EXAMPLES OF KHMER ART

KHMER ART

If you had gone with Sophy and Rathana to the National Museum, which would you have liked more, the standing Buddha that Kim Seng liked, or the sculpture at the top of this page ? Of course, it is a difficult question to answer. Perhaps, if you had known that the sculpture was Hindu, you would have answered, "As long as I am a Buddhist, I will prefer the statue of the Buddha." While some people prefer the Hindu sculpture, because it has more action, others prefer the Buddha statue, because it is more peaceful. Most people, however, feel that both sculptures are beautiful examples of Khmer art.

The Hindu sculpture is not as old as the standing Buddha. It originally decorated a door of the tenth century Shiva temple at Banteay Srei. Like many of the ancient Khmer sculptures in the museum, it tells a story. If you look back into Cambodia's past
as far as you can, you will realize the importance of the two famous Hindu stories of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The Mahabharata, in which the five Pandava brothers fight against their cousins, the Kauravas, is even more popular than the Ramayana. In this sculpture, one of the Pandava brothers, Bhima, is jumping in the air in order to attack one of the Kaurava brothers, Dhritarashtra. Bhima, however, is being helped by two gods, Krishna and Balarama, who stand on Dhritarashtra's left.

Although Sophy and Rathana really liked the Hindu sculpture from Banteay Srei, as far as they were concerned, they found the statue of the Hindu god Varuna even more attractive and interesting. Actually it was made at about the same time as the sculpture from Banteay Srei, but originally it came from the western side of a temple in Siem Reap.

"The reason why we particularly like that statue," they explained to Kim Seng. "Is because we like the birds." The birds reminded the girls of the geese they fed every day around their houses in the village. These particular birds, however, represent knowledge and are called 'hamsa', although in Khmer they are called 'hong'. If the girls had seen other statues of Varuna, they would probably have seen some of him sitting on a naga, where the naga represents water and Varuna the rain.