sos

ANGKOR

December 1971 (24th year) - U.K. : 10p - Canada: 40 cts - France: 1.20 F

WORLD ART

The Khmer

Republic

Photo ( Henri Stierlin, Geneva

Water-nymph

Half-nymph, half-angel, the Apsara or Devata of Angkor look down in their hundreds fromthe temple walls to gladden the heart and eye. Above, detail of a Devata from the temple ofBanteay Srei (the "women's citadel"), situated twelve miles from Angkor and dedicated to Siva.Built by a humble Hindu priest who was tutor to two royal princes, the temple is a miniaturemasterpiece with its exquisite carvings of these delightful angel-nymphs formed from pinksandstone and never more than 70 cms. high. (See also pages 11, 21 and 26).

I

Courier

DECEMBER 1971

24TH YEAR

PUBLISHED IN 13 EDITIONS

EnglishFrench

SpanishRussian

German

Arabic

U.S.A.

JapaneseItalian

Hindi

Tamil

Hebrew

Persian

Published monthly by UNESCO

The United Nations

Educational, Scientific

and Cultural Organization

Sales and Distribution Offices

Unesco, Place de Fontenoy, Paris-7e.

Annual subscription rates : £1 stg.; $4.00(Canada); 12 French francs or equivalent;2 years : £1.80 stg.; 22 F. Single copies :10pstg.; 40 cents : 1.20 F.

The UNESCO COURIER is published monthly, exceptin August and September when it is bi-monthly (11 issues ayear) in English, French, Spanish, Russian, German, Arabic,Japanese, Italian, Hindi, Tamil, Hebrew and Persian. In theUnited Kingdom It is distributed by H.M. Stationery Office,P.O. Box 569, London, S.E.I.

Individual articles and photographs not copyrighted maybe reprinted providing the credit line reads "Reprinted fromthe UNESCO COURIER." plus date of issue, and threevoucher copies are sent to the editor. Signed articles re¬printed must bear author's name. Non-copyright photoswill be supplied on request. Unsolicited manuscripts cannotbe returned unless accompanied by an international replycoupon covering postage. Signed articles express theopinions of the authors and do not necessarily representthe opinions of UNESCO or those of the editors of theUNESCO COURIER.

The Unesco Courier is Indexed monthly in the Read¬ers' Guide to Periodical Literature, published byH. W. Wilson Co., New York, and in Current Con¬tents - Education, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

Editorial Offices

Unesco, Place de Fontenoy, Paris-7e, France

Editor-in-Chief

Sandy Koffler

Assistant Editor-in-Chief

René Caloz

Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief

Olga Rodel

English Edition

French Edition

Spanish Edition

Russian Edition

German Edition

Arabic Edition

Japanese EditionItalian Edition

Hindi Edition

Tamil Edition

Hebrew Edition

Persian Edition

Page

14

19

27

28

30

40

42

43

Managing Editors

: Ronald Fenton (Paris): Jane Albert Hesse (Paris): Francisco Fernández-Santos (Paris): Georgi Stetsenko (Paris): Hans Rieben (Berne): Abdel Moneim El Sawi (Cairo): Hitoshi Taniguchi (Tokyo): Maria Remiddi (Rome): Kartar Singh Duggal (Delhi): N.D. Sundaravadivelu (Madras): Alexander Peli (Jerusalem): Fereydoun Ardalan (Teheran)

Assistant Editors

English Edition : Howard BrabynFrench Edition : Nino Frank

Spanish Edition : Jorge Enrique Adoum

Research : Zoé Allix

Illustrations : Anne-Marie Maillard

Layout and Design : Robert Jacquemin

All correspondence should be addressedto the Editor-in-Chief

u

5

S.O.S. ANGKOR

By Hiroshi Daifuku

ANGKOR MASTERPIECE OF ARCHITECTUREAND TOWN-PLANNING

By Henri Stier/in

THE KHMER SMILE OF THE BAYON

By Philippe Stern

EIGHT PAGES OF FULL COLOUR

NOTES OF A 13TH CENTURY CHINESEDIPLOMAT IN CAMBODIA

By Chou Ta-kuan

100 YEARS OF EFFORT

Forgotten city cleared from the jungle

By Madeleine Giteau

12TH CENTURY DIARY IN STONE

A record of daily life carved on the walls

of the Bayon temple

Photographs by Luc Ionesco

Text by Soubert Son

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

UNESCO NEWSROOM

UNESCO COURIER INDEX 1971

TREASURES OF WORLD ART

Water-nymph (Khmer Republic)

Cover

Burled in the jungle and forgottenfor centuries, then patientlyrestored during the 20th century,the temples of Angkor arethreatened by the present conflictin South-East Asia. Cover photoshows the great Khmer monarch,Jayavarman VII, who pacifiedCambodia at the end of the 12th

century and under whose guidanceKhmer culture reached a pinnacleof development.

Photo © Luc Ionesco, Paris

Angkor is in danger. The shadow of war threatens this great architecturalcomplex, steeped in history and breathtaking in its beauty. Angkor, alongwith a large number of other Khmer sites of ancient Cambodia, makes upan irreplaceable cultural heritage which Unesco, dedicated to the protec¬tion of the world's great cultural monuments, is seeking to safeguard. TheUnesco Courier dedicates this issue to the Khmer artists who, from theninth to the thirteenth century and later, succeeded in creating one of themost extraordinary examples of the marriage between architecture and space.

I

4

I N the classic civilizationsof ancient Greece and Rome creative

thought and work were recognizedand appreciated. Outstanding monu¬ments and works of art were visited

then just as tourists today includefamous sites and monuments in their

itinerary.Of the hundreds which existed,

seven were considered to be outstand¬

ing and called the "Seven Wondersof the World". Of these a few traces

have survived to the present, but thefame of those which have disappearedstill lingers.

Today, more than seven would berecognized throughout the world, andsurely within that limited group wouldbe found Angkor Wat. The news thatit had been damaged made headlinesin the world press and aroused de¬mands that it should be protected fromfurther Injury.

Angkor Wat Is but one of many sitesand monuments surrounding the TonléSap, the great natural flood reservoirof the lower Mekong and its tributa¬ries, in the Khmer Republic. Annualmonsoon rains result in a great expan¬sion of the lake, and as it recedes inthe dry season fertile silt is depositedand the land becomes ready for thecultivation of rice and other crops.Fish abound and contribute protein tothe diet. Even today 2,000 square milesof farm land are flooded annually.

This easily exploited wealth wasthe foundation for the growth of anurban civilization, and major empiresrose and fell, to be succeeded byothers. Each left traces of its exist¬

ence. Ancient cities, temples andpalaces (some still buried under densetropical vegetation), bear mute witnessto former glories of the Khmer people.

Bas-reliefs carved on walls of stone

depict a triumphant procession, cap¬tives taken in war, the pomp and cere¬mony of royal courts. Statues of Siva,Vishnu and other deities of the Hindu

pantheon, and of Bodhisattvas, orfuture Buddhas, record the images oflong dead kings, queens, princes anddignitaries apotheosized as gods.

Frequently the sculptors succeeded

HIROSHI DAIFUKU Is head of Unesco'sSect/on for the Development of the CulturalHeritage. He is the author of many studieson anthropology, conservation and museo-graphy.

"in merging man with god", in givingtheir creations a transcendent qualitywhich contemporary visitors respondto though they may be ignorant ofKhmer history and of the religious andcultural traditions from which thesemonuments were created. Of all the

complex of monuments known collect¬ively as Angkor, the masterwork isAngkor Wat. It was built in the 12thcentury A.D. during the lifetime ofKing Suryavarman II and eventuallybecame his mortuary temple.

French archaeologists, historiansand architects have worked for yearsin Cambodia (today the Khmer Repu¬blic). Part of the legacy of the EcoleFrançaise d'Extrême-Orient rests inthe monuments which have been exca¬

vated, studied and restored. Khmershave also been trained and now staff

the national and provincial, museumsand services responsible for the pro¬tection of sites and monuments.

Several thousand sites have been

identified and thousands have still

to be discovered.

lUCH remains to be done;before the recent outbreak of con¬flict, Unesco sent an architect-restorerto begin work on a group of sites150 kilometres east of Angkor, whichranged in time from the seventh cen¬tury to about the end of the thirteenth.

