p25  Khmer Architecture

Although the general architectural style of Angkor undoubtedly is that of Southern India, neither India nor even Java, with its remarkable Borobudur, can boast such an  p26 imposing array of shrines, temples and palaces. Notwithstanding the fact that the Khmers have left the world the most wonder­ful stone structures in existence — Angkor Wat alone surpassing either the Pyramids of Egypt or the Temples of India — primarily they were a race of woodworkers.

They built their temples of stone. They endure. But their private dwellings — even their palaces — were constructed of wood, ofttimes with tiled roofs and lead-plated walls. They have perished.

The Khmers have been accused of being lamentably poor builders in stone because they sought to apply thereto the same methods used in carpentry. The present state of most of the surviving structures, therefore, may be traced to this error in technique, aggravated, of course, by the destructive acts of man and the ravages of time. But even though they knew nothing of the use of the keystones, thereby explaining the absence of large rooms and wide galleries because ceilings could not be constructed therefor, many an arch created merely by laying one stone atop another and extending each a trifle closer to the middle remains intact.

Of the monuments still standing, most are built of sandstone or laterite without mortar. Some, usually secondary structures and isolated towers, are of large bricks, often coated with lime mortar to receive carved  p27 decorations and inscriptions. The latter are either in Sanskrit or in the old Khmer language and have provided much of what is known of the royal dynasties, of certain sovereigns and other eminent personages.

All the important temples, particularly the facades for the sculptures and ornamental carvings, including the magnificent door frames, are of sandstone (called "thma puok," or mudstone by the Cambodians), so soft and friable that it resembles dried clay. It was brought from Phnom Koulen (Letchis Mountain), 25 miles northeast of Angkor, probably on rafts floated down the Siemreap River. Then, by means of rollers, it was transported wherever needed. Holes still are visible in many of the larger stones, in which wooden pegs are believed to have been inserted to facilitate, with the aid of ropes, the moving or lifting thereof.

Laterite (called "bai‑kriem," or boiled rice), an iron peroxide of a fine red color and uneven surface, and bricks were either found under­ground or made on the spot.

Ceilings and doors — few of which remain — were of wood, as were the platforms for statues. Wooden beams to support masonry were not introduced until late in Angkor's history.

Iron was used in T‑shaped cross-pieces to anchor the inferior blocks, but these fittings for the most part have been plundered, as also  p28 have the gold and copper towers and the bronze ornaments mentioned by Tcheou‑Ta-Kwan.

Recently numerous bronze ornaments, of an alloy called "samret" by Cambodians — comprising copper, tin, lead and nickel — have been found. Among them are statues, bells, tridents, candlesticks, trivets, carriage-pole ends, hammock hooks, rings, bracelets, necklaces, lotus leaves, etc.

Also a few steel pieces have been unearthed, including broken bits of spears and blades. The most puzzling discovery is a number of Japanese swords found in a tumulus near Angkor Wat.

But the colossal stone structures, the massive towers with elaborately carved faces and the vast walls presenting a veritable orgy of sculptured bas‑reliefs remain to testify to Angkor's enduring greatness. The bas‑reliefs alone are worth coming around the world to see. Nothing like them exists anywhere. They have something of the inspiration, composition and symmetrical perfection of Greece, Rome, Arabia, the Renaissance and Louis XIV combined, yet they have been influenced by none, save the Hindu and the Chinese.

The Naga, met everywhere at Angkor, especially at the ends of balustrades, is the most imaginative and perhaps the finest creation of the Khmer sculptor. It is the Cobra Capello, represented with five, seven,  p31 nine and sometimes eleven heads usually spread in the shape of a fan, reminiscent of the palmette motif so frequent in Mediterranean decoration.

(p4)

Naga (seven-headed cobra) Balustrades of causeway to Angkor Wat

Unfortunately few Nagas remained even vaguely intact when Angkor Thom was exhumed, though the two guarding the Gate of Victory in the east wall have been restored sufficiently from their tumbled fragments as now to be almost complete. Their bodies, which are the balustrades of the causeway spanning a moat just outside the gate, are crooked in the arms and are resting on the knees of 108 squatting stone giants, 54 to a side. These figures, which are •eight feet tall even in their squatting postures, on the south are gods (Devas), with oval faces, almond-shaped eyes and austere, somewhat disdain­ful expressions; on the north they are demons (Asuras), with round eyes and sneering, almost comical expressions. They are reputed to illustrate the famous scene in Hindu mythology of the mighty serpent, Vasuki, in the act of churning a sea of milk to produce the "Elixir of Life", sought by the gods and demons alike. (An excellent bas‑relief of this scene is in the South Wing of the East Gallery of Angkor Wat.)

Sometimes the Garuda, which, in Hindu mythology, is an enormous bird with an eagle's head, a human body and a lion's paws and is a relentless adversary of snakes, is depicted  p32 grasping the Naga in its raised hands while the latter's spread heads stand erect at its feet.

These two — the Naga and the Garuda — are observed so frequently in Khmer sculpture and decorations as to be ranked as the most representative and typical subjects of the art. However, other decorative fauna do appear, among them the narasingh (guardian lion), usually seated on its haunches in pairs in front of and at the various stairway landings to the several pyramidal temples, and the elephant, often adorning the corners or walls of gates, terraces and temples.

(p16)

Narasingh (guardian lion) and Cambodian Buddhist Bonze before Royal Portico, Angkor Wat

But the most spectacular of all the amazing creations of the Khmers are their huge four-faced towers such as surmount the five gateways •(65 feet high) to Angkor Thom and such as comprise the 51 towers of the Bayon. Notwithstanding the contention of some students that these four-faced visages belong to Brahma the Creator, because he usually is represented with four faces; of others, that they belong to Siva, because their conical shape tends to take on the semblance of his phallic symbol, the linga, and of still others that they belong to Lokesvara, a Buddhist divinity whose cult for a time prevailed throughout Cambodia, no definite clue as to their actual identity has yet been revealed.

The majority now seems to incline to the belief that they represent Lokesvara ("He who looks down with compassion") in that  p33 this Buddhist deity, a dominating figure in the Mahayana, has the power of changing his body into that of Siva (linga) and into that of Brahma (of the four faces). At least this theory has the virtue of being able to incorporate both of the other contentions.

(p74)

Four Faces of Lokesvara, Towers of The Bayon

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