Angkor Wat contains 12th century portraits of 1,796 individual women. They were clearly part of a "social network". American researcher Kent Davis asks "Was this temple an ancient Facebook"?

Andrew Buncombe reports from Asia for the UK Independent

Angkor, Cambodia — Amid the splendour of the 12th-century temple of Angkor Wat, they stand and stare like silent sentinels, sensuous rather than erotic, carved with elegance and care. But exactly who are these 1,796 mysterious women and why, more than a century after Cambodia’s famed Hindu temple was rediscovered by Western archaeologists, did it take the efforts of an amateur researcher from Florida to push experts into trying to resolve the puzzle?

Researcher Kent Davis at Angkor Wat.

Though Kent Davis had lived in South-east Asia during the 1990s, he did not have an opportunity to see Angkor Wat until 2005. Like most visitors to the huge complex in the centre of the Cambodia, for many years cut off from the outside world because of the presence of the Khmer Rouge, he was mesmerised by the experience.

But he was also left with a flurry of questions. “I went to Angkor as a tourist and I was startled when I got there and saw these women,” said Mr Davis, 54, a publisher and writer who now lives near Tampa, Florida. “I was not prepared for it. The human element of them struck me and I wanted to know who they were. I asked one of the guides and he said they were there to serve the king after he went to heaven.”

Mr Davis’s interest was tweaked, so he wanted to know more. He vowed he would return to the US and investigate. Yet when he got home he found there was essentially nothing written about these women, who appear throughout the temple complex in full body carvings.

The women of Angkor Wat appear to include different Asian ethnicities.

Indeed, the only study of the female carvings he could find had been made in the early 20th century by Sappho Marchal, the daughter of Frenchman Henri Marchal, then the curator of the temple site. Frustrated but intrigued, he decided he would find out for himself. Five years and several trips to Angkor later, Mr Davis has slowly begun to get some answers.

MSU researchers plotted 130 identification points on each face.

In 2008, he asked for the help of computer experts from the University of Michigan. That team was able to conduct facial mapping experiments on digital photographs of the women, or devatas. The team, whose findings were presented last month at the International Conference on Pattern Recognition, an academic convocation in Istanbul, concluded that there were at least eight different facial types, perhaps reflecting a variety of ethnicities in the Khmer kingdom.

The results are to be examined further by archaeologists and more computer mapping is planned. But for all the effort that went into the mapping, the results of which were published in DatAsia magazine, many questions about the women remain unanswered.

“It’s a 12th century Facebook,
but no one has ever heard of this social network.”

“There are almost 1,800 faces there,” said Mr Davis, who now uses 65 separate characteristics to define the individual women in a devata database. “It’s a 12th century Facebook, but no one has ever heard of this social network. This was the biggest temple the Khmer people ever built. It is still the largest religious structure on Earth! It must have been important to them because they threw everything into it. They would have only put their most important images into it; these women must have been incredibly important to the kingdom.”

Mr Davis wrote to universities, pestered experts, and sought the opinions of people from around the globe who had worked at Angkor. Trude Jacobson, an assistant professor of history at the University of Queensland, Australia, and author of Lost Goddesses: Denial of Female Power in Cambodian History, said: “Kent is an enthusiastic researcher of a question that everyone assumed was settled long ago, or doesn’t matter.

Each of the 1,796 women at Angkor Wat is unique.

“The history of women in Cambodia, until very recently, has been one in which they were relegated to the shadows. His interest is infectious and has made others more interested in questions of gender in an otherwise heavily masculinised historical inquiry.”

What has struck Mr Davis as he has continued his enquiries, is that for all the women at Angkor there are relatively few male carvings.”Could these different women represent the different professions of the Khmer kingdom?” he said. “Could they be scholars, agriculturalists? I think they must represent the most important women in the kingdom.”

Dr Peter Sharrock, an expert on South-east Asia at London’s School of African and Oriental Studies, has studied the temples around Angkor for years. “We understand [the female carvings] little but they play a major role in the architectural sculpture of these temples, which must imply a major role in the beliefs of the ancient Khmers and in the rituals in their temples,” he said.

“Khmer descent was primarily matrilineal, and Khmer women were literate and powerful. Many were queens, and most kings base their genealogies and claims to the throne on their female ancestors. The ancient Khmers venerated the goddess Prajnaparamita in the most elaborate cult to her known anywhere in Asia. So there are fundamental questions here about an exceptional female religious and regal role in ancient Cambodia that remain unanswered.”

Despite 150 years of experts purporting that the women of Angkor Wat are imaginary, Davis contends that they are realistic, accurate portraits of actual women who were members of the royal Khmer court.

