Pashupata Shaivism is one of the oldest major Shaivite Hindu schools, a movement influential in South India from 7th to 14th century, with mainstream current Mahapāśupata believing in Vedic Pāśupata penance, and schismatic Lakula Pasupata. The main aim of this ascetic and social-order-challenging sect was to get rid of all pains through tapasiya (penance) and by channeling Shiva's shakti.

The influence of Pashupata Shaivism was attested by Buddhist pilgrim monk Xuanzang, who traveled to India in the early 7th century. In Cambodia, the Pashupata followers were most respected at the Chenla court in Ishanapura (Sambor Prei Kuk), at Jayavarman II's Mahendraparvata, and later at Angkor Thom. According to Alexis Sanderson, "of Śaivism, Puficarātrika Vaisnavism and Mahāyāna Buddhism, the three Indie religions that flourished among the ruling and priestly elites of the Khmers up to the 14th century, Śaivism was predominant.

ពាក្យកាព្យ peakab indicates the homophony in កំណាព្យ kamnap, poetic style. Khmer poetics (and language) often recourse to homonymy, words that have different meanings but are pronounced the same way.

Traditional Khmer versification follows the stanza form called វគ្គនៃកំណាព្យ wek nei kamnap, from វគ្គ wek "session", "group of syllables". For melodious music, the Khmer has an all-together word, ពិរោះ piroah.

A tall tower-like spire, usually richly carved, common shrine element of Hindu and Buddhist architecture in the Khmer Empire (802–1431). Later adapted by Buddhist builders in Thailand, especially during the Ayutthaya Kingdom (1350–1767) and Rattanakosin Kingdom (1782–1932). In Thailand, only related with most important Buddhist temples.

Khmer for 'Lord Narayana': Vishnu.

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.

In Sanskrit (Indic cultures), a rishi is a sage, a human or divine ascetic versed in the Vedas (scriptures).

In Southeast Asian Buddhist tradition, the term is often referring to pious, learned people who renounce the world, anchorites or hermits living in the forest.

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.

Talapoin is a 16th-century French word for a Buddhist monk. The Portuguese word of origin, "talapão", refers to a "Buddhist monk of Burma and Thailand", allegedly coming from Mon-Burmese "tala poi", a term of respect.

In English, talapoins are two species of monkeys of central Africa classified in genus Miopithecus, the smallest of all monkeys weighing between 1 and 2,3 kg, with round, short-snouted head and a hairless face.

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'.