Ravananugraha-murti ("form [of Shiva] showing grace to Ravana") is a benevolent aspect of Shiva, depicted seated on his abode Mount Kailash with his consort Parvati [or Uma], while the rakshasa-king (demon-king) Ravana of Lanka attempts to uproot it. According to Hindu scriptures, Ravana once tried to lift Mount Kailash, but Shiva pushed the mountain into place and trapped Ravana beneath it. For a thousand years, the imprisoned Ravana sang hymns in praise of Shiva, who finally blessed him and granted him an invincible sword and a powerful linga to worship.

The theme is found as early as the Gupta-Pallava era in India (300–600 CE), and was popular among artists of Ancient Southeast Asia, in particular on a lintel and pediment at Banteay Srei, Cambodia.

satrā, satra: in middle and modern Khmer, scripture, rule, treatises; palm leaf manuscripts.

Śakti (शक्ति) is the "active" aspect of a Hindu deity, the "energy" emanating from it. In the case of Shiva [Śiva], his shakti is feminine, often personified as the goddess Devi, and has three aspects: creative energy (Shakti), peaceful, harmonious space (Pārvatī), destructive as time caan be (Kālī).

Śakti is the all-important goddess of Tantra, in charge of the creation, expansion and destruction of the universe. Puruṣa comes second, yet Śakti cannot accomplish the work of creation of the universe without Puruṣa.

Peak, top, summit. [Indian arch.]: the vertex, apex of a tower. | unrel. shikara: a light, flat-bottomed boat. In Kashmir, a houseboat.

A Buddhist mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics, originally from the Buddha or from Buddhist monks or nuns, in modern times the remains of distinguished departed people, where one can come to meditate.

Thought to be derived from the ancient ritual of building tumuli, the stupa was designed to allow circumambulation [pradakhshina] around the structure, as seen until these days at Shewanagon Pagoda (Myanmar), the Abayagiri Dageba (Sri Lanka) or Borobodur Temple (Indonesia).

In Cambodia, royal stupas in pagodas (Oudong, Wat Ounalom, Wat Phnom...) and at the Royal Palace (Kantha Boppha chedi, King Suramarit...) have a distinctive style, different from Thai cedyis. In Khmer, the word originally meant "sign" [of a sacred place], and went to refer only to a structure containing relics.

Talaing is one of the Burmese names referring to the Mon people, and used during the British colonial era along with Peguan, from Pegu, the ancient capital of Lower Myanmar.

While the word has been found in local inscriptions dating back to the reign of King Anawrata (1044-1077 CE), its etymology remains unclear, one hypothesis being it was linked to the Telinga or Kalinga region of southeast India - cf. Sanskrit तैलङ्गः tailaṅgaḥ "inhabitants of Tailanga [Telinga]".

British colonial historians commonly used the words 'Talaing' or 'Peguan' to refer to the Mon people of Burma. For instance, Deputy Commissionner of Burma C.J.F.S. Forbes wrote in 1882: "Burmans are of the Mongolian race, of which the Talaings, Shans, Siamese, and Chinese form also a part. Both their bodily characteristics and their language when compared prove the utter want of connection between the Burman and Rajput races." However, Mon communities have rejected the term for a long time, and it is now considered as pejorative.

Studying Chinese sources from the beginning of the 17th century, Paul Pelliot has proposed that the the To-leng (Tailang) formed a tribe from the 大古喇 "Grand Kou-la [polity], also called 擺古 Pai-kou (Pegu)", were also called 'kola", and joined forces with the Siamese against the Burmese in 1610. According to him, they were dwelling "in the Irawaddy estuary, or perhaps near Martaban" [ancient name of Mottama bm မုတ္တမမြို့, mon Muttama မုဟ်တၟံ, a town in the Thaton District of Mon State, on the west bank of the Thanlwin River (Salween), an important trading center and the capital city of the Martaban Kingdom (later Hanthawaddy Kingdom) from 1287 to 1364.

In Thailand, an edifice surrounded by eight sacred boundary stones inside a Buddhist monastery and within which a Buddhist ordination and ritual can be performed.

Utsavamurti is an idol of a deity, a replica of the main one installed in the temple, taken out in procession. The utsavar portable statue, generally made of metal instead for portability, is carried around along many others in joyful processions, substituting for a while the central idol, the mulavar, still enshrined in its cella.

As the utsavamurti is cleansed and worshipped by everyone, its procession is accompanied with dances, songs and music bands expressing collective merriment and joy.

In ancient Cambodia as in ancient and modern India, utsava celebrations were held each time a deity image was installed in its temple, and at given periods of the year. Along the main deity were also carried along icons representing members of its retinue, and portraits of deified members of the royal court. For instance, Shiva would be preceded by Ganesha and followed by his principal servant Chandesha.