Professor Jacobson believes the images were part of a broader iconography relating to the supernatural world. “The devatas, placed either side of doorways, were guards who monitored who was permitted access from the mundane world to the supernatural,” she said.

“[Those] represented as flying or dancing, were responsible for leading the souls of the dead to the supernatural world from the battlefield. The models for the images at Angkor were doubtless members of the royal family.”

Despite the abundance of women at Angkor Wat, not a single man is honored with the same type of portrait carving.

Mr Davis said he was dedicated to trying to throw greater light on the mystery of the carvings by working with the team of researchers he has cultivated. At this point, he said, starting to analyse the images was like “being the first person to get a map to the British Museum and the keys to the front door”.

He added: “Once we define facial types more thoroughly, an incredibly exciting prospect appears. If these images are portraits of actual people, it’s logical to assume that they had children within this region, and that creates the possibility of using facial pattern recognition on people living in this area to see if facial shapes and types seen at Angkor still live here. We could actually find the descendants of some of the sacred women in the temple.”

Angkor Wat, the icon of Cambodia's Khmer Empire reflects in a sacred pond.

Angkor Wat – Symbol of a nation

• The sprawling temple complex of Angkor Wat, located amid dense jungle and close to the city of Siem Reap, was built in the early 12th century and is one of a series of stunning palaces and temples that were built over a 400-year period by the Khmer Kingdom.
• Today, the temples attract up to a million tourists a year, but for many years the remarkable buildings were unknown to the West, which only “rediscovered” them in the 19th century. During the 1970s and 1980s they were off-limits as a result of the presence of the Khmer Rouge, the Maoist-inspired rebels who ruled Cambodia from 1975-79 and who then engaged in a bitter civil war for the next two decades.
• Angkor Wat itself, the most impressive and best-preserved of the complexes, was built for King Suryavarman II in the early part of the 12th century and is dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu. It has since become a symbol of Cambodia, even appearing on its national flag.

Angkor Wat at dawn.

Angkor Wat central towers in Vizerra 3D model

By Kent Davis – Devata.org

Santa Clara, CA – Virtual reality innovators at 3DreamTeam dazzled DEMO conference attendees with 3D technology that brings the world’s most amazing heritage sites directly to your computer. The Cambodian temple of Angkor Wat is one of 20 initial projects for the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites.

The incredibly detailed Vizerra locations allow virtual visitors to walk through Angkor Wat, Machu Picchu, Petra, Red Square, Swayambhunath Stupa, Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal and more.

Vizerra's 3D model of Angkor Wat allows you to explore the entire site by air or on the ground.

In our 2009 article, “Virtual or Reality? 12 amazing 3D comparison photos of Angkor Wat”, side by side comparisons show the Vizerra reality almost identical to being at Angkor Wat. Since then, 3DreamTeam has continued refining their stunning Angkor Wat model using detailed photographs of devata (sacred female) portraits, surface textures and blueprints provided by Devata.org.

Vizerra's Angkor Wat model includes devata (sacred female) images. The technology will soon allow links to location specific data and high resolution photos.

3DreamTeam is now working directly with NVIDIA, the leading developers of 3D hardware technology. Games and movies comprise most 3D content now available but 3DreamTeam is expanding consumer and educational applications with its Vizerra technology.

NOTE: Vizerra software and location models are available as a free download to users worldwide:

System Requirements – Recommended

Intel Core 2 Duo / AMD 64 X2 5200+
GeForce 8800 GTX / ATI Radeon HD 4770
4Gb RAM
Broadband Internet connection (at least 2560 Kbit/s)

Minimum

Pentium 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon XP 2500+
NVidia GeForce 6800 / ATi Radeon X850
2Gb RAM
2Gb free hard disk space
Internet connection (at least 30 Kbit/s)

Angkor Wat 3D Photos from Vizerra

Angkor Wat's West Gopura (Gate) viewed from the north in Vizerra's 3D model.

Angkor Wat in Vizerra 3D model, viewed from Southwest.

Angkor Wat's causeway facing east, with a library structure on the left.

Angkor Wat's cruciform gallery is accurately ringed with devata in Vizerra's 3D model

Vizerra is refining devata (sacred female) portraits in new versions of the software. In the future, the 3D model will show the carvings in accurate locations linked to a database.

The Northwest corner of Angkor Wat in Vizerra's 3D model.

Angkor Wat's bas relief galleries now show textures but will soon accurately render the artwork.

Cultor.org educators have now translated the initial results into Italian, and produced the captivating video overview below for Italian viewers.

