Vietnamese Buddhist Art

by Nguyen Ngoc Vinh | 2009 | 60,338 words

This essay studies Vietnamese Buddhist Art in South and South East Asia Context.—In the early spread of Buddhism to Vietnam, three primary sources are investigated: Chinese histories, Sanskrit and Pali literature and local inscriptions and art: Initially Buddhist sculptures were carried from India to Vietnam by monks and traders. The research are o...

[Full title: Style and the Dating of Sculpture (2): South East Asia (a): Cambodia]

My knowledge of the early Khmer kingdoms in Cambodia dates from the sixth century. Here Hinduism and Buddhism often within a single period were honoured and followed by the rulers.[1] Superb stone sculpture has survived from these early kingdoms, some of it Buddhist, together with numerous, mainly Hindu, brick and stone temples based on Indian prototypes but magnificently decorated in the Cambodian idiom. Bronzes are rare from Cambodia before the tenth century.

In Cambodia the twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw an extraordinary growth of an empire, with a profusion of building and carving quite unique in world history. This period saw the creation of Angkor. The temples of Angkor in Cambodia are some of the world’s most magnificent architectural achievements. Built from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries[2], at the height of the power of the Khmer empire, the hundred or so temples are a mixture of Hindu and Buddhist architecture and imagery, reflecting the gradual shift in Khmer patronage from Hinduism to Buddhism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.[3] The ancient fortified city of Angkor Thom was the centre of Khmer power and its focal point was the Bayon, an impressive monument devoted to the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.[4] Bayon, with large towers bearing huge faces generally interpreted as images of the deified king in the form of a Bodhisattva. Angkor Wat is one of the greatest stone temples in the world built to honour Hindu and Buddhist gods.[5] Other temples are devoted to deified members of the Khmer ruling family.

The most remarkable Buddhist structure at Angkor is the Bayon, a mountain–like temple within the walls of Angkor Thom. It is a complex arrangement on three levels, with 49 pyramidal towers[6] rising up from the uppermost level, and five large towers in the centre. The largest central tower represents Mount Meru, the cosmic mountain at the centre of the Hindu and Buddhist universe. The structure is surrounded by a moat, representing the great cosmic ocean. Viewed from above, the structure resembles a Buddhist Mandala[7], with Mount Meru in the centre and four gates at each of the cardinal directions. Such a temple mountain or Mandala was not created as a site for group worship, but rather served as the residence of a god-king. Carved onto the sandstone walls of the towers are roughly 200 faces of Avalokiteshvara, looking out in all directions. These faces are said to be modeled on Jayavarman VII’s own face and symbolize his role of god-king at the centre of the universe. Below, on the walls of the Bayon is an abundance of bas relief carvings, including scenes of everyday life.

The Khmer empire ruled over what is now Cambodia, parts of Thailand and Vietnam from the early ninth century to the fourteenth century. Their capital, Angkor, was considered by the Khmer rulers to be the centre of the universe.[8] The power of the Khmers came to an end in the early fifteenth century when Thai armies attacked Angkor and other cities. At this time, Hinayana monks took over Angkor and turned it into a major centre for Buddhist pilgrimages. When the French first discovered this city in the 1860[9], it was practically hidden in jungle vegetation. For the next century, French and local archaeologists cleared away much of the vegetation and began the restoration of many of the buildings.

In all the lands under Khmer domination, including much of Thailand, vast quantities of sculpture were produced.

The surviving artistic and epigraphic evidence indicates that the Khmer kings and aristocracy mainly followed the principal Hindu teachings related to the formation and evolution of the universe, the destiny of man, and the afterlife. The most notable exception was Jayavarman VII, who embraced Buddhism. The date of birth of Jayavarman VII, the best-known Khmer emperor, is unknown, but is believed to have been between 1125 and 1130. Within the Empire, and especially on the Angkor plain, Jayavarman conducted a frenetic building program, during which a myriad of new building were erected and others demolished. The Preah Khan inscription[10] states that the king built or reopened 102 hospitals and includes a very interesting list of the personnel and supplies with which they were endowed. Jayavarman improved the water system; he extended the Srah Srang reservoir and built a new baray called Jayatataka, 11,500 feet long and 3,000 feet wide, to which 13 smaller reservoirs were connected. Continuing the tradition of building shrines to the ancestors, the king dedicated the Ta Prohm to his mother in 1186 and the Preah Khan to his father in 1191. These were veritable religious citadels with a huge allocation of personnel and goods.

