ancestors, and the erection of a temple for the devaraja, which was destined to become the mausoleum of the king himself.”^[4]

A coherent structured vision of the universe is fundamental to most religions, but seldom has the concept been translated into such a consummate artistic form. As noted in the introduction, this cosmological vision began with a belief in the proper relationship among all creatures, the natural order of nature and humankind. In a near mirror image of the contemporary literature of medieval Europe, Buddhist cosmology supported a belief in the essential harmony of the universe and a feeling that humankind’s creations must conform with that greater plan. In Cambodia, this cosmology was closely linked to belief in the god-king, placing the living Khmer king in the central position, with the temple as the physical presence that symbolized his imperial role. This temple mountain was not a place of group worship but rather functioned as the habitation of the god-king, an earthly palace also suitable for the celestial gods.^[5]

In theory, each king was supposed to build his own temple-mountain which would become his mausoleum when he died.

He was then given his posthumous title-the mane of his abode after death.

“On his death the great king took the posthumous name, Paramavishnulaka (he who has gone to the paradise of the supreme Vishnu), and the temple became his mausoleum.”^[6]

The official cult of divine kingship was to some extent independent of the various Indian cults—Shivaism, Vaishnavism, and Buddhism each of which displayed marked syncretic tendencies in their doctrines. In addition there is ample evidence to show that there was worship of images bearing the attributes of one or other of the great figures of the Brahman and Buddhist pantheons, but with names which combined the name of the god represented and the name of a deceased person, or even sometimes of a person still alive. It was to this personal cult that most of the great Khmer monuments were consecrated. They were royal, princely, or high official foundations which served to some extent as mausoleums in which the worship of parents and ancestors could be maintained.^[7]

In addition to details of the Hindu legend all portrayed with great narrative skill, the relief carvings reflected many phases of the life of the local people, as had Borobudur. Here were soldiers in battle array marching to war, royal parades, people preparing food, handicraft workers, agriculturalists, and local plants and animals, all presented with vitality and obvious enthusiasm. The royal builder was deified as a Vishnu incarnation, and the vat was his tomb. But the temple constituted a far more meaningful monument to the artistic genius of the people who contributed so much to its perfection. Several panels of the frieze relief at the rear of the vat remained only partly finished, and others were laid out only in drafted outlines.

From the topmost passageway near the central tower of Angkor vat, the guide can point to the distant hills, visible above the treetops of the encircling jungle, where the stone for construction work was quarried. A specially constructed canal was utilized for transporting stone in enormous quantities to the building area. The quarried stone had to be cut into units of usable size and roughly dressed by thousands of stonecutters before being turned over to the skilled masons and sculptors entrusted with its final preparation.^[8] Behind the stonecutters were the construction foremen, the master architects, and draftsmen. At the front of four gateways of the temple had put by two lion statues in each of gateway is one of tradition symbols of Buddhism. Along the antechamber between second and third enclosure; southern gallery have displaying so many Buddha statues is represent by Khmer tradition art. Still further removed were the Hindu scholars fully acquainted with the Sanskrit sources from which the Vishnu legend was drawn, some of them presumably brought over from India on invitation by the sophisticated Cambodia king. A building operation of the magnitude of Angkor vat required also a high degree of economic and social integration, plus a government strong enough to command the labor and talents of vast numbers of trained participants. It reflected also the presence of an abundant food supply, a prosperous commerce, and a widely shared sensitivity to aesthetic values. Such considerations suggest the historical significance of Angkor vat.

The Angkor vat style is remarkable for its architectural masterpieces, Angkor vat and Beng Mealea, for the harmony of lay-out achieved, for the hieratic quality of its statuary, and for the many largescale compositions in bas-relief which over the inner walls of the pillared galleries.^[9] The buildings must have been constructed according to models, and must have taken less time to complete than has generally been supposed. The stone-masons did not begin work on the decorations until each storey of the building was completed, but they got to work as soon as each of the lower storeys was in position. In general, the style of decoration, having gradually departed more and more from the Indian models and had reached the point where Indian influence is no longer discernible.^[10] Although the type of decoration remained the same as that borrowed from Indian art, vegetable, animal, and motifs had been introduced and treated in an entirely original manner.

Some monument in the Angkor area, display some of the scope of Khmer Buddhist architecture and imagery.

“the evidence of Angkor wat’s conversion to a Buddhist temple includes this brick stupa. Originally a reliquary, the stupa became a cosmic symbol. Its five parts symbolize the elements that make up the universe: earth, water, fire air, and ethereal space.”^[11]

From portrayals of episodes in the Buddha’s life to complex monuments still not fully understood. The first is Preah Palilay, located a few hundred meters from the Angkor, whose temple pediments feature episodes from the life of the Buddha, such as the defeat of Mara and the taming of the wild elephant of Nalagiri. They are among the few examples of these subjects in Khmer art, a tradition that favoured the Buddha-king and grand cosmological visions over episodes from the life of the Buddha.