Founded by the University of Turin in 1999, Cultor — an acronym forCultura Torino— now provides exceptional cultural resources online at Cultor.org. Their extensive Internet resource has become one of the most important cultural websites in Europe with more than 18,000 visitors each month.

A New Study Offers Historical Insight
on the Temple’s Female Imagery

By Michelle Vachon – The Cambodia Daily

Click here for PDF Version (1.6 meg)

© 2010 The Cambodia Daily – This article appears with the permission
of the copyright holder. No further reproduction is permitted.

The Cambodia Daily's Weekend featuring the women of Angkor Wat

In 1927, Sappho Marchal, the 23-year-old daughter of Henri Marchal who was over­seeing restoration of monuments at Angkor Wat at the time, published a book on the hair­styles, clothes and jewelry of 1,737 sculptures of women she had located on the walls and columns of Angkor Wat.

And until recently, no archeologist or historian at Angkor had wondered why so many nearly life-size images of human beings filled the 12th century monument and why these sculptures were only of women, said Kent Davis, a researcher and publisher of DatAsia Press.

“Despite 150 years of intense study, the Khmer pundits who surveyed every temple and measured every stone only thought to consider these women as decorations, rather than as people.” Mr Davis said.

“Visitors were apparently content when the experts told them that the most complex collection of full-body portrait carvings ever created in a single ancient human generation were simply ‘Imaginary wives to serve the king in heaven’ Total nonsense, but it flew for 150 years.”

Angkor Wat general devata types.

One researcher had written a short essay on the resemblance between the features on a few sculptures and hill tribe women.

Another had viewed the sculptures in a mythological context but without going further, he said.

So Mr Davis embarked on his own research in 2005, eventually getting in touch with art historian Peter Sharrock and archaeologist Robert McCarthy, who are studying these woman sculptures but concentrating on the era of Jayavarman VII, which took place about two generations after the construction of Angkor Wat.

Devata faces from the inside wall of the West Gopura at Angkor Wat.

Scholars refer to the women as devatas (deities), when portrayed in large sculptures, and apsaras (dancers and singers of the gods), when groups appear in smaller sculptures.

Mr Davis has identified 1,796 sculpted images on Angkor Wat through his research, expanding on inventories done by stone conservators with the German Apsara Conservation Project.

Once Mr Davis took digital photos of the group, he asked a team from Michigan State University in the US for help developing a computer tool to analyze the sculptures.

This has prompted the first scientific study to be conducted on Angkor Wat’s women figures. Its results will be presented on Sunday in Istanbul at the conference of the International Association for Pattern Recognition on computer vision.

Angkor Wat general devata types.

Anil K. Jain — a professor in several of the university’s departments including computer science and engineering, statistics and probability — will explain the computer analysis model that he and two of his students developed to analyze the features of women sculpted on the surface of the monument.

For this first study, Mr Jain and his team concentrated on 252 devatas located on Angkor Wat’s entrance pavilion called the West Gopura.

As they mention in the summary of their study entitled “Clustering Face Carvings: Exploring the Devatas of Angkor Wat [925k PDF download],” Mr Jain and his team had to devise a program to compare devatas on well preserved as well as eroded stone and on different types of stone, which some existing programs did not make possible.

Features of some devata faces were damaged by erosion over the centuries.

They designed the tool to analyze whole faces, proportions in features, such as the distance between the eyes or between nose and mouth, as well as specific features including ears and chins. This program will also give future researchers the flexibility to change features to be analyzed.

“While the landmarks for many different facial components were marked, in this study we used only four of the major facial components (eyes, nose, mouth and face outline) for clustering the devatas into 8 groups,” they write in their summary. [see bottom of article for composites of facial feature variations]

These groups of devatas sharing specific features may reflect the features of women who actually lived at Angkor at the time and the fact that they came from different regions such as central Cambodia, Laos, northern­central Thailand, Champa in today’s Vietnam, and China.

The initial pattern recognition algorithm defined eight distinct facial types.

“There is [a report from the year 1225] in China which says 200 foreign women danced and made offerings to the Buddha in Jayavarman VII’s temples. So Angkor was an international center,” Mr Sharrock wrote in an e-mail.

However, whether these eight groups of devatas correspond to women who lived at Angkor when the temple was built has yet to be seen, he said, “These are early results only. More tuning and more data manipulation is needed before strong claims can be made.”

In Mr McCarthy’s opinion, the sculptures may be idealized versions of living women who served as royal temple caretakers.

“The possibility that the role of guardian was taken by both female (in the majority) and male (in the minority) should not be ignored. Just as age and region of origin within the Khmer Empire does not appear to be a problematic factor within the devata community of temple guardians,” he wrote in an email.