Other important buildings commissioned by the King were the Ta Som, Ta Nei, Banteay Kdei, and Neak Pean. However, his name is mainly associated with his capital Jayashri (fortunate city of victory), now known as Angkor Thom (great city).[11] Surrounded by walls and centered exactly on the Bayon mountain temple, Jayashri was built in accordance with defensive criteria and above all had a precise symbolic layout, which was believed to provide magical protection for the city against attacks and evil influences. The Bayon, with its towers consisting of four faces looking out towards the cardinal points, is the most astonishing expression of Jayavarman’s personality. A Buddhist, the king no longer recognized the authority of Shiva-devaraja, although he continued to use the services of the Brahmans at court, as stated by the inscriptions that refer to some of them, such as Jaya Mangalartha, who hailed from an up-and-coming family. Although no Hindu monuments were built during this period, generous donations were still made to the existing ones.

Jayavarman replaced the ancient image of the devaraja (king of the gods) with that of the Buddharaja (lord of the universe). The faces on the Bayon temple are those of Lokeshvara[12], the bodhisattva of compassion. In Mahayana Buddhism, the bodhisattva is one who, despite having achieved spiritual enlightenment and the ability to leave the painful world of life, chooses to remain among men to help them find the way to salvation.

This figure is the incarnation of compassion, and represented the ideal model for Jayavarman, who like to think of himself as a merciful lord. To him, the Bayon temple expressed the synthesis between the social aspect of the King, who was identified as Lokeshvara, and therefore as the solicitous protector of his subjects’ welfare, and his most intimate essence, that Buddha, from which the bodhisattvas emanated. The incredible mountain temple of Jayashri thus became the shrine of the Buddharaja, whose features were those of the Emperor.[13]

Jayavarman erected statues of himself all over the country, some of which have survived to the present day. His features reveal the powerful, complex personality of the man. His high forehead indicates great intelligence, and his strong-willed expression is barely muted by his contemplative attitude. His half-closed eyes conceal his gaze, intent on inner contemplation, but his mouth, with its large, fleshy lips, reveals the formidable appetites of this king, who exuded spirituality and sensuality, humility and pride with equal intensity.

In his desire for immortality, revealed by his frenzied building campaign, Jayavarman identified his mother with the goddess Prajnaparamita[14], the mistress of supreme Buddhist knowledge, and his father with the bodhisattva Lokeshvara, of whom the Emperor considered himself the incarnation. However, it was not only the royal family who sought immortality; as if they had had a presentiment of the end, princes, dignitaries, and officials filled the temples with their statues, hoping in this way to cheat time as Angkor began its ineluctable decline.

The first statues of Buddha, dating from the sixth and seventh centuries, were inspired by Theravada Buddhism and mainly portray the Enlightenment One standing.[15] He wears a floor-length gown consisting of the antaravasaka (a cloth wound round the hips) and the uttaravasaka, a kind of ample cloak that covered one or both shoulders, ensured the stability of the statue, and enabled the supporting arch used in Hindu statues to be eliminated.

Of the 32 signs which distinguish Buddha according to the various texts, those most often represented in Khmer art are the ushnisha, the cranial protuberance portrayed as a chignon, the symbol of nirvana, and earlobes elongated by heavy earrings worn before he renounced the world of princes. The Mudra (gestures of the hands) “seal” the inner states and attitudes of the Enlightened One. The most common mudra are the Abhayamudra, the gesture of reassurance, in which the palm of the raised right hand is shown; the Vitarkamudra, the teaching attitude expressed by the fingers forming a ring; and the Dhyanamudra, with the back of the right hand on the palm of the left, indicating the state of meditation.

Some sculpture and epigraphs indicate that Mahayana Buddhism was already practiced in Cambodia in addition to Theravada by the seventh and eighth centuries.[16] The Mahayana school, which was less intransigent in interpreting the disciplinary rules, viewed salvation not as the sole right of monks but as the entitlement of all beings. The school was therefore called the “Great Vehicle” because it received and fulfilled speculative and mystic aspirations not permitted by Theravada.

