Eastern Gallery, Southern wing
1,On three registers (of excellent quality), an army parade is depicted, going from south to north, against the background of a frost. The soldiers, armed with javelins and shields (206),are in the main shown with short hair and bare heads. However, a group in the register below have goatee beards, and hair unusually arranged at the top of the head. Some musicians accompany them, including a small one who jumps while eating an enormous drum with two sticks. They are flanked by cavaliers riding without saddle or stirrups, while the army chiefs, holding javelins and vows, surrounded by parasols and insignia,are seated on elephants guided by their mahouts brandishing their traditional goads. Towards the end of the procession the relief is brightened up by vignettes of civilians who accompanied the military (97, page 72); the supply services of the army roll past, including covered carts with lateral brades similar to the ones still in use today. In the upper register, three princesses pass by in richly ornate palanquins (207) and, at the other and, is the ark with the sacred fire (similar to the one shown in the treize of the ‘Historic Procession’ at Angkor Wat).2 After passing through the gateway to the court. the military parade (93.pages 68-69) reverses its direction,and in the upper register, badly preserved, one can discern.with some difficulty,scenes of interiors and some ascetics. It is still the same type of parade.with the difference that the elephants are ridden only by their mahouts. the trees are sculpted in a realistic way, with animals stealing coconuts from a palm (208). while monkeys play in the branches of others (98,page 73). At the extreme left of the second register, one can see a buffalo attached to a tree, most likely destined for sacrifice (209). Beyond this, four registers appear with scenes of interiors. the roofs of houses. on which some birds perch, are apparently constructed with beams. The special type of hairstyle. the style of dress of the personages. and the objects hanging from the ceiling, all seem to indicate that the sculptor wanted to represent chinese traders in animated discussion.
Southeastern Corner pavilion
3. The carving in this area is unfinished. The first panel (facing East) clearly reveals the technique used by the Khmers in relief sculpture: starting from a wall which had presumable been prepared, they proceeded to sculpt directly, first engraving the lines of the drawing, then gently carving away to create the volumes, velour finally polishing up.
To the right, two charming apsaras dance. In the middle, people climb a staircase (under which there is a teapot) to join others sitting quietly, fanning themselves. There is also a group of ascetics and worshippers. To the left, three towers surmounted by tridents are outlined, the central one sheltering a linga.
Around the corner of the pavilion, nautical scenes are illustrated. With the naga-head bows of the boats facing each other.
Southern Gallery, Eastern wing
4. This part, one of the better executed, narrates the naval battles of the last quarter of the 12th century between the Khmers (represented with short hair) and the Chasm (wearing a sort of inverted lotus flower hat)(94, page 70). Two warship galleys with well-organised oarsmen and richly decorated prows appear to ram each other head on. Above, stand ranks of fighters armed with javelins, bows and shields. The corpses are thrown overboard, and often dragged away by crocodiles.
The king in his palace (210). Shows the king, seated to the extreme right, in a larger scale than the others. He presides over the preparations and gives orders, while, below him, a gamboling figure resembles the clown ns who still animate the rowing at the water Festivals in Phnom Penh.
Several species of fish are realistically represented (Like the ones found today in the Great Lake) in between trees, either because of Khmer perspective or because the artist wished to depict the high water season.
The river edges, at the base of the register, depict, with a lot of wit and naiveté, all the small scenes of daily life; market scenes, a woman and children (211), hunting (99, page 74)or attack by wild animals. A woman delouses another person; another plays with her children; another cries over a chick person who is doubled up with pain; to the extreme sift, a hunter is getting ready to string his crossbow, similar to a modern one.
5. Beyond the door, there is a panel of fishing with nets, sing a junk possibly carrying Chinese with unusual hats, who seem to use strange devices for anchoring with pulleys. Meanwhile the occupants of another much flatter junk, are playing all sorts of games. At the base, are more scenes of daily life, including cockfighting.
Then, without any transition, there are palace scenes on five registers each representing the floors of a palace: princesses dance surrounded by maids, or converse and play chess; below are gladiators and wrestlers, and a boar fight. Then a scene representing perhaps the king taking possession of his palace. According to the coronation tradition still practiced in Cambodia, he would accomplish this by sleeping in the new palace; he can tentatively be identified in the reliefs as the large-scale reclining figure, who unfortunately remains barely sketched out.
The naval battle carries on: at the base, the chams arrive of their warships and disembark, while above, the land battle takes place. The Khmer, shown as shaven-head giants. With crossed belts on their chests, clearly dominate. Peace returns, and the king, seated in his palace, celebrates the victory in the midst of the people, going about their professions: carpenters, blacksmiths, and cooks preparing a banquet.