Angkor Wat general devata types.

Both Mr Sharrock and Mr McCarthy agree that this computer analysis tool shows great potential.

“In Angkor Wat there are clearly differences between the elaborately coiffed devata inside the outer western gallery and inside the courtyards of the main temple and the more powerful, larger and more serious-faced devata on the higher level of the temple and the central tower. Why there are these differences we do not yet understand.” Mr Sharrock said Mr Davis’ research with this computer program may help answer some of those questions, he added.

When analysis expands to include more features such as headdresses, jewelry, hands and feet, the differences from one to the other image may help, Mr McCarthy said, “unlock secrets of not only the devata of Angkor Wat but those earlier and later devata traits [...] to assist in identifying artistic techniques that may lead to the identity, in unique styles only, of the craft people who supervised and those who carved the bas-reliefs.”

Mr Davis’ goal is to include Mr Jain’s program in a comprehensive database of Angkor Wat’s 1,796 sculpted images of women that tracks 65 characteristics — including location, features, compass orientation, hair styles, jewelry designs, hand positions, fabric patterns — of each image, he said.

He is now editing in a book [Daughters of Angkor Wat] compiling researcher’s opinions and speculations regarding the devata sculptures over the past 100 years.

***

Facial Feature Variations

Angkor Wat eye composite photos.

Angkor Wat devata nose comparison photos.

Angkor Wat devata mouth comparison photos.

Angkor Wat chin comparison photos.

Siem Reap, Cambodia – Towering above the Cambodian jungle, Angkor Wat is still the largest religious structure on Earth, nearly 900 years after it was built. Since the 12th century, the huge temple has enshrined 1,780 stone portraits of Khmer goddesses, but for more than two years the most exquisite images at the highest levels have been off-limits to visitors. On January 15th, a Buddhist holy day, the sacred area reopens so visitors can once again experience the sublime Khmer vision of heaven on earth.

Eastern view of Angkor wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Angkor Wat is located in an immense archeological district managed by the APSARA National Authority (APSARA), a Cambodian agency responsible for preserving hundreds of temples built by the Khmer civilization.  With nearly two million annual visitors, APSARA constantly works to protect both visitors and their country’s priceless national heritage.

The most sacred level of Angkor Wat is called the "Bakan" in Khmer.

Diagram of the Bakan level from "Angkor Vat, description graphique du temple" by Guy Nafilyan, 1969.

For two years, experts have been working to make visits to the top of Angkor Wat safer for tourists and for the delicate stone portraits of the Khmer goddesses who reside there. Madame Chau Sun Kérya, the Director of Department of Cultural Development, Museums and Heritage Norms for the APSARA National Authority, summarized the situation in her statement to Devata.org:

“Angkor Wat had become so popular that it was too busy, especially at the top level we call the Bakan. The ancient stone staircase was not safe. Uncontrolled crowding combined with difficult walking conditions created a danger, especially for older visitors. APSARA has made a number of improvements to protect our guests, our history and to restore the dignity of this place that is sacred to all Khmer people.”

The most delicate images of sacred Khmer women, called by the Sanskrit terms apsaras or devata, are preserved in the Bakan of Angkor Wat. Photo Kent Davis

Working with international conservators, APSARA first determined Angkor Wat’s capacity to accommodate tourists in the Bakan without burdening the structure. They then constructed new stairs to improve access, added flat wooden walkways over the rough stone surfaces, and installed railings to protect the delicate carvings. But the final steps are perhaps the most important:

“The Bakan is a sacred place for Khmer people, and we want to share this experience with visitors in the best way,” Chau Sun explained. “For this reason the APSARA National Authority will now provide trained guides to explain the history of the Bakan and we will limit visits to groups of 100 persons at a time.”

A Khmer goddess facing West on the central tower in the Bakan. Photo Kent Davis.

In recent years APSARA has also improved tourist access policies at other key temples including the Bayon, Phnom Bakheng and Banteay Srey. Following the re-opening of the Bakan at Angkor Wat, APSARA plans to monitor the situation and adjust policies as necessary.

To learn more about conservation activities in the Angkor archeological park please visit the APSARA Authority Official Website.

NOTE – I was first alerted to this breaking story thanks to Andy Brouwer’s exceptional blog with the latest news and views on all things Cambodian.

SUMMARY FOR ANGKOR WAT VISITORS

(Courtesy APSARA National Authority)

• Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, the largest religious structure in the world, has been a pilgrimage location for Hindu and Buddhist visitors for nearly 900 years.
  