Other experts were sent to assessthe expenditure required for the deve¬lopment of such sites.

Cultural tourism was already animportant factor in the economy of thecountry. Siem Reap now has a modernairport which can receive jets, and newhotels have been built or were underconstruction in 1970. The develop¬

ment of sites away from Angkor wouldhave encouraged visitors to staylonger in the country and the resultantincrease in income would have helpedto justify the budget required forresearch and restoration. The outbreak

of armed conflict has, of course, putall of these plans in abeyance.

This is not the first time that Angkorhas been menaced by armed conflict.A period of unrest followed the deathof Suryavarman II, the weakened king¬dom fell to the Chams and Angkorwas pillaged in 1177. Successivekings restored Khmer rule. New

by Hiroshi Daifuku

construction and changes to the oldtook place, enriching the monumentalheritage of the Khmer people.

Once again the threat of armedconflict menaces not only the peoplebut their past heritage. Nowhere elseis there greater anxiety about the pre¬servation of Angkor. Whatever thecause of recent damage, the Govern¬ment, recognizing the need for effect¬ive measures to ensure Angkor's pre¬servation, has suggested that a neutralzone be established surrounding themonuments so that further damagewill not occur as a result of militaryoperations.

This move to protect Angkor is butone attempt in the long and turbulenthistory of man to preserve links withthe past so that people may share acommon history and tradition. Theloss of such identification and conti¬

nuity could lead to the eventual disap¬pearance of an entire people.

This factor was recognized fromvery early times. Conquerors orwould-be conquerors, in order toassure their posterity and the pride offuture generations, have built monu¬ments or destroyed those of theirenemies. Rome, for example, adoptedCato's slogan "Delenda est Carthago"(Carthage must be destroyed) after thesecond Punic War.

The third Punic War, provoked bythe Romans, resulted in the sack of thecity. The site was dedicated to theinfernal gods, no stone left standing,and all habitation in the ruined area

forbidden. Carthage, as a city, even¬tually rose again, but it was no longerPunic. The survivors had been absorb¬

ed and their identity had gone forever.(See "Unesco Courier", December1970).

During World War II, for example,after an uprising by the inhabitants ofWarsaw had been repressed, Hitlerordered the complete evacuation ofthe city. The ancient royal castle, theold medieval section (the centralmarket place known as the "StareMiasto"), palaces and churches weredestroyed, and much of the rest of thecity was dynamited and gutted by fire.

The decision taken by the people ofPoland to restore most of the monu¬

ments of Warsaw, including the "StareMiasto", expressed their desire to re¬create the fabric of the city and main¬tain the continuity of Polish history.(See "Unesco Courier", March 1961.)

The lessons learned from World

War II eventually led to the preparationby Unesco of an "International Con¬vention on the Protection of Cultural

Property in the Event of Armed Con¬flict" which was adopted at TheHague in 1954. As in all examples oflegislation it represents a compromisebetween the ideal and the adoption ofrules which the majority of States whotook part in its preparation believe thatforces engaged in armed combat couldbe expected to observe.

The Hague Convention (1954) is nowin force and over fifty States haveratified it, including the Khmer Repu¬blic. One of the provisions (Article 23)states that Unesco can be called uponfor technical assistance in organizingthe protection of cultural property.

At the request of the Khmer Govern¬ment, Unesco sent an expert to helpnegotiate a cease fire to protect Ang¬kor and permit the transfer of movablebronzes and sculptures to Phnom Penhfor shelter. Later, additional expertswere sent to aid and advise in the

packing, transport and storage ofthese works of art, and the mostvaluable items are now' adequatelyprotected in the National Museum inPhnom Penh.

But whereas the Khmer Government

has ratified the Convention the other

belligerents have not. One solutionwould be the negotiation of specialagreements so that the provisions ofthe Hague Convention can be applied.Should this be done, centres contain¬ing monuments of great importancecould be placed under special protec¬tion (Article II). It would represent atriumph demonstrating the goodwill ofall concerned.

The threat of destruction by armedconflict is immediate and dramatic.

But in heavily populated centres, thepressures of population growth andshort-sighted projects for economicdevelopment have resulted in far great¬er destruction to man's cultural heri¬

tage than that caused by either of thetwo World Wars and the many smallerconflicts of the past 50 years.

This too is a challenge to be metby the present generation in order thatfuture generations shall not be depriv¬ed of cultural links with the past norlive in an environment polluted throughman's excesses, whether against theatmosphere, rivers, lakes and seas orthe cultural heritage of our planet.

Head of a buddha, damaged over the centuries,from the Elephant Terrace at Angkor Thorn.

BANTEAY THOMfflEAH KHAN .

With century »

This general view shows the site of Angkor(meaning "city") in its present forest setting.Capital of the Khmer empire from the 9thto the 13th century, the city covered anarea of 600 square kilometres and boasted600 temples. Some 100 of these templeshave been cleared of vegetation andthe most important ones are identified onthe plan above. The prosperity of Angkorwas dependent upon the constructionby the Khmers of a fantastic irrigationsystem to support the production of rice.During the rainy season, water was storedin artificial lakes, or "barays", and a networkof canals provided irrigation for an areaof 1,000 square kilometres, thus providingthe food supply for a population which,at Its height, numbered one million.The greyish-white areas surrounding thetemples or seen as rectangles arecanal-works, basins and lakes formingpart of the extensive Khmer irrigation system.

6

ANGKOR

masterpieceof architecture

& town-planningby Henri Stierlin

/

35 kilometre* from Siem Reap

temple of

^ BANTEAY SREI^^ 10th century

NEAK PEAN12th cunt

TA SO M

Y SAMRE

ing 12th century

as from Siem Reap templas of'REAH KO end 9th

Drawing by Tanguy de Rémur © Paris-Match

I HE city-state of Angkor iswidely renowned for its splendid artand monuments; but it is worth

recalling that this extraordinary artis¬tic achievement was due, firstly, toman's resourceful adaptation to hissurroundings, and secondly, to theremodelling of natural conditions by12th century Khmer society to createan artificial environment entirelygeared to intensive rice-growing.

Nowhere in the world is the full

significance of the term "environ-

HENRI STIERLIN, Swiss writer and T.V. film¬maker, Is an expert on the history of archi¬tecture. He is editor of the series "Archi¬

tecture Universelle", 16 volumes of whichhave been published thus far in seven lan¬guages by Editions de l'Office du Livre, Frl-bourg, Switzerland. The same series Inclu¬des his own volume with texts and photo¬graphs entitled "Angkor". In collaborationwith the noted French specialist on Angkor,Bernard Grosller, he recently produced aseries of television programmes on Angkor,its art, history and development.

ment" so clearly illustrated as atAngkor. This site in Cambodia, thecapital of the Khmer kingdom fromthe 9th to the 14th century, provides aperfect example of the way in whicha civilization equipped itself with themeans of producing an ample foodsupply without which a vigorousculture could never have flourished in

the hostile setting of virgin forest andthe Indo-Chinese jungle.

This article briefly describes themain influences which shaped theAngkorian civilization and its match¬less architecture, recently thrown intohigh relief by the tragic events inSouth-East Asia.

The Angkor site forms a vast net¬work of dozens of temples and satel¬lite cities, equipped with the watersupplies required for agriculture andfor the day-to-day needs of the Khmerpopulation. Thus Angkor strikes amiraculous balance between land and

water, men and gods; from the fusion

of these four elements emerged oneof the greatest civilizations in medievalAsia.

Even before the beginning of theChristian era, the fruits of India's

advanced civilization, especially in thespheres of religion and art, had begunto spread beyond its frontiers. Ceylonwas the first of its neighbours to besubjected to the Buddhist influence,as early as the 3rd century B.C.

Burma, Indo-China, Java and Baliwere not impregnated by the creativegenius of India until the early cent¬uries of the Christian era. The trade in

exotic products between the Far Eastand the Roman Empire was the chiefvehicle for the dissemination of the

Buddhist and Hindu creeds throughoutsouth-east Asia. The links then forgedbetween India and the Far Eastendured in some instances centuries

after the trading relations had ceased.