Mahayana also teaches that the ego is illusory, a negative concept fed by the “three poisons” (greed, hatred, and ignorance), and that every phenomenon which is empty and devoid of a spiritual basis is transient. The concepts shunya (empty) and shunyata (emptiness) allude to the only true essence of all phenomena, the absolute Reality that incorporates and transcends opposites beyond all definition, and that can only be achieved through a process of enlightened intuition. In this context, samsara (conditioned, painful existence) and nirvana (its extinction) are no longer irreconcilably antagonistic opposites but two interdependent aspects of the same inner reality, that of consciousness, both a stormy sea under the impulse of desire, and a calm mirror that reflects its own vacuity.

In the mystic sphere, Mahayana radically alters the prospects of laymen as it proclaims the right of every being to enlightenment. Everyone can achieve “Buddhahood,” aided by the bodhisattva, which literally means “he whose essence is bodhi (illumination).” Although the bodhisattva is enlightened and therefore ready to achieve Nirvana, he renounces his own immediate liberation to show others the way of salvation as the perfect embodiment of benevolence and compassion, the cardinal virtues of Mahayana Buddhism.

The figure of the bodhisattva falls into a wider religious context in which the historical and human contours of Siddhartha Gautama, who became Buddha, are increasingly hazy, and the spiritual master is transfigured into the ineffable Absolute.

The new doctrine which constituted the core of the religious structure of Mahayana Buddhism postulated that Buddha had three bodies: the fictitious appearance of the noble Siddhartha, which is the transformation body perceptible by men; the enjoyment body, from which issue forth infinite divine forms enjoyed by the bodhisattva in the celestial domain as a result of their faith, and the body of Dharma (the doctrine), which symbolizes the ultimate Reality beyond all manifestation, the Absolute only knowable by Buddhas. There is no longer only one Buddha, but countless Buddhas assisted by countless bodhisattva, in an iconographical expansion that betrays a Hindu influence.

A portrayal typical of Cambodia, and to some extent the emblem of Khmer Mahayana, shows Buddha seated on the serpent Mucilinda, king of the naga (cobras), who emerged from the roots of the tree under which Buddha sat in meditation to protect him against a shower of rain.[17] The animal symbolizes both the earlier chthonic religion illuminated by the doctrine of Buddha and the dangerous primordial energy dominated and spiritualized by Buddha. Mucilinda’s three coils serves as the throne for the Enlightened One, sitting in the meditation posture, and his multiheaded hood opens to act as a canopy. The cobra’s hood alludes to the bodhi tree (tree of illumination), and the three rings formed by its coils may symbolize either the tri-fold world (earth, atmosphere, and sky) in which Buddha triumphs, or the triple jewel (Buddha, his Doctrine, and the community).

Mahayana Buddhism also produced the “decorated Buddha” ornamented with jewels, an image developed between the ninth and tenth centuries in the Indian monastery of Nalanda, which spread more widely in Indochina than in India.[18] The incongruous addition of jewelry (Buddha took a vow of poverty, and therefore wore no ornaments) is explained by the desire to emphasize the pre-eminence of the Enlightened One who, having achieved spiritual supremacy, is identified with the Chakravartin (universal sovereign) and, like him, is adorned with the most magnificent jewels.

The appearance of female deities such as the goddess Prajna or Prajnaparamita[19], the representation of the prajna (intuitive wisdom or perfect knownledge) resulting from the state of enlightenment, testifies to the last transformation of Buddhism: Vajrayana (“the diamond vehicle”). In the oldest stage of Hinduism, the term vajra referred to the attribute of Indra the rain god, and meant “thunderbolt.” Later, by extension, it symbolized enlightenment and the indestructible nature of Buddhist message, and came to mean “diamond,” the element which can scratch everything, but can be scratched by nothing.

Vajra, which symbolizes the spiritual force that destroys the three poisons, is the diamond scepter that ensures liberation. It was a very important Khmer ceremonial object, cast in bronze, and always exquisitely crafted. The handle symbolizes the nucleus from which everything originated and its workmanship alludes to the spiral energy that led to the manifestation of the cosmos. The two ends of the vajra symbolize the poles which generate the current of life its four tips allude to the cardinal points. The fifth tip in the center, which is often missing, evokes the zenith.

