Representative Khmer masterpieces, comparable to the finest statues produced by ancient Egypt and Greece. Roberts identifies each of these statues with a

particular Khmer king for the first time. Two statues on left 6-7th century Pre-Angkorean, two right 12th century Angkorean.

2009 STRI news special

STRI research associate

Tyson R. Roberts will talk on

“Portrait Statues of the

ancient Khmer devaraja” at

the Tupper Tuesday seminar

on February 3rd.

He has been studying the

statues since 1994 and has

published several articles on

ancient Khmer kingship,

symbolism, and mythology.

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute www.stri.org January 8, 2009

Portrait Statues of the Ancient Cambodian(Khmer) Devaraja or Divine Kings

With information provided by Tyson R. Roberts, STRI

George Coedès (1886-1969),doyen of Khmerology,recognized that the Khmerkings were divine kings ordevaraja (although the Sanskritterm devaraja does was not usedin this since in Khmerinscriptions). With one notableexception Coedès hesitated torecognize the statues of thesekings representing them asHinduist or Buddhist divinities

as portrait statues. Theexception was a small numberof statues of the BuddharajaJayavarman VII (reigned1179-ca 1220) in which the kingwas portrayed without divineattributes (unique in the annalsof Khmer royal statuary).Coedès translated the Ta Phrominscription (1206) whichmentions that 22 statues ofJayavarman VII were sent to

various named localities in theKhmer realm; to the extent thatthese names could be identifiedwith a particular place, theytallied with where the statueswere found (Coedès, 1960).

Coedès felt that nearly all otherKhmer devaraja statues weredisqualified as veritable portraitstatues because they showedsupernatural features: four arms

Faces of ancient Khmer royal statues representing nearly 700 years of ancient Khmer history (6th-14th centuries AD): A

glance is enough to convince most people that these are portraits of actual persons. The Khmer tradition of realistically

depicting rulers in statues and in bas-reliefs on temple walls represents an important difference with Indian tradition, and is

one reason the ancient Cambodian art often surpasses that of the Indian subcontinent.

in Vishnu statues, the medianeye in Shiva statues, an Ushnishaor cranial bump on the back ofthe head in statues of theBuddha, and so on. He admittedthat there should be a suitableterm for such statues but wasunable to suggest one.

As can be seen from the seriesof photos of the heads ofancient Khmer statues (at right),the statues resemble actualpersons. Coedès thought theywere posthumousrepresentations, but Roberts'sresearch indicates they weredone during the lifetimes of thereigning monarchs. In severalinstances series of statues can beassembled representing aparticular monarch from youthto adulthood through middle toolder age. Roberts proposes afunctional or functionalistdefinition for the Khmer devarajaportrait statues: anyone living atthe time who had seen themonarch in person, wouldrecognize that monarch's imagein such a statue (regardless ofwhat supernatural attributes itmight also bear that identifiedthe god also represented, oreven if the king was representedas a goddess with female breastsand clothing). Accepting thestatues as portraits, he usestechniques from biologicalsystematics and classification swell as historical clues toidentify the rulers theyrepresent.

The devaraja was not only headof state, but also the living godcurrently in favor, such asHarihara during the later part ofthe Pre-Angkorean and earlyAngkorean periods, or of all ofthe gods if all of them were infavor at the same time, as wasoften the case. Thus the samemonarch could be portrayed in astatue intended for a Shivaitetemple as Shiva, in a statue for aVishnuite temple as Vishnu, andin one for a Buddhist temple asBuddha, Boddhisatva, or evenPrajnaparamita (mother ofBuddha). In addition to

displaying the reigning monarchas a divinity the statues playedfunctional roles in the temples,bringing them to life as the abodeof a living god represented by astatue, and as territorial markersspread throughout the kingdom.By establishing the identity of theone and only legitimate reigningdevaraja, they played an importantrole in ending political andreligious factionalism.

For brief periods in the sevencenturies of Khmer history (sixththrough early fourteenthcenturies AD) there was seriouscontention for the monarchy.Such struggles always endeddecisively with the kingdomunified under one devaraja. Statuesof the contending or defeateddevaraja were probably destroyed.

Roberts has identified many ofthe finest ancient Khmer statuesnot merely with the gods theyrepresent but also with monarchs

from the beginning to near theend of seven hundred years ofKhmer history, something thathas not been done before. HisTupper seminar will beillustrated by photographs ofsome Khmer statues that arewell known and of others thathave not been published onbefore.

These results shed new light onancient Khmer kingship, on theusually syncretic relationship(with the devaraja as focal point)between Hinduism and itsbranches and Buddhism, on therelationship of the kings totemples such as Angkor Wat,Banteay Srei, Beng Mealea, andKoh Ker or Chok Gokyar, onthe dating of numerousimportant statues and thereforetheir stylistic evolution, on theoccupation of part of the MalayPeninsula by the Khmer empire

ca 600-700 AD, and on theapparently great ethnic diversityof Khmer monarchs.

The study further shows that 1)Khmer art, like Khmer statecraftand agriculture, while part of theIndian tradition, was inimportant ways innovative (e.g.:India never produced royalportrait statues of devaraja, onlyidealized anthropomorphicsculptures of the gods); and 2)that the Angkor Wat period ofKhmer art, corresponding to thereign of Suryavarman II (1113-ca 1150) —not to be confusedwith the Angkorean era(801-1325)— instead of beingthe least productive period wasactually the most innovative andproductive, equaled perhaps inproductivity but not inoriginality only by the Bayon eracorresponding to the reign ofJayavarman VII (1179-ca 1220).