• On January 15, 2010, the APSARA National Authority re-opened the top level of Angkor Wat, called the “Bakan” in the Khmer language. This area enshrines hundreds of lifelike portraits of Khmer goddesses, known by the Sanskrit terms apsaras or devata.
  
• To provide safer access to the Bakan, APSARA has constructed new wooden staircases, benches and handrails. The agency will also provide trained guides to share the history and significance of this sacred location.
  
• Visitors must wear be dressed modestly and respectfully to visit the Bakan.
  
• Access is now limited to 100 persons and a stay of 15-30 minutes.
  
• On the four Buddhist holy days of each month, the Bakan will only be open to Cambodian visitors to allow them to worship the Lord Buddha in this sacred location.

The restored temple of Chau Say Tevoda. Note the new stone sections in lighter color.

Between 1,120-1,150AD, Angkor Wat’s sponsor, King Suryavarman II, also began building the elegant Hindu temple of Chau Say Tevoda. Yasovarman II is credited with additional work during his brief reign (1,160-1,166AD). Finally, Jayavarman VII (ruling 1,181-1,215 AD) added new decorative elements to harmonize with the religious transformation he initiated converting the state from Hinduism to Buddhism.

The central shrine is encircled by sacred female images called devata.

Two of the Khmer civilization’s greatest kings, Suryavarman II and Jayavarman VII, also installed the greatest number of sacred female images, or devata, in their temples. The style and unique qualities of the devata at Chao Say Tevoda make this small temple well worth a detour on any visit to Angkor.

The Khmer kings Suryavarman II and Jayavarman VII enshrined images of more than 4,000 sacred women in their temples. No one knows exactly why.

Chau Say Tevoda includes a central sanctuary, two libraries and four gopura (gateway) structures, one for each cardinal point. Directly to its north sits Thommanon temple, which was also built by King Suryavarman II based on a similar design.

Thommanon also features prominent devata in fine condition (see Devata.org’s Thommanon photo gallery here) but there are significant stylistic differences in the women populating the two temples. For years, Thommanon was in far better condition thanks to extensive restoration done by the EFEO in the 1960’s under the direction of Bernard Philippe Groslier.

Many of the women at Chao Say Tevoda express strength in their beauty.

Unfortunately, Chao Say Tevoda had been devastated by centuries of natural erosion, and all that remained were 4,000 pieces of stone masonry, many of which had tumbled down an embankment into the Siem Reap River.

On March 29, 2000, H.R.H. Princess Buppha Devi with APSARA Authority and other Cambodian dignitaries welcomed H.E. Yang Tin Ai, Ambassador for the People’s Republic of China as his government initiated a massive restoration project of the temple that included both Chinese and Cambodian workers. Tim Tye’s Asia Explorers website offers a few excellent photos taken while the restoration.

The Chinese restoration project was controversial because they chose to totally reconstruct the temple buildings by including newly fabricated stones. While American and Japanese teams rejected this approach it conformed to UNESCO and ICOMOS guidelines allowing for their use of 2-9% of modern replica stones in heritage reconstruction.

The Chinese restoration team included replicas of missing stone sections (seen above in lighter colors).)

The results are dramatic. The new sections are easy to identify and, while the replicas do not equal the artistic quality of the original Khmer sections, they do help visitors experience the temple in a condition closer to what was originally built.

The Chinese team completed their work in 2009, when the improved temple again began receiving visitors.

May the devata of Chao Say Tevoda bestow blessings on the Chinese for their important contribution of restoring this Khmer cultural treasure.

NOTE: A complete photo gallery of all the unique Chau Say Tevoda devata is in preparation. The link will be posted here in the future. In the meantime a trinity of devata appears below:

This devata's crown, with central element, is unusual. None of the symbolic attributes that devata display have yet been interpreted.

This alert looking devata is crowned by her long, thick, braided hair dressed in coils.

This graceful crowned devata is similar to her sisters at Angkor Wat. Note that she holds a "rooted bud" (Devata.org terminology) exactly like the sacred women surrounding the central sanctuary on the top level of Angkor Wat.

Siem Reap, Cambodia – This huge temple city, once filled with as many as 100,000 acolytes, now rests peacefully in the lush jungle of northern Cambodia.

Today acolytes are few, but sacred images of Khmer women still abound, protecting the temple with their auspicious presence.

The sacred woman in this photo gallery have been exposed to harsh tropical sun for more than 700 years but still retain their charm and mystery. For comparison, be sure to visit the other devata temple photo galleries.

The brilliant colors of the friendly Preah Khan devata pictured at the right are natural, but enhanced by increasing the camera’s color saturation.

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Preah Khan Photos – Devata of Light

Angkor Wat's builder, King Suryavarman II built Athvea temple in the 12th century.