There was some sort of division into

spheres of influence between India

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

7

MASTERPIECE OF TOWN-PLANNING (Continued)

Delicate balance between ecology and aesthetics

and China in this part of the world;hence the name of Indo-China acquir¬ed by the peninsula watered bythree great rivers: the Menam andthe Mekong, where Indian-influencedcultures flourished; and the Red River,which watered the provinces gravi¬tating in China's orbit.

The first architecture in durable

materials clearly shows the Indianinfluence; but a capital named Oc-Eois known to have existed even earlieron the Bassac Delta in the lower

Mekong valley. In the 3rd centuryA.D., it was enclosed in a rectangle3,000 metres long by 1,500 metreswide, formed by a series of five earth¬works separated by moats. Theshrines in this region, known to theChinese of that time as "Fu-nan",seem to have been built of light mat¬erial (wood and thatch), and no traceof them remains.

Among the earliest monuments ofwhich we have certain knowledge arethe sanctuaries of Sambor Prei Kuk

in Cambodia, a town which seems tohave covered an area 2 kilometres

square. Construction in this capi¬tal of the early 7th century, whichdominated the unified Tchen-la empire,was on an impressive scale: the bricksanctuaries, standing in vast squareenclosures, had high roofs with juttingarches; their soaring silhouettes were

obtained by superposed storeys ofdiminishing size, forming a sequenceof small temples, on a principle whichrecurs in all Khmer architecture.

During the 8th century, when Tchen-la had split into two kingdoms whosehistory remains obscure, there seemsto have been little artistic develop¬ment. Javanese raiders invaded Malay¬sia and Indo-China; and the Javaneseinfluence was to play its part inshaping the course of Angkorian civi¬lization.

The full flowering of Khmer archi¬tecture was preceded by an "incu¬bation period" in the Kulens, 50 kilo¬metres north-east of the Great Lake

of Cambodia, where the capital of thekingdom was then transferred. It wasas if the royal house foresaw that thedestiny of the Khmers was to beplayed out in the heart of the country,and no longer in the southern delta,as at Oc-Eo, or to the east of theGreat Lake, as at Sambor.

In this period, between 800 and850 A.D., were laid the foundations ofthe art form which first emerged atRoluos in the Angkor region. At RongChen, in the Kulens, the first temple-mountain was built; its conception istypical of all Khmer architecture. Itmarries the two main architectural

features inherited from India throughthe Javanese incursions; the stupa (an

artificial mound around which Bud¬

dhists walk in ritual procession, andof which Borobudur is the most perfectexample) and the Hindu shrine ofsuperposed storeys, derived fromIndian models at Mahaballipuram, forexample, through the Javanese templesof Dieng or Prambanam.

Thus, the temple-mountain is a stupacrowned by a square shrine, with aroof formed of vertically superposedstoreys, symbolizing the City of theGods built on the Mount Meru of

Hindu legend.

The Ak Yum temple erected north¬west of Angkor just before the 9thcentury was a second attempt at thesame effect. It seems to have been

built by the Khmer King Jayavarman II,who lived for many years at the Courtof the Sailendras of Java, and wasresponsible for establishing the royalcity once and for all in the Angkorarea.

The specific Khmer technique reallycame into its own, however, with the

foundation of Roluos by King Indra-varman (877-889) in the south-eastquarter of Angkor. For the first time,the Indo-Chinese did more than merelydig channels to make the fullest useof the monsoon rains; they undertooka vast development scheme to improvethe yield of rice, which formed thestaple food throughout the whole of

Photo © Luc Ionesco, Paris

<>-/>

***£>

m* *

south-east Asia. This was the source

of wealth to which the vast Angkoriancomplexes owed their construction.

Indravarman realized that to break

the immutable monsoon cycle, withtorrential rain for four months in the

year, and not a drop falling for thefollowing eight months, there was onlyone solution: to store the surpluswater for redistribution in time of

shortage.It was thus possible to use the

Angkorian plain to the best advantage;with abundant irrigation all the yearround, it could bear as many as threerice crops a year. To this end,Indravarman initiated vast hydraulicengineering works, and created hugeartificial lakes or barays. Theseformed reservoirs for the accumulation

of the water needed to irrigate therice fields.

The Lolei baray at Roluos in south

east Angkor, the earliest known exam¬ple, formed a rectangular sheet ofwater 3,000 metres long and 800 me¬tres wide. Dykes were used toconstruct this artificial lake, thus

ensuring a permanent head of waterthe water level was higher than theplain.

It was merely necessary to opentrenches in the dykes for the waterto run out at the required rate forregular irrigation of the rice fields.The baray, filled by a feeder canal andby the monsoon rains, with a storagecapacity of 6 million cubic metres,was to be the source and basis of the

wealth of the Khmer Kingdom.

The succeeding kings followed upthis hydrological development bycreating the great Eastern Baray, meas¬uring 7,000 by 1,800 metres, built byYasovarman about 900 A.D., then the

Western Baray measuring 8,000 by

2,200 metres, which was constructed

about 1050 A.D., with a storage capa¬city of more than 40 million cubicmetres.

This vigorous technological improve¬ment of the Angkorian plain inevi¬tably entailed a profound modificationof the landscape. The hydraulic sys¬tem moulded the countryside, whichwas furrowed by countless irrigationchannels and sub-divided by thecheckerboard of the rice fields.

The Khmers had thus worked out

their specific system of area develop¬ment, and the plain of Angkor was toproduce 150,000 metric tons of rice ayear from a stretch of nearly 1 ,000 sq.km. This was enough to feed a popu¬lation which, in the 12th century, canbe estimated at 700,000 or 800,000 inthe Angkor region alone, with a pro¬duction surplus of about 40 per centfor export to less prosperous regions

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

THE SERPENTSCAUSEWAY

Right, the final section of theaxial road leading toAngkor Wat seen from the thirdstorey' of the building.350 metres long, the raisedcauseway is flanked by "nagas"water divinities In the form

of snakes. In the backgroundstands the triple entrancepavilion, or "gopura", cruciformand topped with high towersnow partially collapsed. Oneither side, the galleryextends to link the entrance

pavilion to two other "gopura"(not visible in the photo)which were constructed so

as to allow the passageof elephants and carts.

LOTUS-EATINGELEPHANTS

Left, the Impressive ElephantTerrace of the King's Palacesituated In the centre of the

three kilometre square site ofAngkor Thorn. The Royal Roadled to the palace which wasbuilt facing the rising sun.This vast frieze with its

hunting scenes and life-sizeelephants mounted by theirmahouts, all in high relief,stretches out for 300 metres

on either side of the stairwayto the palace, casting itsreflection in the waters of the

moat. At the end of the

frieze, forming pillars flankingthe stairway, stand thetriple-headed elephants ofthe goddess Indra, gatheringlotus blossoms with their trunks.

Photo © Henri Stierlin, Geneva

MASTERPIECE OF TOWN-PLANNING (Continued)

;< 'Stiffs

Water conservation: key to the Khmer equation

10

which had no similar "rice factory" todraw upon.

This artificial environment, comple¬tely dominated and largely moulded byman, was reflected in the ground planof the towns, with their strictly right-angled lines framing the temple placedat the very heart of the city. Everypart of the Khmer world was inter¬connected, from the embankmentbordering the Cambodian peasant'srice field to the three-walled templewhose moats were linked to the

irrigation system.

This is illustrated by the city ofRoluos, the first great dynamic capitalin the Angkor region. Indravarman wasnot content with constructing the Loleibaray; in 881 he built the temple-mountain of Bakong, which stood inthe centre of the city then calledHariharalaya.

The temple is formed of five super¬posed sandstone terraces or plat¬forms, almost square, measuring 67by 65 metres at the base, and form¬ing a monumental pedestal 15 metreshigh for the principal shrine.

The fourth storey of the temple wasringed by twelve "chapels", and eightmassive brick towers (prasats) stoodwatch around the pyramid, withina precinct measuring 160 by 120metres, surrounded by a moat60 metres wide and about 1 ,500 metresround.

The dwelling-houses, made of thatchor matting, and raised on piles toprotect them from the monsoon rains,bordered this first moat, and were inturn encompassed by a second moat22 metres wide. The city formed aquadrilateral 800 metres long, with apopulation of some 7,000 to 8,000.Four axial avenues crossed the moats

on earthen causeways to converge onthe central temple, thus dividing thecity into four equal parts.