Near by Angkor vat there is monument located on the outskirts of Angkor but joined to the main temples through waterways. This small group of tanks, known as the Neak Pean, is a miniature, simplified model of an aspect of the Buddhist cosmology.^[12] The Neak Pean re-creates a famous site in Buddhist mythology, the southern island of Jambudvipa. This is the home of humans, and at the centre is the Himalayan lake Anavatapta, the sacred springs visited by Buddhas, bodhisattvas, saints, hermits, and afflicted people. The healing waters flowed out from the lake in the cardinal directions, through fountain-heads in the forms of a lion, an elephant, a horse and a bull, the same four creatures found upon the drum of the famous Sarnath lion-capital. Another monument, the only complete Khmer Buddhist temple and a majestic Tibute is the Bayon as a great mandala^[13], which belong to Jayavarman VII, with his instatiable appetite for construction. He administered a massive building campaign, including hospitals, homes, shrines and shelters for pilgrims, to associates himself with good deeds. So exhaustive was his building and rebuilding that most of Angkor today is his work or is modified to his taste. He became a devoted Mahayana Buddhist, but also added e new concept not previously espoused by Khmer rulers, that reached out to the populace and even solicited its involvement.

In classis Khmer art the situation is different; there the whole of life is represented in all its multiplicity, and in such abundance it is impossible that individual works should possess the same insistent and poignant intensity. The Angkor towers in term of like concentration would be unthinkable. In other works, the classis art can only be compared in its cumulative effect with individual sculptures of the earlier school of Funan;^[14] and it is in this sense that Angkor vat.

The artistic of structures of Cambodia excelled those of its South East Asian neighbors in several important particulars. The Dvaravati Mons, for example, produced no imposing buildings and never quite emancipated themselves from the pre-Angkor standards of sculpture borrowed from Gupta India, the Champa also reflected strong Gupta dominance in their sculpture, although some specific examples, such as the famous 15-inch bust of Parvati and a relief panel of some exotic Jewelbedecked nude dancers, apparently surpassed the best Indian standards. But Champa architecture was in brick, not stone, a limitation which handicapped progress in both decorative design and in technical construction. Cham building included no extensive bas-reliefs and no vaulted galleries. After Indian influence began to wane, the degenerating standards of Cham art became crudely local in character.^[15]

Khmer superiority in architecture during the Angkor period is seen in its advance from brick to stone, which was capable of bolder feats of construction and development in elaborate bas-relief designs. The Khmer improved on the closed vaulted gallery supported by two walls by having one side rest on pillars so as to admit light for viewing the relief sculpture placed on the one interior wall. Khmer art also eventually emancipated itself from rigid Indian standards.

An important feature of stone carving in the region was the tendency towards full, three-dimensional form. Unlike in India where most stone sculpture was in high relief, large figures, fully modeled on all sides, these is the feature of Khmer art. Khmer art present were the surviving remnants of the combined siva-vishnu-Hariharacult^[16], as reflected in the name of the capital, and also traces of earlier Hinayana Buddhist traditions. The Devaraja symbolism later proved capable of adaptation under the Mahayana Buddhist faith, with the god-king conceived as an emergent Buddha or bodhisattva.^[17] The Khmer concept of kingship included finally an element of ancestor worship indigenous to Cambodia, Funan and Java and not derived at all from India. Royal incarnation in Cambodia was also conceived personal rather than generalized terms, contrary to the practice of the Indian tradition. The Devaraja cult of Cambodia also assimilated the older Naga-serpent tradition, according to which the royal consort in the form of a female transfiguration of the god of the soil had nightly intercourse with the divine king at the top of a sacred pyramidal tower. The mountain temple was located, in the mount Meru tradition, at the magically determined center of the axis of the universe. The Linga temple of the Devaraja frequently became later the tomb of the divine ruler.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Gabriele Fahr-Becker, The Art of East Asia, Vol II, Konemann: 1998, p.12.

[2]:

Marilia Albanese, Angkor Splendors of the Khmer Civilization, Thailand: 2006, p. 208.

[3]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p. 289.

[4]:

Marilia Albanese, Angkor Splendors of the Khmer Civilization, Thailand: 2006, p. 32.

[5]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, pp.289-290.

[6]:

Marilia Albanese, Angkor Splendors of the Khmer Civilization, Thailand: 2006, p. 200.

[7]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ancient Cambodia, Delhi; 1974, p. 226.

[8]:

Michael Freeman & Alistair Shearer, The Spirit of Asia, Journeys to the Sacred Places of the East, London: 2000, p. 89.

[9]:

J. Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, Delhi: 1998, p. 388.

[10]:

Ibid, p. 388.

[11]:

Marilia Albanese, Angkor splendors of the Khmer civilization, Thailand: 2006, p. 201.

[12]:

Dr. Ram Ranjan Das, Art Traditions of Cambodia, Calcutta: 1974, p. 147.

[13]:

Ibid, p. 166.

[14]:

Dr. Ram Ranjan Das, Art Traditions of Cambodia, Calcutta: 1974, pp. 127-133.

[15]:

Ibid, p. 84.

[16]:

Dr. Ram Ranjan Das, Art Traditions of Cambodia, Calcutta: 1974, p. 65

[17]:

Ibid, pp. 85-90