Angkor art began in the ninth century. It was produced almost entirely in the huge Angkor area, with the sole exception of the statues from Koh Ker, a town 53 miles from Angkor.[20]

In the Kulen style (825-875)[21] the supporting arch disappeared, but the statues, which were always male, were more solid. In some cases the eyebrows meet, giving the statue a fixed expression. The upper edge of the sampot tends to be thicker; the garment is knee-length and fastened by a ribbon belt with a knot hanging from the right hip. The pocket is turned into a fan of stylized pleats with rounded edges, fastened at the left thigh, and the free edge falls in elaborate anchor-shaped pleats.

The First Diadems Appear

The following development, namely the Preah Ko style, which coincided with the reign of Indravarman I (877-893)[22] features more movement, although the heaviness of the limbs remains. The “collar” beard and moustache are common, and the faces are broad and expressionless. The sarong and sampot are unpleated, and the upper edge, which is even thicker than before, stands out from the body. The chignon becomes a cylinder with stylized tiers, and the tiara lengthens to form two bands at the sides of the ears. The tiara is decorated with complex patterns, and in the case of the god Vishnu, becomes a kind of octagonal pagoda. The diadem tied at the back of the neck was introduced. A particularly important feature was the appearance of bas-reliefs, the first examples of which are to be found in the Bakong temple.

In the Bakheng style (893-921)[23] the facial features are even more marked and rigid: a double line emphasizes the eyes and mounth, while the sharp continuos line of the eyebrow arch is in relief. The beard and moustache are pointed and the overall impression is one of formal, abstract hieraticism. The pleated garments, with the edges folded over at the waist, fall with symmetrical rigidity from the hips, which have broadened. The detachment of the upper edge from the hips is accentuated and the patterns formed by the free edges of the sampot become more complex, forming a single or double anchor shape. The sarong is worn wound round the hips without overlapping, with the free edge folded over to form a wide yoke on the belt, which was embellished with pendants during this period.

When the capital moved to Koh Ker between 921 and 944[24], an unusual, innovative dynamism was introduced into the statues, which became monumental, their faces softened by a faint smile. The sculptors, who were far more confident by now, attempted large shapes and above all departed from the frontal view to portray movement. The two wrestlers found at the west gopura of Prasat Thom are among the most successful examples of this genre.[25]

The Pre Rup style, which coincided with the reign of Rajendravarman (944-968)[26], returned to smaller sizes and hieratic staticism. Belts multiplied, and hairstyles became more complex.

The style that predominated between 960 and 1000[27] is the building of Banteay Srei, a kind of revolution took place, represented one of the most significant artistic periods. The Banteay Srei statues had soft, gentle features with fleshy lips and wide open eyes. The male faces have faintly engraved beards and moustaches, and the female faces are suffused with thoughtful calm.

Mahesh Kumar Sharan had been described Banteay Srei as:

“Which has delicate, fragile almost femine sort of charms…. Bantay Srei is not a tall mountain-like structure rather it is a group of low wellspread small buildings wonderfully proportioned, beautifully designed and covered with the most exquisite carving of jewel-like intricacy and detail.”[28]

Spiritual faces, faint smiles, and fine hair plaiting also continued to appear in the Khleang style (968-1050)[29] which partly coincided with the reign of Suryavarman I (1010-1050), whereas the height of grace and gentleness was reached in Baphuon art, which culminated during the reign of Udayadityavarman II (1050-1066).[30] The smaller images have slender shapes, sometimes almost too much so compared with the size of the head, and the thinner legs are made possible by the presence of buttresses behind the heels. Great attention was paid to detail. The lips are taut and the eyes engraved, and were once perhaps ornamented with semi-precious stones, and the beard comes to a point o the chin, which has a characteristic dimple. The pleated sampot, which is tied with a single or double-loop knot, is shorter. The hemline rises slightly towards the center, the top edge is folded over several times at the waist to bare the navel, and the waistline is higher at the back, where it is fastened in a bow. The sarong was also higher-waisted at the back and lower at the front, and secured by folding it over several times in a central fishtail drape. It was secured with a bow, and completed by a pendant belt fastened by laces. The hair was styled in a small plaited jatamukata, held in place by a string of pearls.