The Khmer complex was thus com¬plete: a baray supplied water to themoats in the town, with the temple-mountain or royal sanctuary at itsheart. The whole constituted an inter¬

acting technological and religio-magical mechanism which ensured theprosperity of an agrarian society basedon intensive rice cultivation.

That is the key to the Khmer equa¬tion; and even when the proportionsof the Roluos enterprise were magni¬fied 4 or 5 times, in Angkor, in thewalled cities of Yasodharapura andlater at Angkor Thorn, the systemremained the same. The architecture

was only an embellishment of the func¬tional hydraulic works installed forirrigation.

The temple protected and sanctifiedthe technological achievement throughthe image of the deity inhabiting theinner shrine. The Khmer temple,whether dedicated to the Hindu divi¬

nities of Siva, Vishnu or Brahma, or

(when the world of Angkor had nearlyrun its course) to the Buddha-King,represented the centre of creation, theMount Meru which was the home of

the gods (as Olympus was the hauntof the divinities in the Greek Pan¬

theon).

The square plan of the temple, withits geometrical divisions, constitutedan immense mándala (a mystic sym¬bolic diagram of Indian origin), includ¬ing the temple (which was thusbrought into harmony with the laws ofthe Cosmos), the royal capital inhab¬ited by humans (which was thus iden¬tified with the centre of the universe),and the vast expanse of the plain(which was thus dedicated to thegods). The whole panorama was quar¬tered by the four axial avenues runningfrom the sanctuary in each direction tobe lost to sight in the perspective ofthe Khmer landscape.

This all-round symmetry of construc¬tion along the axial roads is a fun¬damental law of temple compositionin the architecture of Indian-influenced

countries; but only the Khmers suc¬ceeded in impressing that symmetryon the sacred edifice, on the human

city and on the surrounding country¬side.

This total vision of mystic symbol¬ism and its religio-magical power,associated with the practical functionof the barays and the irrigation sys¬tem, is the hallmark of the Khmergenius. From this astonishing talentfor synthesis, embracing all aspectsof human creation, emerged the admi¬rable apotheosis of Angkor Wat.

One of the factors responsible forthe individual character of Khmer art,which differentiates it from its Indian

sources, derives from the populararchitecture typical of ancient Cam¬bodia, especially the wooden dwellingsbuilt on piles and topped by gabledroofs covered with thatch. This domes¬

tic style probably dates back to pre¬historic times, and is hardly distin¬guishable from pre-lndian neolithicbuilding.

The popular art represented onKhmer bas-reliefs (at Angkor Wat andBayon, in particular) inspired sometypical forms of Angkorian architecture.Its influence can be detected in manyinstances of translation into stone of

features borrowed from what were

originally wooden structures.

One example is the moulded windowbalustrades, reproducing in sandstonethe rounded lattice gratings of hutdwellings; others are the cross-gabledroofs, imitating the carpenter's tech¬nique in stone; the colonnettes border¬ing some raised walks, reminiscent ofthe traditional gangways leading to pri¬mitive dwellings beside the GreatLake: the mortise effect at the apexof doors and windows, and so on.

All these traits are characteristic of

f

I

i

I

o

&

APSARA AND DEVATA

OF ANGKOR WAT

Khmer art, and in no way derivedfrom Indian models. Thus, Khmerarchitecture drew its inspiration bothfrom native and from Indian sources.

A rich symbolism already infusedIndravarman's achievement at Roluos

(the temple-mountain of Bakong); butthere followed a steady developmentin architectural science which became

more complex while also gaining inuniformity and quality. Thus, the longstructures bordering the Bakong sanc¬tuary on either side of the axial ave¬nues began to proliferate, and eveninvaded the steps of the temple-moun¬tain.

These narrow halls were soon occu¬

pying the steps of the pyramid onevery side. Here we can see theinspired process of simplification

This photograph is quite extraordinary in more than one sense. What appears to be a simple wall with several figureson it is in reality a tele-photo picture in foreshortened perspective of a 30 metre stretch of several planes ofthe great gallery of Angkor Wat. This gallery forms the vestibule of the temple, the biggest and best preservedof the temples of Angkor, which was built by King Suryavarman II in preparation for his eventual apotheosis. The figureswith diadems and long skirts, bare-breasted in the ancient Khmer tradition, are minor divinities, known as "apsara"or "devata", destined, according to Buddhist mythology, to gladden the hearts of the Gods and the blessed ones.

which led (in the temples of Phimeana-kas and Takeo) to the emergence ofthe encircling gallery, that essentialelement of classical Khmer architec¬

ture.

The long buildings were run toge¬ther, the outer wall of the gallery thusformed was finally placed at the edgeof each storey, the axial entrances(the Hindu gopura) and corner towerswere integrated in the composition.The various concentric platforms sym¬bolize the mountain ranges surround¬ing the human universe, encompass¬ed in turn by the primordial ocean,here represented by the wide moatskirting the city.

Meanwhile, there was appreciabletechnological progress: as a result ofthe general adoption of masonry for

temple architecture, the sanctuariesbuilt of brick and hewn stone, to pro¬vide the eternal gods with imperishablematerials, were soon topped by roofswhere wooden timbers and tiles were

replaced by corbelled vaulting builtof sandstone.

Lastly, the classical period paid spe¬cial attention to the perfection of orna¬mental detail. The use of hewn stone

contributed to the quality of the sculp¬ture. One of the first really classicalbuildings in this sense is the smalltemple of Banteay Srei, some twentykilometres north of Angkor.

The layout of this jewel in stone ishighly original, as it is not a temple-mountain, but a horizontal temple,where the successive closes representa horizontal version of the superposed

galleries typical of the pyramid form.But the fame of this miniature sanc¬

tuary is founded on its extraordinarilyrich and elaborate decoration. Des¬

pite a certain leaning toward "pretti-ness" it reveals such authority in itsexcellence, such a marked feeling forgrace and elegance, such a sure handand such perfect mastery that it un¬deniably represents one of the highestpeaks of Khmer artistry.

The little temple, built in 967 A.D., iscompletely covered with divinities,nymphs and guardians, beautifully car¬ved in the pink sandstone. The sur¬face shows not an inch of stone which

is not decorated with matchless craft,reminiscent in its luxuriance of the

primeval forest around it.

In the great temple of Angkor Wat,

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

11

)

MASTERPIECE OF TOWN-PLANNING (Continued)

12

constructed during the reign of Surya¬varman II (1113-1150), the most re¬nowned and glorious of the Angkoriankings, Khmer architecture reached itsculmination, both in perfection of formand spacing and in quality of crafts¬manship.

The temple proper is a veritablecathedral of the jungle. Paradoxicallyenough, it is a contemporary of thegreat gothic structures of Chartres,Sens or Notre-Dame de Paris. Ang¬kor Wat is not only the largest, butalso the finest of all the templeserected in the Indo-Chinese penin¬sula.

The moat, nearly 200 metres wide,lines a rectangle measuring 1,500 by1,300 metres, and encloses an area of2 sq. km. larger than such a town asTimgad under the Roman empire. Thetemple forms the pivot of an urbansystem of which only the buildingsconstructed with durable materials

have survived, but which must havehoused a population of some 17,000 to20,000 people.

The moat, measuring 5¿ km. round,is bridged on the west by a dykesupporting a causeway leading to animmense portico 235 metres long, pier¬ced by three gateways. This spacious

structure forming the main entranceprefigures the temple façade, whichcomes into sight on the far side ofthese majestic propylaea.

Another axial avenue 350 metres longleads to the foot of the temple pro¬per, its façade rising from a high,elaborately moulded sub-structure,dominated by the five towers crownedby a tiara-shaped stone roof. Thecolonnaded wings of the immensesurrounding gallery, measuring 187 by215 metres, form a perfectly balancedcomposition.

Along the inner walls of this galleryruns a fantastic sequence of bas-reliefs girdling the whole temple,which represents a distance of over500 metres. They constitute a sort ofchronicle of the rulers of Angkor,combined with a pictorial mythology.

Passing through the gateway, thevisitor enters the cruciform courtyardfound at the centre of all classical

Angkorian architecture. It consists offour small courts connected by cover¬ed corridors and linking the friezedgallery to the gallery encircling thesecond precinct.