The Buddhist wat next to the temple features scenes from the Reamker.

Siem Reap, Cambodia - Wat Athvea is an active Buddhist temple about 6 km. south of Siem Reap that, like many others, is built next to an ancient Hindu temple. It’s on the west side of the road to the Tonle Sap and it’s well worth a short detour to see this peaceful and relatively un-touristed Khmer monument.

The temple’s design and distinctive style of the devata (sacred female images) inside indicate that it was built in the 12th century, during the reign of King Suryavarman II (circa 1,115-1,150 AD), who also built Angkor Wat.

The temple is unusual because it lacks all but the most basic decorative carvings…with the exception of some exceptional Angkor Wat style devata. Originally at least six women were planned to preside over the west interior chamber of the main structure but only four were completed and of those only three remain in good condition.

Upon entering from the west, devata #1 stands south of the door in fine condition. To the left is #2, however she has deteriorated to the point that only her headless torso with parts of both arms and a section of her sampot (a traditional Khmer wrap worn around the waist) remain.

Directly ahead two more completed devata stand at the far left and far right (#3 and 6) of the facing opening to the central sanctuary. There are also two uncompleted devata outlines etched onto this wall (#4 and 5). As a final note, this chamber does feature inscriptions on the columns, but these may have been added at a later date.

All three remaining devata are exquisitely adorned with lotus crowns, heavy necklaces and belts, armbands, finger rings and rich sampots (Khmer style waist wrap) made with floral patterned fabric.

Their attributes are comparable to the most sacred women found at the highest level of Angkor Wat, implying that this temple was founded for an important reason.

The Buddhist wat next door is quite charming, with hand carved gilded wood window panels featuring scenes from the Reamker. There are also a number of colorful and well maintained burial stupas on the wat grounds.

Wat Athvea Photo Album

Special thanks to Nicole Groslier for providing original photos and for her kind permission to translate this draft of her father’s article, which later appeared in L’Illustration magazine, April 3, 1937. The translator assumes all responsibility for errors. Serious researchers should consult M. Groslier’s final article in the original French.

Banteay Meanchey, Cambodia - If one ventures to the north-western borders of Cambodia, one arrives in a region surrounded at right angles by the extreme western end of the Dangrek mountain chain. Beyond them lies Siam. Occupying 2 or 3,000 square kilometers, this area is nearly deserted. Consisting of soil made of clay and sand, crossed by some dry rivers six months of the year, it offers nothing to the traveler but uncultivated plains and sparsely wooded forests whose trees remain stunted due to fires that rage in the dry season.

Villages become increasingly rare, finally disappearing completely. In the summer, there is no game and torrid heat; in winter, the area is subjected to violent storms deflected by the mountains. This is the most desolate place in Cambodia. Still, however, ruins are found there; an imposing array of monuments from an ancient empire. Among these ruins is not only one of the largest Khmer temples that we know of (including those of the Angkor group), but also one of largest temples in the world. This temple is known as Banteay Chhmar.

What series of events inspired the builders eight centuries ago, at the height of Angkor’s power, to choose to settle in such a desolate region? And why did they later abandon the site that presents itself to us in the ruinous state that we now find it today? Here is one of the most intriguing puzzles in the history of Cambodia. We cannot address this issue here, but to understand the facts, it is helpful to know that the Khmers organized the places they inhabited bit by bit, and that their irrigation works, which we will examine in depth, made them livable and perhaps prosperous.

Banteay Chhmar temple plan.

Today, the temple of Banteay Chhmar is almost entirely collapsed. The two authors who previously published descriptions of it — Etienne Aymonier around 1883, then Lunet de Lajonquière around 1903 — both noted that of all the Khmer monuments that they had explored Banteay Chhmar was the most ruined, the largest, the most chaotic…and the most indecipherable.

In their summaries Aymonier and de Lajonquière also gave contradictory sketches and descriptions of many pages. This attracted us to reexamine this remote group of temples. We had to make four visits over the course of several years because the temple is only accessible for two months per year. After three campaigns, we still had not even been able to reach the foundations of the walls. Despite our efforts and best intentions we risked only adding to the questions, and augmenting the work of our predecessors by very little. It was then that Mr. George Cœdès, Director of the French School of the Far East (EFEO), helped us with appropriations to support our project. We were able to immediately dispatch a team of forty coolies who gave us fifteen days of labor. But their work was only enough to enable us to probe about a third of the essential areas inaccessible in our former research.

Banteay Chhmar's main temple (small grey square at left) is encircled by 8 secondary temples and a vast artificial reservoir with the Mebon temple built on an island in the center.