The 11th century Preah Khan inscription K. 908 required that "at least 122 gods and their entourage were to be brought back to the temple in the month of Phalguna, corresponding to the months of February/March in our calendar (st. CLVIII-CLX)" (cf. Goodall-Chollet-Chhunteng, op. cit.). Until recent times, processions carrying images, often made of metal, were held for the transfer of neak ta of a particular temple.

Vishvakarma or Vishvakarman is a craftsman deity, "The Architect", "The Divine Engineer of the Universe", earlier known as Tvastar. He is credited to have crafted all of the chariots of the devas, and weapons including the Vajra of god Indra, and was related to the sun god Surya.

King Norodom of Cambodia believed that the Khmer Royal Sacred Sword ( ព្រះខ័នរាជ្យ, Preah Khan Reach), the double-edge straight sword with a chiseled steel blade sheathed in a jeweled gold scabbard tjhat disappeared from the Royal Palace in 1970, had been made by Vishvakarma.

Vishwakarma or Visvhvakarma was an important deity in 12-13th c Lopburi Kingdom. In modern South India, the Vishwakarma or Vishwabrahmin community comprises five subgroups—carpenters, blacksmiths, bronze smiths, goldsmiths and stonemasons— claiming to be descendants of Vishvakarma, the builder and architect of heavenly realm.

1 n. Height, high place, hill, eminence, mount, mountain. 2 n. Temple-mountain, sanctuary.

• Ref: 125 occurrences, earliest being K.774A:1 (860 CE?). K.9:25 (A.D. 639, C V:35); K.44B:2 (A.D. 674, C II:10); K.134:15 (A.D. 781, C II:92); K.560/739:6 (A.D. 578-777, C II:37, VI:54); K.788:8 (A.D. 578-777, C VI:61). Ex: ʼaṃnoy kloñ vnaṃ ʼañ tpal teṃ tuṅnot ai vnaṃ tāṅ kloñ 1 sre sanre 20 (K.9:24-6), `Gifts from the chief of my sanctuary: 1 grove of sugar palms on Vnaṃ Tāṅ Kloñ [and] 20 sanre of riceland'.... vnaṃ vrai vnur caṃnoṃ tmur cdin ... (K.44B:2), `... hills, woods, knolls, herds of kine, rivers, ... '.paṃnos ta pos ta gi noḥ vnaṃ vraḥ kamratāṅ ʼañ ... (K.44B:9), `Clerics who have entered orders in the said sanctuary of My Holy High Lord ... '
• Henri Marchal called the Bayon Vnam Kantal in his essay on Angkor Thom Gates.
• Saveros Pou:

Wat (or Vat) : temple, pagoda, Khmer Theravada monastery consisting of the religious buildings and the monks' cells.

Vatthu, the Pali origin of the term, both in Khmer and Thai, has a complex Sanskrit etymology, possibly sk वाट vāṭa, 'debate', 'exposition of the truth', 'enclosure', while sk वास्तु vāstu refers to "dwelling", "place fit for the dwelling of gods and humans." In Tantric texts, vastu refers to the “subtle reality”, or "reality conceived by the mind alone."

Angkor Wat, originally dedicated to Vishnu, has since become known as 'the city which is a (Buddhist) monastery'.

Wiang: fortified temple. In Lao language, a city, like in Wiang Chan (ວຽງຈັນ), Vientiane, the capital city of modern Laos.

1. In Shaivism, Yantra is a type of ritualistic worship performed along with Tantra and Mantra. While yantra is a mystical diagram charged with occult powers, tantra is mostly the worship of the female energy of Shiva, his Shakti, through mystical sexual intercourse, and mantra is a magical formula.
2. Mystical diagrams, usually small-sized and portable, with geometric patterns that can be two- or three-dimensional, while mandalas are mostly two-dimensional. It can be the form of a deity as a symbol.
3. In Buddhism, yantras are graphic symbols used in the recitation of the mantras and the dhāraṇīs.
4. In Cambodian traditions, yantras are magical diagrams used for protection. Healing kru (traditional doctors) drawn these "bareers" on cloth, metal foil or paper, or as tattoo. They often combine the five representations of the Buddha, the five corresponding pali letters, and symbols of Brahmanic origin (The Triple Gem). The former ones are often drawn in yellow, the latter in red.
5. The etymology of Prasat Bayon ប្រាសាទបាយ័ន has often been explained as Pa-Yan(t), "The Great Yantra" or "Ancestor's Yantra", the building being a kind of "diagram in stone."