The cruciform courtyard provides thefirst example of sandstone vaulting

supported by four rows of pillars toform a central nave flanked by twoaisles. It is a graceful, airy composi¬tion, decorated in high relief by adancing procession of Devata andApsara (Indian goddesses).

To proceed to the upper storey, thethree parallel galleries in the court¬yard follow the rise of the coveredstairways by an arrangement of super¬posed overlapping arches. The galleryrunning round the second storeyopens inwards only, through balustrad-ed windows. This second precinct,measuring 100x115 metres, enclosesthe enormous base of the temple13 metres high, topped by the fivetowers of the sanctuary.

The third tier of the temple-moun¬tain is also formed by an encirclinggallery, but its balustraded windowsopen outwards, while pillared porticoslook on to the inner patios. The centralshrine, on a level with the four cornertowers, is connected with the galleryby covered cloisters, as in the cruci¬form courtyard. Resting on four pro¬jecting porches, it soars a sheer42 metres upwards to its summit65 metres above the level of the plain.From that height the gigantic mándaladescribed by the whole complex struc-

JEWEL-TEMPLE AND TEMPLE-MOUNTAIN. Left, the "mandapa", or ante-chamber preceding the sanctuary,of the temple of Banteay Srei. This jewel of a temple set in the forest some 20 miles from Angkor,is watched over by mythical guardians; génies with the bodies of humans flank the stairway leading to thepavilion, while men with the heads of monkeys stand sentinel over the richly-carved entrance tothe pink sandstone building. Above, an aerial view of the ruins of Phnom Bakheng, a temple-mountainwith 109 towers built on a natural hill situated between Angkor Thorn and Angkor Wat. The templestood 13 metres high atop five rows of terracing. It was surrounded by sandstone towers, arrangedin a quincunx, of which only the ruins to be seen on the fifth terrace remain.

ture can be clearly perceived, plann¬ed in the image of the celestial palacewhich is the home of the gods.

Upon the death of Suryavarman II,about 1150, the Khmers' neighbours,the Chams, took advantage of thegeneral disorganization of the empire,then plunged in palace revolutions andstruggles for the throne, to carry outa daring raid against Angkor, whichthey destroyed by fire in 1177. Themerit of restoring the Khmer powerbelongs to King Jayavarman VII; hesucceeded in expelling the invaders,and was crowned King of Angkor in1181, when he at once undertook the

total reconstruction of the city.Jayavarman forsook the Hindu reli¬

gion of his predecessors and was con¬verted to Buddhism. An entirely newstyle of building suddenly sprang up,redolent of an oddly fascinating baro¬que, which superseded the classic for¬malism of Angkor Wat by a new con¬ception of space and volume: a newart flowered where no line was drawn

between sculpture and architecture.

The towers of the temples were car¬ved with colossal faces in relief,

representing both the image of BuddhaSakyamuni (Gautama the Sage), andthe effigy of Jayavarman VII. There

was thus a complete upheaval in bothreligion and its outward forms.

The King first erected the temple-city of Ta Prohm, which covered anarea of 1,000 by 600 metres. , Thetemple proper was built on a planwhich was to serve as a model for

most of the Buddhist monasteries

constructed in Jayavarman's reign.The fundamental conception was thatof the horizontal temple already appliedat Banteay Srei, but the precincts wereenclosed with concentric peripheralgalleries as well as walls.

Thus, the progressive encroach¬ment of the surrounding galleries onthe steps of the temple-pyramidwas completed, while the symbolismremained the same in the horizontal

temple as in the temple-mountain.

The layout of the Preah Khan tem¬ple, encompassed by a moat 40 metreswide and covering an area of about1,000 by 750 metres, closely resembledthat of Ta Prohm; but both these

structures were hurriedly and perfunc¬torily built, the construction often beingof mediocre standard, the adornmentcrude and lifeless. All the buildingsput up in Jayavarman Vll's reign showsigns of haste.

The capital named Angkor Thorn (or"Great Royal City"), built about1200 A.D., initiated a new trend inAngkorian architecture. It markedthe formation of the specific languageof the baroque-type art which precededthe decadence of the Khmer empire.

The precinct of the new capital atonce introduced a new style; the fivedykes crossing the moat supported afascinating innovation: the Giant'sCauseway. This is an approachbordered on either hand by highbalustrades formed by 54 giantsbearing in their mighty arms the bodyof an enormous Naga (a mythicalIndian snake).

This vast allegorical compositionsymbolizes a theme dear to Indianmythology: the Churning of the Seaof Milk, which represents the creationof the world. Overlooking thismythical scene, at the gateway to thecity, stand towers carved with a four¬fold effigy, representing the imposingimage of the Buddha-King, the rulerof the world, whose regard embracesthe four points of the compass.

All this symbolic art culminates inthe extraordinary structure of theBayon, Jayavarman Vll's major

CONTINUED PAGE 40

13

Below, the arresting "towers with faces" of the Bayon temple,miracles of 12th and 13th century monumental art, situated withinthe Angkor Thorn complex. This is what the French writerPierre Loti wrote after visiting Angkor in 1901: "From on high,the four faces on each tower looked out towards the four pointsof the compass, beneath lowered eyelids, with identical expressions,each wearing the same smile. They affirmed and reiterated withobsessive power the all-pervading presence of God at Angkor."

Photo © Luc Ionesco, Paris

THE KHMER SMILE

OF THE BAYON

by Philippe Stern

W,HAT a strange yet wonder¬ful monument we have in the Bayonat Angkor.

The Bayon is the last of the greatKhmer monuments in stone. Khmer

art' began in the 6th century A.D.on territory very roughly correspond¬ing to the Cambodia of today; but dur¬ing about the first half of its evolution,its monuments, which frequentlycontained very beautiful statues andwere remarkable for their decoration

(especially on the lintels), were onlysmall buildings made up of separateelements.

It was not till later, after the found¬ation of Angkor in the late 9th orearly 10th century A.D., that largetemples began to appear, with con¬centric enclosures, and constructedin stone instead of brick.

At Angkor, some thirty monumentswere still standing until very recentlyand, apart from a brief period in the10th century, Angkor remained acapital until the decline of the splen¬dour of the Khmers with Jayavar¬man VII and even for some time

thereafter.

At the Bayon two outstanding pointsof interest compel our attention. Oneis the outer gallery which, though inruins, still has intact walls coveredwith bas-reliefs. From one point in their

PHILIPPE STERN, of France, Is one of thegreat names connected with the study ofKhmer art. He is the originator of a nowwidely adopted research method whichenabled him to explain the evolution andestablish the chronology of Khmer art. Hisbook "Les Monuments Khmers du Style duBayon et layavarman VII" Is an internation¬ally accepted source book for scholars.At present he is working on a book on aes¬thetics the central theme of which, 'thesmile", is discussed in the article publishedhere. Another of Philippe Stem's works iscurrently in press: "Colonnes Indiennesd'Ajanta et d'É/lora: Evolution et Repercus¬sions" (Publications du Musée Guimet,Presses Universitaires de France). Honorarycurator-in-chlef of the Musées de France

(Arts Asiatiques), he contributed greatly tothe development and renovation of theMusée Guimet of Paris, which Is famous forIts Oriental collections. Philippe Stern wasalso one of the first scholars to take aserious interest In the music of Asia and

Africa. For his various books on Angkor seebibliography page 42.

development, the great Khmer templeswere generally made up of concentricgalleries encircling a central sanctuary,and from the 12th century A.D.onwards, the outer galleries werecovered with bas-reliefs, such as thoseseen at Angkor Wat, Banteay Chmarand the Bayon.

At the Bayon we find an interestinginnovation on the bas-reliefs. Alongthe base of one of them a series of

little scenes of daily life unfolds beforeour eyes. (Photos pages 30-38.)

These bas-reliefs give us a remark¬able insight into the crafts and occup¬ations and the homely details of thelife of the people of the time. Khmerart is a religious art, and these scenesare remarkable, not only in themselves,but because nowhere else in Khmerarchitecture are similar works of a

non-religious nature to be found.

But far more striking is the upperpart of the monument. The Bayon isa "temple-mountain" of the typeusually constructed by each of thegreat Khmer kings in the form ' of atiered pyramid. The temple-mountainwas considered to be the centre of

the world of men just as the divinemountain was the centre of the world

of the gods.