Contrary to general expectation, the sculptural style of Angkor Vat (1100-1175), despite its architectural perfection, appears somewhat stereotyped. Following the grace and gentleness of the Baphuon style, there was a return to frontal views and hieraticism. The figures have square shoulders, swollen chests, and awkward legs and feet. In the mainly hairless faces the eyebrows still meet, and the eyes, emphasized by an incision, are elongated in a mannerist fashion. The female figures are more characterized and their faces are more expressive than those of the male figures.

The building of Angkor Vat marked the apogee, and simultaneously the end, of the national art that flourished in the Khmer Empire. It was mainly Hindu, although the smaller buildings exhibit an ever-increasing concern with Buddhist themes. Angkor Vat, the most famous monument built by Suryavarman II between 1113 and 1150[31], was a temple, mausoleum, and monastery, but was it also a palace. The Angkor plain, which was chosen as the center of the Khmer Empire, a perfect work and the embodiment of paradise on earth, still watched over today by thousands of beautiful deities with ecstatic smiles.

The most wonderful parts, however, of Angkor Vat are the sculptures that adorn their wall.[32] These are distributed in eight compartments, one on each side of the four central groups of entrances, measuring each from 250 feet to 300 feet in length, with a height of about 6.1/2 feet. Their aggregate length is thus at least 2000 feet. The number of men and animals represented extends from 18,000 to 20,000. The reliefs represent battle-scenes and daily life of the most animated description like at Borobudur Indonesia or Cham stupas Vietnam.[33] The bas relief is occupied by a different subject popularly supposed to represent heaven, earth, and hell. Above is a procession so closely resembling those in Javanese temples in Java. There all the sculptures are in high relief, many of the figures standing free, and all are essential parts of the architecture–are, in fact, the architecture itself. The Gothic architects attempted to incorporate their sculpture with the architecture in the same manner as the Indian architects.

The last great period of the Khmer sculpture, the Bayon period, dates from the reign of King Jayavarman VII (1181-1218). The hieratic frontal views of the previous period were abandoned and an attempt was made to portray greater movement and spatial plasticity. The fact that Buddhism had become the state religion led sculptors to express a more human, intimate ideal of beauty in their statues. The faces have enigmatic smiles and mystical expressions, and the tendency to deify ancestors and relatives and the identification of King Jayavarman VII with the bodhisattva Lokeshvara[34] led to the production of more realistic and psychologically studied images. Bayon style is the depiction of everyday life on the relief friezes, side by side with the turmoil of the battles, and the scenes from the stories of the gods Jayavarman VII’s megalomania was also manifested in statuary, and some huge statues were included among the monumental symbolism of the city of Angkor Thom. The row of giants that protect the entrances and the huge faces of the sovereign-bodhisattva who guards the Bayon towers are the most impressive examples.

Now known as Angkor Thom (great capital), it is believed to have hosted a million inhabitants, including the court, priests, high officials, and civil servants, while some of the common people lived outside the fortifications.

Angkor Thom was accessed by way of five laterite dykes that crossed the outer moat and led to five monumental gates; four stood on the axes and a fifth, known as the “Victory Gate”, was added on the east side to access the Royal Square and the Palace.

At the center of Angkor Thom, Jayavarman built the Bayon, his mountain temple, an awesome symbol of the megalomania of the king, who was absessed by the desire for immortality and at the same time hungry for power and mysticism. The temple, which is difficult to interpret because it was renovated on numerous occasions, stands on the site of an earlier building that probably had a greek cross plan. The Bayon was initially believed to be a Hindu shrine; it was not until 1925 that it was recognized as Buddhist.[35] It was correctly dated by Coedès in 1928 as a result of Stern’s studies.

The Bayon complex celebrates not only the functional role of the king, who was identified as Lokeshvara[36], and therefore the solicitous guardian of his subjects’ welfare, but also his innermost essence, his Buddhahood, from which the bodhisattvas emanate. The faces, gradually illuminated by the sun, reflect the alternation of light and shade, the passing of time, and the incessant rhythm of the universe.[37] Not only space is celebrated and crystallized in the sacred architecture, but also time, as the building represents and transcends the two ways of measuring human beings and their lives. The Bayon, a gigantic three-dimensional spiral, appears to coil upwards towards the sky, rising from the levels of everyday life to the heights of the spiritual dimension. But Nirvana, the extinction of life and ultimate goal in the Buddhist path to liberation, must have unconsciously attracted Jayavarman.

