Angkor Buddhist Treasures from Banteay Kdei | Preah Norodom Sihanouk Angkor Museum

Now living at the Preah Norodom Sihanouk-Angkor Museum សារៈមន្ទីរ​ព្រះនរោត្តម សីហនុ-អង្គរ, the collection of 274 discarded Buddhist statues — and a stunning stone pillar — retrieved from Prasat Banteay Kdei grounds in 2001 is the main subject of this book, beautifully captured by photographer Tsugasato Omura.

While Prof. Ishizawa focused here on the cultural and religious significance of the discovery, we found in archaeologist Marui Masako’s report the exact location of this major find:

Soil filling feature DU04 at southern side of D 11: Construction work digging and soil filling was detected at the southern side of D 11. In addition, numerous statues were unearthed from the soil fill. Digging was evident from the top of the sand foundation of D 11; statues and soil were then placed in the pit. The soil fill measured 1.8 m high from the bottom of the pit. More than 100 sandstone statues and fragments and bronze figurines were unearthed here. Many of the statues are of the Buddha, and have been decapitated or undergone damage to the head. The meaning and function of this soil fill with its statues remain unclear. [Marui Masako, ​“Archaeological Research at Banteay Kdei Temple: Overview of Investigations over the Past Ten Years”, Sophia University Angkor International Mission, 2002, p 141 – 51]

D11 being a small hall built north of the east approach to the Main Hall [often called Hall of Dancers due to the numerous Apsara figures on bas-reliefs.]

In his essay ​“The precious heritage of Banteay Kdei Temple” (UNESCO, Special Issue World Heritage in Cambodia June 2013, p 53 – 6), Prof. Ishizawa noted: 

An initial find of statues, buried for 800 years, was made in a pit roughly 150 m from the entrance to the eastern causeway, in front of a small northern sanctuary on the side facing a cruciform terrace. These range in size from 20 cm to 1.8 m. Two small bronze Buddha images were also discovered. The pit from which the statues were excavated was roughly 1.8 m deep and 2 m square. Several small whole statues of the Buddha and of the Buddha’s head were unearthed, along with large stone artefacts including body segments. They appeared to have been thrown in from the top, and the images of the Buddha’s head appeared to have been deliberately severed from their bodies before being discarded and buried, which unfortunately means that not many will be able to be restored to their original condition. The 274 excavated images were mostly of a seated Buddha protected by a naga, and this style appeared to have been widespread in Khmer art. These statues denote a time when it was said to have rained like a waterfall for a week during the Buddha’s seven-week period of meditation in order to be able to enter Nirvana. At that time, Mucalinda the serpent king arose from the earth and protected the Buddha.

As for the resonance of the discovery, which establishes the scope of anti-Buddhist iconoclast movement at the end of the 13^th century in Angkor, Prof. Ishizawa summarized here the conclusions he had drawn in his previously published paper ​“New aspects of the Angkor dynasty: Report on the discovery of the stone pillar of the thousand seated buddhas and 274 discarded Buddhist statutes”, Journal of Sophia Studies 19, 2001. In the present book, he wrote that the Sophia Angkor International Mission 2001 discovery — and their Cambodian collaborators, as, as he remarked, ​“it was the Cambodian trainees, not their trainees, who made this magnificent discovery” — had ​“changed our understanding of Ancient Angkor”, adding:

According to popular belief, the various massive construction projects of Jayavarman VII placed an excessive load on the people. This, together with the growing influence of Siam in the west, later brought about the gradual demise of the Angkor Dynasty during the reigns of Indravarman II (1220−1243) and Jayavarman VIII (1243−1295). The unearthing of these Buddhist statues reveals to us that the empire was still functioning effectively during the reign of Jayavarman VIII, however, [precisely] because his order to destroy the Buddhist statues was carried out most efficiently. It is also clear that some degree of prosperity continued throughout his reign, as it would have taken a huge amount of labor and expense to tear down, destroy, and bury all of the Buddhist statues in the temples and replace them with Hindu statues.

Furthermore, Zhou Daguan of China, who visited Cambodia in 1296, noted in his Record of Cambodia that goods were being distributed, people were living in peace, and political and religion life were being carried on as normal. These facts, together with the discovery of the discarded Buddhist statues in the ​“find of the century”, paint quite a different picture from that which is commonly believed about the final years of the Angkor Dynasty. [p 94]

About Banteay Kdei

Prasat Banteay Kdei ប្រាសាទបន្ទាយក្តី (‘Citadel of Monks’?), southeast of Ta Prohm near Sra Srang basin, it can be dated to the reign of Jayavarman VII, in Bayon architectural style, similar in plan to Ta Prohm and Preah Khan, but less complex and smaller, with Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara as the main deity. On that location, the village of Kuti was mentioned in the Sdok Kak Thom inscription, ​“bestowed to the family of the royal priest”, Brahman scholar Sivakaivalya, chief priest for the Devaraja cult. There are mentions of a Kutisvara temple, but archaeological exploration did not find any proof of connection so far. Buddhist monks have been dwelling in this temple until the 1970s civil war. The lesser quality of sandstone used for this temple would explain its dilapidated state.