The tower-sanctuaries of the Bayonare striking in that on each of theirfour sides there is a gigantic facerepresenting the divinity and the deifi¬ed king merged into one, with all thefaces irradiating royal benevolence tothe four points of the compass, "look¬ing everywhere", as the texts say.

This was an innovation of the greatBuddhist king . Jayavarman VII (whoreigned from approximately 1181 to1219 A.D.), which corresponded to hismajor religious reform undertaken,according to my findings (1), some tenyears after his reign began. Sincethere are more than fifty of thesetowers, the Bayon constitutes a mostextraordinary architectural and sculp¬tural complex.

During the construction of the upperpart of the Bayon it was decided toenlarge the building as originally plan¬ned. As a result earlier sculptures

(1) See my book 'Les Monuments khmersdu style du Bayon et Jayavarman VII",published by Presses Universitaires deFrance, which contains translations and quo¬tations from philological studies by G. Coe-dès and other writers on the great historicalfigure Jayavarman VII.

were hidden and the general effectwas one of near chaos. Yet on reach¬

ing the upper section the visitor isstupefied by the astounding sight itoffers from every viewpoint. He isgreeted on all sides and from everyheight and angle by faces which echoand reflect each other. And many ofthese faces are smiling.

Later Buddhism, or mahayana (Bud¬dhism of the Great Vehicle), differedmarkedly from early Buddhism. Andthe Buddhist smile, found on the laterstatues such as those at the Bayon,is the height of perfection and beauty.(Photos, cover and page 17.) Herethe face is shown carved with closed

eyes.

What does this smile really mean?For me it is a concrete example of thenotion basic to our aesthetic concep¬tions which, when expressed inwords, could be translated as a union

of opposites, but which, in reality, areopposites that have not yet emergedas distinct entities. In other words a

notion which transcends language andconcepts.

The closed eyes thus express aninwardness, set apart from everydaythings, the search in one's innermostdepths for a transcendental detach¬ment and a supra-human peace, theway to nirvana; whereas the smile, ris¬ing also from the innermost depths,represents the almost tender Buddhistcharity of communication and com¬munion with all creatures, imparted bythe smiling expression to the face asa whole.

The style at the Bayon thus has aunity of expression which is that ofthe masculine bodhisattvas (heads sur¬mounted by a cylinder with a smallstatuette) or the corresponding femi¬nine prajnaparamita (where the stat¬uette is placed on a cone above thehead. (Photo page 16.)

The bodhisattvas of the Great Vehi¬

cle are the miraculous, almost divinebeings who, after countless lives ofdetachment and charity (perhaps alsoof cognition) have succeeded in trans¬migrating to the very threshold ofnirvana, where they could be freedfrom all suffering by losing their indi¬viduality and merging into the Ineffa¬ble, which no words can adequately a rdescribe. But they refuse to be set I rlfree, in order to devote themselvescompassionately to the salvation ofothers, and until such time as all

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

THE KHMER SMILE (Continued)

THE SMILEOF DEEP

CONTEMPLATION

Few Eastern forms of artistic expressionsurpass in beauty the deep smile of thestatues of Angkor (right, a deified queen orprincess; centre. King Jayavarman VII).Compare this smile with the ghost of asmile on the lips of the pharaoh and reli¬gious reformer, Amenophis IV or Akhenaton(extreme right) who reigned In Egyptduring the 14th century B.C. It reveals aworld of humanity and sweet serenitywhich was expressed to perfection inKhmer art. The smile shines out from the

vast countenances of the "towers with

faces" at the Bayon, signifying the bene¬volent contemplation of the Buddha encom¬passing the whole universe. (Below, aerialview of the Bayon.)

men shall be saved along with them.

Jayavarman VII was so stronglyimbued with this Buddhist charity thatthe stele inscriptions near the hospitals(see below) bear the words "He suffer¬ed from the ills of his subjects morethan from his own: for it is the grief ofthe people that causes the grief ofkings, and not their own grief".

In the Khmer heads of this period(Photos opposite) the closed eyes andthe lips drawn out in a deep smiledraw us irresistibly into an inner worldof surpassing peace and tender com¬passion for all creatures.

I have in my possession a cast ofone of the finest of the heads with

this expression. Even though I see itevery day, it is an unceasing andinexhaustible source of inspiration tome, as are all forms of beauty whichhave attained their greatest depth.

I referred earlier to deified kings.But except in the case of Jayavar¬man VII, at the end of the period ofKhmer splendour, what the statuerepresents is the divinity portrayedaccording to the contemporary canonsof beauty, completely idealized anddevoid of any individual resemblance(this Is perhaps where its value lies).This is true whether the statues are

Hindu (the supreme gods Siva or Vish¬nu) or Buddhist. Only the inscriptionindicates that particular human beings(to begin with, only kings, then grad¬ually members of the royal family andeven high dignitaries) were consider¬ed after death to have been mergedinto the divine, the deity representedby the statue. It is with Jayavar¬man VII, presumably identified withBuddha himself (the "Enlightened")that we first see the expression ofspirituality combined with the portraitof the individual. (Photos cover andpage 17).

This brings to our attention a curiousand moving fact. The representationsof the "deep smile" are very rare inthe history of art (to my belief thereare only four periods). The reigns oftwo great kings who were also reli¬gious reformers, Amenophis IV-Akhe-naton of ancient Egypt (14th century

B.C.) and the Khmer king Jayavar¬man VII (late 12th and early 13th cen¬turies A.D.), both coincide with sucha period (Photos page 17). It is cer¬tainly not by chance, for the smileis linked with communication, under¬standing communion, compassion andeven tenderness.

A still more astonishing coincidenceIs the fact that in both cases, headsof statues representing spiritualizedportraits have come down to us. Thecolossal head of Amenophis IV, atKarnak, reveals one of the most extra¬

ordinary faces found on a work ofsculpture, with its elongated profile,high cheekbones and long chin.

The head of Jayavarman VII, onthe other hand, though also extremelyindividualized so that one can immed¬

iately recognize it in other portraitsof the king, is broad-featured andslightly puffed up. Nevertheless itretains all its spirituality (G. Coedèshas proved that the portrait is indeedthat of Jayavarman VII).

In Egypt, Amenophis IV, who tookthe name of Akhenaton at El Amarna,was perhaps the first monotheist ruler,and his hymn to the sun is comparedin Daniel Rops' "Le Roi ivre de Dieu"with the biblical psalm 104, with whichit is identical, verse for verse. In viewof the approximate date of the Exodusand the possibly legendary history ofMoses, this in all likelihood indicatesthe influence of Akhenaton on theBible.

Jayavarman VII showed throughouthis life the intense charity of Buddhism("the grief of the people causes thegrief of kings" is only one of manyapposite quotations), and was, as weshall see in a moment, a great religiousreformer. At El Amarna there is also

the feeling for family life, emphasizedby Boisselier, in the same way as inthe bas-reliefs of the Bayon to whichwe have already referred (Photospages 30-38).

Thus a comparison may be drawnbetween Amenophis IV and Jayavar¬man VII for their leaning towards thesame kind of humanism; but there is

no possibility of the one havinginfluenced the other, separated as they

CONTINUED PAGE 18

e v«

*2

lo

Ice

17

BSP¿t<.

THE KHMER SMILE (Continued)

were by geography and above all by25 centuries of history.

Another striking particularity of Jaya¬varman VII is that he appears to havebuilt up a highly complex and statistic¬ally-minded civil service. With aston¬ishing accuracy, he indicates almostto a man the number of temple staffand the objects attributed to the tem¬ples. Thus there is a record of howmany tower-sanctuaries there are toeach monument, how many dwellings(probably sections of galleries), thelength of the enclosing walls and ofthe moats that flanked them.

The Bayon was not only the royaltemple of Jayavarman VII, perhapsintended as his tomb (the two werefrequently combined), but also a pan¬theon containing statues of many ofthe gods of the kingdom; though notall apparently, since we know frominscriptions that there were 24,400 ofthem. There were 8,176 villagesdedicated to the temples and 208,532men and women, including 1,622 danc¬ing girls.