The second site plan that we present here introduces the identification of the temples and hydraulic works that remain from the ancient city. The “Baray” is a reservoir formed by a rectangular seawall, 3 meters high on average, that encloses an area of 1,276,450 square meters (1,526,621 sq. yards). Inside edges are entirely lined with laterite blocks, which gave easy access to the water. Originally a river, now dried out, fed this vast reservoir that also collected rain water.

Ruins of the boat landing terrace on the Baray. Excavations by the EFEO revealed carved lotus flowers and sacred geese with wings spread.

Close to the center, the Khmers created an artificial island where they constructed a “Mebon” temple (i.e. a temples situated in the center of a Baray). On the Baray’s west seawall, the Khmers built an embarkation terrace for boat traffic to the central temple (photo above). Its foundation stones, originally submerged in water, are sculpted with open-winged aquatic birds among lotuses. The dimensions of this architectural element, the style of its décor, its bold position, dominated by the imposing mirror of water and the sacred Mebon temple island, prove to us from our first steps the collective viewpoint and theatrical taste of the builders of Banteay Chhmar.

The central temple is entirely encircled by a rectangular moat 65 meters wide (213 feet) with a depth of 3.6 meters (11.8 feet). One crosses to the main temple by four axial causeways, each originally edged by balustrades consisting of two rows of stone giants and supporting a Naga parapet, an ornamental motif seen at the gates of Angkor Thom, as well as at Angkor’s Baray and its Mebon temple.

View of the south side of the moat surrounding Banteay Chhmar, with the causeway linking it to the mainland.

Before entering the boundaries of this huge temple, let us note that on its north-south and east-west axes are found seven satellite temples, with an eighth located near the southeast angle of the moat (see diagram above). These buildings, of secondary artistic interest because of the similarities among them, each include one or two surrounding walls, a tower with four faces forming a central shrine and a system of moats and basins, lined with stone banks like the Baray. On the 8 or 9 square kilometers covered by the Banteay Chhmar group, more than a sixth of the area was therefore excavated — sometimes up to depth of 6 meters (20 feet) — with the intention of creating reservoirs of water and, as a result, very clear liquid surfaces to complement the architecture.

South exterior gallery of Banteay Chhmar's main temple. These galleries originally surrounded the temple covering nearly 700 meters of bas relief carvings of Khmer life.

Here, in a few words, are the main guiding principles of the plan: all galleries and colonnaded walkways join together or cross in right angles. The majority of these junctions feature a tower shrine, tapering towards the center with four faces in some areas of the temple (the same type of the towers seen in The Bayon of Angkor Thom). As they approached the central shrine, the towers increases. From 6-7 meters (20-23 feet) tall at the periphery, they attained a height of about 20 meters (66 feet) in the center. In total, there were 56 towers.

One of the courtyards of Banteay Chhmar leading to the central labyrinth.

The two main axes of this group are clear at first glance. The point where they intersect is occupied by the central shrine, the Holy of Holies. Thus the architectural center and ritual center of the temple coincide. By passing through the temple from East to West, one encounters six distinct sections, each closely dependent on the others:

1 – A rectangular gallery enclosing the entire temple measuring 250 meters by 190 meters (820 x 623 feet). This consists of an arch roof built against a wall supported by pillars on the outside edge. The outside face of the covered wall features bas-relief carvings that, in their entirety, cover an area of 1,090 square meters (11,733 sq. feet). The interpretation of the historical and legendary stages pictured on the bas-reliefs is still impossible. Each side of the gallery is penetrated at the central axis by a monumental door with triple entry passages and three towers. One reaches these entry gates by crossing a Terrace of Honor, lined with Naga parapets and staircases flanked by lions (only the eastern terrace is shown on our plan);

2 - A rectangular gallery surrounding a courtyard, which is occupied by a crucial gallery. This beautifully proportioned building was, originally, independent of the temple itself. To the north and south it is associated with two water basins with steps and two additional buildings set upon 4 meter (13 feet) tall foundations. These are flanked by 1.7 meter (5.6 feet) tall standing monsters that act as caryatids;

3 - The main section of the temple. This “checkerboard” of galleries divides itself into three complexes that connect, one to another, from east to west, as three complete temples joined end to end. Each includes, in effect, a central tower sanctuary preceded by an entry pavilion, with towers and ceremonial gates set to the north and south. These sections are simultaneously united and independent;

As one advances west, the composition tightens; the towers and entry pavilions multiply as one reaches the principal sanctuary. Then one emerges in an open air courtyard that is mostly occupied by a group of three isolated towers. This transition achieves a remarkable contrast. These provisions obviously correspond to religious constraints imposed on the architects by the multiple divinities who were worshipped in this immense temple. The problem to be solved was therefore made much more difficult.