To the extreme left, beyond the s
Last door, a narrow panel, in three registers, shows people conversing below combat scenes.
Southern Gallery, Western wing
6. In this part of the southern gallery, only the bottom register has been completed. Here again there are military parades (214), where elephants play an important role and where war machines give precious information on Khmer armament. One is some sort of large crossbow carried on wheels. Some soldiers are descending from a hill.
The western corner probably shows the washing of the sacred elephants; the animals, protected by parasols, are brought to the river, indicated by a shoal of fish at the base of the register.
6\7. Corner Pavilion. Not decorated.
Western Gallery, southern wing
7. Here, too, several areas have not been sculpted. In the lower register, a group of warriors and their chiefs mounted on elephants, progress through a forest and over a mountain (shown as small overlapping triangles clustered together), while towards the centre there is an ascetic sitting with his disciple, and below, another ascetic fleeing the attack of a tiger by climbing a tree.
High up in the second register occur some interesting scenes relating to the construction of temples: workers harling a stone block on which a foreman is holding a stick (?), others carrying blocks suspended from a special frame. Not far away, some sections of the reliefs give glimpses of the life of the ascetics.
8. Beyond the door, a long panes referred to by Coedes as a civil war episode represents a large movement of people in front of a row of houses, perhaps a street, with men and women gesticulating and menacing each other, while others prepare to
fight (213). Above this, a kneeling figure to whom two severed heads are presented, seems to be in front of the others, and, above them all, another person in a palanquin approaches a prince who awaits in a palace.
Nearby, there is a furious melee of people and almost naked warriors with the usual Khmer hairstyle, indistinguishable from each other, with several elephants involved in the action.
Wester Gallery, Northern wing
Only the reliefs of the lower register are complete,, those on the upper register being merely sketched.
`9. Soldiers,armed only with , srrm yo harass others who are protected by small round shields, preceded by elephants; they border a basin where an enormous fish swallowing a small deer can be seen (215). a short inscription helpfully tells us “the deer is is food”. Another longer inscription rather bizarrely states “ the king pursued the defeated while fighting”. In fact, this relief is incomplete as regards the upper portions, where the important personages would normally have been.
10. beyond the door, another eroded inscription(the last), mentions that “following the, the king retired to the forest where he celebrated the Indrabhisaka”. this parade through a forest, was believed by codes, to represent the king going to a special retreat before celebrating the ceremony of Indra, according to an old vedic tradition.
at the tail of the procession are women and children. As usual, the king, always larger in size than everyone else, is standing on an elephant, and ahead of him the ark with the sacred fire.
Northwest Corner pavilion
10/11. Very few sculptural reliefs are present in this small pavilion, and those that are are merely sketched.
Northwest gallery, Western wing
11. Only the lower part of the wall has been sculpted, though many parts are only sketched.
The first panel shows entertaining games in which athletes participate together with jugglers, tightrope walkers, and racehorses, as part of a public festival which is essential to Indrabhisaka’s celebration. Above an indoor scene with the ding, an unusual procession of animals gives an idea of cambodian fauna. At the opposite extremity, a group of ascetics are sitting in the forest, while on the borders of a winding river(216), there is a group of women to whom presents are given, close to a large personage, whose sculpture is unfortunately incomplete.
After the door, there are more battle scenes, where the Chams reappear as the arch-enemies of the Khmers,
Northern gallery, Eastern wing
12. The wall has almost entirely collapsed. apart from its two extremities, where one can find the frequent scene of Khmers and chams in conflict. The Chams advance in serried ranks from the West, but this time it is the Khmers who are retreating to the mountains, seemingly without offering any opposition. the whole eastern part of the gallery is very animated and treated with great realism.
Northeastern Corner Pavilion
13. Parade of Khmer soldiers and elephants. In the centre of the pavilion there is a beautiful circular pedestal, like those usually reserved for Brahma states; its style is quite different from that of Bayon, and it seems more slidely to be of the 10th century, but its provenance is impossible to determine.
Eastern Gallery, Northern wing
14. In a grand deployment of armed forces. Chams and Khmers face each other again. clashing in the middle in a furious melee. where even the elephants take part in the action. One of them tries, with his curled trunk. to pull out the tusk of another which confronts it. another elephant is shown in a rare pose. facing the viewer. Standards, insignia and parasols in countless numbers form a solid background.
Notice, on the side of the Khmers. who seem to have the upper hand, the unusual, coarsely woven panels, meant to stop the arrows of the adversary without obstructing their vision.
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