One example of Jayavarman Vll'sattention to minute detail is the hos¬

pitals. His Buddhist charity had itspractical aspect, and at intervals alongthe roads he had resting-places ("hou¬ses with hearths") erected, 121 ofwhich were in existence 10 years afterhe acceded to the throne; also hos¬pitals, 102 of which were already inoperation five years after his acces¬sion.

The specifications for each hospitalwere meticulously precise. "All fourcastes may be treated here. There aretwo doctors, each having one male andtwo female assistants entitled to free

accommodation, two storekeepers res¬ponsible for the distribution of medica¬ments. . . two cooks entitled to free

fuel and water, responsible for remov¬ing dead flowers and cleaning thetemple (a chapel annexed to the hos¬pitals). . . fourteen hospital attendantsresponsible for administering the medi¬caments. . . two women to poundrice. . . a total staff of 32, 98 if oneincludes those who pay for their ownaccommodation." The various lists are

never-ending.

It is not possible to list all thenumerous symbolic elements linked toJayavarman Vll's major religiousreform, such as the corner decora¬

tions, apparently of cosmic signifi¬cance, in which the lion is placedabove the elephant and the garuda, afabulous bird, above the lion.

To take only the specific example ofthe Bayon, there is the multiplicationof the tower-sanctuaries with faces,as we have seen. Another of Jaya¬varman Vll's innovations were the

stone town walls, several miles long,which like those at Bayon have gatesat the four points of the compass,together with a fifth leading to theroyal palace. The gates are surmount¬ed by similar faces, and in front ofthem, flanking the causeway, are theminor gods (deva) and their enemies

CONTINUED PAGE 39

COLOUR PAGES

SUPPLICATION TO THE GODS (page 19)

This 17th century wood carving, measuring three feet Inheight, once embellished the temple of Angkor Wat. It hasnow been transported to the Phnom Penh National Museumand packed away for safe-keeping. Hands joined, this wor¬shipper seems to be praying that the sacred temples ofAngkor be preserved from their present dangers.

Photo © Luc Ionesco, Paris

ANGKOR WAT (page 20)

The fairy-tale splendour of the te m pie- mountain ofAngkor Wat, with its five towers in the form of aquincunx, mirrored in the waters of the artificial lakewhich surrounds it.

Photo © Mac Riboud - Magnum, Paris

DANCE OF ETERNAL YOUTH (page 21)

Two joyous nymphs from a relief in the inner courtyard atAngkor Wat. Philippe Stern says that the posture with thehand round the waist indicates an early period in the orna¬mental style of Angkor. Nymphs from Khmer mythologyare called "apsara" or "devata", but the distinction betweenthem is not clear. It has become customary to call dancingnymphs "apsara" and those in an immobile pose "devata."

Photo © Henri Stierlin. Geneva

FACE-TOWERS OF THE BAYON

(pages 22-23)

Tele-photo view of one of the awe-inspiring face-towers of the templeof Bayon.

Photo © Bruno Barbey - Magnum, Paris

Photo © Henri StierlinGeneva

"The flg-tree of the ruins reigna su¬preme at Angkor," wrote Pierre Loti70 years ago in "Un Pèlerin d' Angkor."The botanical name of this tree is

"ficus religiosa or indica." "At firstno more than a tiny seed," said PierreLoti, "carried by the wind to a friezeor the top of a tower, its fine, tentacularroots snaked down between the stones...

reaching the soil, the roots swelled,dislocating stones and splitting thickwalls from top to bottom. The buildingwas then irretrievably lost." Left, oneof the four faces carved on the tower of

Ta Som gripped in a stranglehold by the"fig-tree of the ruins" (see also the "Unesco Courier,"January, 1965, "Monuments in Peril"). Right, the templeof Ta Prohm, in its "natural," untouched state, bearswitness to the destructive power of the jungle.

THE FIG-TREE

OF THE RUINS

(pages 24-25)

Photo © Luc IonescoRéalités, Paris

FEMININE FASHION GUIDE (page 26)Fragment of a bas-relief from the inner gallery of the Bayontemple. The varying tones of pink of the sandstone enhancethe charm of several "devata" or "apsara" depicted in avariety of delightful poses. It was the hair-styles, clothingand jewellery typical of successive periods that helped andguided Philippe Stern in establishing the chronology of thedifferent ornamental styles of the Bayon (see also pages 2,11 and .21).

Photo © Luc Ionesco - Réalités, Paris

*M«

i

:

t

-_"lip

.

u

I

'

am

v

^sw

r

-'m

-

-r\r

,<

-m.M

:r

/IV

M*£

fiï

r

v^V

r-*

Jro

&

ft *tr

*

mU

«*

i

**'

.*

Ä^".-,

.. -

1. :.

..tom *

».«

r it

>.r

m*

g m

SI" f* Ä

c>

Member of a Chinese embassy sent to Cam¬bodia in 1296 on a mission lasting almost ayear. Chou Ta-kuan wrote the only eye¬witness account known to exist of the

Khmer kingdom at the height of its splend¬our. His invaluable "Notes on the Customs

of Cambodia " became famous In China. It

was an excellent piece of reporting, full oflife and acutely-observed detail, as may bejudged from the extracts below. It was notuntil 1902 that Chou Ta-kuan's Notes were

translated in full by the eminent FrenchOriental scholar Paul Pelliot. These extracts

are taken from J. Gilman d'Arcy Paul'stranslation of Pelliot's version in French,

published by the Social Science AssociationPress, Bangkok in 1967.

Notes

of a 13th centuryChinese diplomat

in Cambodia

by Chou Ta-kuan

I O the Chinese the country called Cambo¬dia is known as Ch'en-la or Ch'an-la and to its inhabitants

as Kan-po-chih (Kam boja). The present dynasty, drawingon Tibetan religious lore, calls the country Kan-p'u-chih, aname phonetically allied to Kan-po-chih.

The Royal Palace, as well as official buildings and homesof the nobles, all face to the east. The Royal Palace standsto the .north of the Golden Tower and the Bridge of Gold.In the chamber where the Sovereign attends to affairs ofstate, there is a golden window, with mirrors disposed onsquare columns to the right and left of the window, forty orso in number. Below the window is a frieze of elephants.

Every man or woman, from the Sovereign down, knots thehair and leaves the shoulders bare. Round the waist theywear a small strip of cloth, over which a larger piece isdrawn when they leave their houses. Many rules, based onrank, govern the choice of materials.

Only the ruler may wear fabrics woven in an all-overpattern. On his head he carries a diadem much like thoseworn by the vajradhara; at times he lays aside the diademand weaves into his hair a garland of fragrant blossoms re¬minding one of jasmine.

Only the womenfolk of the commoners are permitted tostain the soles of their feet and the palms of their hands.This is forbidden to men. The wearing of fabrics patternedwith recurring groups of flowers is permitted to high officersand princes. Ordinary mandarins are allowed to wear onlymaterial with two groups of flowers, and women of the peo¬ple may do likewise. Should a Chinese, newly arrived, wearcloth with two groups of flowers, it cannot be chargedagainst him, for he is "An-ting pa-sha", "a man who doesnot know the rules."

When functionaries go out in public, their insignia and thenumber of their attendants are regulated according to rank.The highest dignitaries use palanquins with golden shaftsand four parasols with handles of gold; those next in rankhave a palanquin with golden shafts and two gold-handledparasols; then come those entitled to one palanquin withgold shafts and one gold-handled parasol; and finally thosewith only a gold-handled parasol. Further down the linecome those permitted only a silver-handled parasol.

For ordinary correspondence, as well as official docu¬ments, deer-skin or similar parchment is used, which isdyed black. The parchment is cut by the scribe in sizes tosuit his needs. A sort of powder resembling Chinese chalkis moulded into small sticks called so, which are used toinscribe the parchment with lasting characters. Whenfinished with writing, they place the so behind the ear. Thenature of the characters makes it possible to recognize thewriter. Rubbed with something moist, they disappear. Alldocuments are read from left to right, and not from aboveto below.

In Cambodia the New Year begins with the tenth Chinesemoon, and is called chia-te. In front of the royal palace agreat platform is erected, sufficient to hold more than athousand persons, and decorated from end to end withlanterns and flowers. Opposite this, some hundred andtwenty feet distant, rises a lofty scaffold, put together oflight pieces of wood, shaped like the scaffolds used inbuilding stupas, and towering to a height of one hundred andtwenty feet. Every night from three to six of these structuresarise. Rockets and fire-crackers are placed on top of these

all this at great expense to the provinces and the noblefamilies. As night comes on, the King is besought to takepart in the spectacle. The rockets are fired, and the crack¬ers touched off. The rockets can be seen at a distance of

thirteen kilometres: the fire-crackers, large as swivel-guns,shake the whole city with their explosions.