Also, from an architectural viewpoint, it is of great interest to follow diversity of the plan, despite the repetition of similar motifs that can be deduced within. This long rectangular area of 40 meters (131 feet) wide by 170 meters (558 feet) from east to west is divided by rows of towers — sometimes three, sometimes five, sometimes on elevated foundations and sometimes with four divine faces — joined end to end without a gap, leaving no doubt in one’s mind that no section of the system of axes that govern the design was neglected. NOTE: It is this aspect that, not escaping the eye of Cambodians, inspired the modern name of the temple: Banteay Chhmar which means “narrow citadel”;

4 and 5 - To the north and south, the temple’s main section is flanked by two similar groups that are symmetrical and independent of the main structure. Both of these two shrines are topped with face towers and encircled with a rectangular gallery;

6 - Finally, completing in the west, we find the same composition style as both precedents. But, here, the central shrine is built on a foundation 3.7 meters (12 feet) high, decorated with moldings and serrated designs, flanked by staircases on all four sides. This design is different from the rest of the temple which is strictly level, the highest foundation previously encountered not exceeding 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) above the base.

Interior structure of Banteay Chhmar's crucial gallery: winged women with arms raised holding lotus blossoms.

Banteay Chhmar’s plan differs considerably from most of the great Khmer temples now known. Usually, these plans are concentric and consequently develop with similar dimensions based on the four cardinal points. Generally, secondary buildings, or those added at later times, were more haphazard and without symmetry. Here, as we’ve just seen, the group is radically opposite these other designs.

The plan is eccentric, developing from east to west, in a series of successive structures that never break their rigorous symmetry. The surrounding gallery enclosure, like that of traditional temples (but here it is independent), is penetrated, but the architect neglects the north, south and west entries of the central group, even masking them with independent sanctuaries.

The bird-god Garuda combined with the multi-headed serpent Naga decorates the balastrades of the terraces.

If the builders first undertook a rigorous staking of their construction sites, the disparity among almost all the Khmer monuments is that the lines of the architect are often remarkable, but the construction itself is often mediocre; this also exists at Banteay Chhmar, one of the largest of all their temples.

One of the innumerable devata nymphs who appear on the walls of Banteay Chhmar.

Given the technique of shaping the stones and stacking them one on top of the other, it was necessary to create axes 7 meters apart for three lines of towers, so there were surprises. After all was said and done, this vast monument, perfectly composed in every section by the architects, was built “approximately” and as well as the circumstances allowed.

Despite these mistakes that the workforce was powerless to change, they compensated with true will, true intelligence and a boldness that made it certain that they could accomplish building the main temple of Banteay Chhmar. Its horizontal development on a single axis precluded it from creating a massive impression as a group, but as the Khmers experienced it, proceeding through each impressive section, the small defects that we have just noted disappeared.

One of the towers with four divine faces at Banteay Chhmar.

The 5-6,000 measurements we took of these ruins have us allowed us to calculate the cubic volume and carved surfaces. We met too many unknown factors in our research to calculate the total time spent in the construction and decoration of Banteay Chhmar. However, we were able to determine the minimum time required for such a project by determining the maximum number of workers the site could accommodate. The final answer was about sixty years, provided that there was no interruption of work.

Goddess from the Buddhist pantheon at Banteay Chhmar.

On the other hand, inscriptions discovered from of the reign of Jayavarman VII (1180-1201 AD) indicate that the large temple was already finished at that time. One can therefore postulate that the ancient city of Banteay Chhmar was a prosperous religious center during the twelfth century, and that construction of the central complex of this temple was begun by about 1140 AD at the latest. As for the religion practiced there, the most anyone can say is that there was Vishnuism at the beginning. The temple later appears to have been affected by Buddhism, at least in its most recent sections. In any case, its iconography belongs to these two religions.

Banteay Chhmar lintel.

George Groslier and his daughter Nicole at the gate of their Phnom Penh home - 1923.

George Groslier (1887-1945) lived, breathed and loved the art and culture of his country of birth: Cambodia.

His work as an historian, curator, educator and author was the motivating force behind much of the revival of interest in traditional Cambodian arts and crafts. He produced a large body of research and, in 1926, began adding fictional works to his oeuvre, depicting Europeans in the context of the exotic Far East.

For a complete list of George Groslier’s work please visit CambodianDancers.com

Special thanks to Nicole Groslier for her kind permission to use her original photos and for allowing Kent Davis to translate this draft of her father’s article, which later appeared in L’Illustration magazine, April 3, 1937.