The Angkor, the Bayon period, is the last great period of Khmer sculpture. The hieratic frontal views of the previous period were abandoned and an attempt was made to portray greater movement and spatial plasticity. The fact that Buddhism had become the state religion led sculptors to express a more human, intimate ideal of beauty in their statues. The faces have enigmatic smiles and mystical expressions, and the tendency to deify ancestors and relatives and the identification of King Jayavarman VII with the bodhisattva Lokeshvara led to the production of more realistic and psychologically studied images. Most of the building erected by Jayavarman VII has superstructures consisting of huge faces of Lokeshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, who looks out towards the four cardinal points. The evident protective symbolism of this design alludes to the primary function of the king.

After the end of the great period of the Khmer Empire, sculptors returned to the use of wood, and the increasing power of the neighboring Thai kingdom influenced the sculpture of later centuries.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Chikyo Yamamoto, Introduction to Buddhist art, Preface by Lokesh Chandra. Delhi: 1990, p. 124.

[2]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p. 34.

[3]:

Heinrich Zimmer, The Art of Indian Asia, Vol 1, Delhi; 2001, p, 370

[4]:

Dietrich Seckel, The Art of Buddhism, trans by Ann E. Keep, London; 1964, p.56.

[5]:

J. Dumarcay and M. Smithies, Cultural Sites of Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia, NewYork: 1995, p. 95.

[6]:

Cultural Interface of India with Asia, ed by A. Pande & P. Pandya Dhar, Delhi: 2004, p.176.

[7]:

J. D, & M. S, Cultyral Sites of Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia, NewYork: 1995, p. 106.

[8]:

C. Jacques and M. Freeman, Angkor Cities and Temples, London: 1997, repri: 2001, p. 40.

[9]:

Cultural Interface of India with Asia, ed by A. Pande & P. Pandya Dhar, Delhi: 2004, p.170.

[10]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p. 122.

[11]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p. 298.

[12]:

Ibid, p; 266.

[13]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, pp. 263-264.

[14]:

Ibid, p.121 based on Ta Prohm inscription

[15]:

Ibid.

[16]:

Nandana Chutiwons. The Iconography of Avalokitesvara in Mainland South East Asia, Delhi: 2002, p. 212.

[17]:

Pratapaditya Pal. Asian Art at the Norton Simon Museum Vol 3 “Art from Sri Lanka & South East Asia, Hong Kong: 2004, p. 209.

[18]:

Ibid, pp. 210-211.

[19]:

Pratapaditya Pal. Asian Art at the Norton Simon Museum Vol 3 “Art from Sri Lanka & South East Asia, Hong Kong: 2004, p. 218.

[20]:

C. Jacques & M. Freeman, Angkor Cities and Temples, London, rep: 2001, p. 92.

[21]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p. 296.

[22]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit inscriptions of ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p. 296.

[23]:

Ibid, p. 297.

[24]:

M. K. Sharan Studies in Sanskrit inscriptions of ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p. 297.

[25]:

C. Jacques & M. Freeman, Angkor Cities and Temples, London, rep: 2001, p. 91.

[26]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit inscriptions of ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p. 303.

[27]:

Ibid.

[28]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit inscriptions of ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p. 302.

[29]:

Ibid, p. 302.

[30]:

J. Dumarcay, M. Smithies,. Cultural Sites of Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia, Oxford: 1995, p. 92.

[31]:

C. Jacques & M. Freeman, Angkor Cities and Temples, London, rep: 2001, p. 147.

[32]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit inscriptions of ancient Cambodia, Delhi 1974, p.311.

[33]:

J. Dumarcay, M. Smithies, Cultural Sites of Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia, Oxford: 1995, p. 98.

[34]:

Cultural Interface of India with Asia. ed by A. Pande and P. P, Dhar. Delhi: 2004, p. 178.

[35]:

Chikyo Yamamoto, Introduction to Buddhist Art, New Delhi: 1990, p. 129.

[36]:

Ibid.

[37]:

Ibid.

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