Every month a festival is held. The fourth month theyhave ball games. With the ninth month comes the ya-liehor census, when the entire population of the kingdom issummoned to the capital and passed in review before theroyal palace. With the fifth month comes the ceremony of"bringing water to the Buddhas." Then Buddhas are car¬ried from all over the kingdom, water is procured, and theruler lends a hand in cleansing them. The festival of floatsmarks the sixth month, with the King enthroned on abelvedere to enjoy the spectacle.

"The burning of the rice" marks the seventh month. Thisis the season for harvesting the new rice, which is broughtto the South Gate and burned as a sacrifice to the Buddha.

Countless women arrive in carts or on elephants to watchthis ceremony, but the ruler is not to be seen. The eighthis the month of ai-lan, or dancing. Every day actors andmusicians are summoned to the royal palace to perform theai-lan. In addition battles are staged between boars andelephants. Foreign ambassadors are invited as guests of theKing to these festivities, which last ten days.

Every day the King holds two audiences for considerationof affairs of state. No list of agenda is provided. Function¬aries and ordinary people who wish to see the Sovereignseat themselves on the ground to await his arrival. In thecourse of time distant music is heard in the palace, whilefrom outside blasts on conch-shells sound forth as thoughto welcome the ruler. I have been told that at this point theSovereign, coming from nearby, contents himself with onlyone golden palanquin. Two girls of the palace lift up thecurtain with their slender fingers and the King, sword inhand, appears standing in the golden window. All present

ministers and commoners join their hands and touchthe earth with their foreheads, lifting up their heads onlywhen the sound of conchs has ceased. The Sovereignseats himself at once on a lion's skin, which is an heredi¬

tary royal treasure. When the affairs of state have beendealt with the King turns back to the palace, the two girlslet fall the curtain, and everyone rises.

28

#^CCEDING to the throne

of Angkor after having overthrown aThai prince imposed by the Siamesesovereign, Ponhea Yat, the king ofthe Khmers, decided to abandon hisprestigious capital, prefering to estab¬lish himself on the banks of the

Mekong, first at Srei Santhor, thenat Phnom Penh.

According to generally acceptedchronology, Ponhea Yat is supposedto have abandoned Angkor around1432. But in a recent study O.W. Wol¬ters fixes his accession to the throne

at an earlier date and, consequently,holds that Angkor was abandonedaround the year 1400. Wolters believesthat Ponhea Yat may well have merelyconfirmed a change in residence whichhis predecessors had already carriedout provisionally.

Whatever the date, its causesremain the same. Situated close to

the frontier and renowned for its

splendour, Angkor was a much covetedand easily accessible prize and KingPonhea Yat understood this well.

Abandoned by the monarchy, fre¬quently occupied and pillaged, itssanctuaries mutilated and the cream

of its population departed, the citywas soon invaded by forest.

Although Henri Mouhot is generallyaccorded the title of "discoverer of

Angkor", he is far from being thefirst to have found the city whichwas in fact never really lost. It wasa sixteenth-century Khmer king whofirst "discovered" it. In the course of

a hunting expedition, he came acrossthis extraordinary city in the middleof the forest, which his predecessorshad abandoned less than a centuryearlier.

The Portuguese, Diego do Couto,relates the circumstances of this

discovery: "Around the year 1550 or1551, the King of Cambodia washunting elephants in the most denseforest areas of the kingdom, as washis habit. His people, cutting throughthe brush, came upon some imposingconstructions invaded by luxuriantundergrowth which they were unableto penetrate.

"And this being told to the king, hewent to the site and, seeing the extentand height of the exterior walls, wantedto see the interior as well. Immedia¬

tely he gave orders that all the under¬growth be cut and burnt. . . And, aftereverything had been carefully cleaned,the king entered within. After exam¬ining the whole site, the king wasstruck with admiration by the extentof the constructions. For this reason,

MADELEINE GITEAU is a French Oriental

scholar and member of the Ecole Françaised'Extrême-Orient on whose behalf she hasundertaken a number of missions to South-East Asia. Former curator of the National

Museum of Phnom Penh, she was commission¬ed by Unesco to study and catalogue thecollections of the Wat Phra Keo Museum of

Vientiane, Laos. She Is the author of severalworks on Khmer civilization and Asian art

(see bibliography page 42).

100 YEARS OF EFFORTby Madeleine Giteau

he straightway decided to move hiscourt there" (1).

It was thus that, in the 16th century,the monarchy returned to Angkor.All the same, the date suggested byDiego do Couto seems a little late;inscriptions on the later bas-reliefsat Angkor Wat tell us that thesesculptures were begun, on the king'sorders, in 1546. It is probable thatthe sculpting of the later bas-reliefsat Angkor Wat is related to the returnof the monarchy to the region. Thisreturn, then, probably took placearound the beginning of the secondquarter of the 16th century, at thelatest.

The king of Cambodia at that timewas Ang Chan, a brilliant sovereignwho, for a few years, restored thelustre of the Khmer monarchy. Afterhis death, the kings of Cambodia con¬tinued, for a while, to reside at Angkor.

Portuguese and Spanish mission¬aries then arriving in Cambodia wereable to see Angkor and their marvellingaccounts are to be found in contem¬

porary works.

The capital, however, remained atLovek, to the south-east of the GreatLake. In 1593, the Thais capturedLovek, Satha fled to Laos and themonarchy, which fell back on SreiSanthor, was beset by war and usur¬pation.

Although their residence was at SreiSanthor, or at Oudong, the Cambodiankings continued to visit Angkor.Throughout the 17th century, sove¬reigns made pilgrimages to this shrine,which had witnessed the great daysof their dynasty. The chroniclesmention these journeys, and the eventswhich marked them.

At the end of the 17th century, themonarchy abandoned Angkor for good.In the 18th century, the Thais andVietnamese exercised increasing pres¬sure on Cambodia, so there was noquestion of the kings either going toAngkor or ensuring its upkeep. Littleby little the undergrowth crept backinto Angkor Thorn, though Angkor Watremained a cult shrine.

From the 16th century to our owntimes successive new religious foun¬dations were made and the site

attracted Khmer pilgrims and foreignvisitors. Evidence of this lies in the

accumulated statues in the galleriesand in the Cruciform Courtyard andin the inscriptions translated by

(J) Quoted from 'Angkor et le Cambodgeau 76" siècle d'après les sources portugaiseset espagnoles", by Bernard Groslier andCR. Boxer, Paris 1958.

Etienne Aymonier. In wood or instone, in princely or monastic attire,the buddhist ¡mages of Angkor Watillustrate every school of sculpturethat has flourished in the post-Angko-rian period.

Texts published throughout the 17thand 18th centuries prove that theruins of Angkor remained famous. In1676, a Spanish historian, the Domi¬nican Navarrete, reported that, inCambodia, "There are magnificentmonuments and decoration more per¬fect than one can say"; he recounts afrequently formulated theory accordingto which Alexander the Great "built

this most sumptuous of monuments,enclosed within its courtyards andcloisters". At the beginning of the17th century, a Japanese pilgrim, whohad come to Cambodia, drew up a planof Angkor Wat, of which a copy wasmade in 1715.

OLLOWING the Portu¬

guese and the Spanish, the Frenchcame to hear of Angkor. In 1668, inthe course of a stay in Cambodia,Father Chevreul mentions Angkor, andemphasizes the fame of this holy placethroughout south-east Asia.

At the end of the 18th century,Father Langenois, who had been sentas a missionary to Battambang, visitedAngkor of which he gave a shortdescription in latin, a description whichwas later made use of by Father Bouil-levaux. Father Langenois recounts,in a letter, the visit of the Portuguesemissionary, Father Carpo de Orta, anddescribes a typical sculpture whichmust have been a representation ofthe ascetic Sumedha, an incarnationof the Buddha in a former life.

Thus, at the end of the 18th century,thanks to travellers both from the West

and from the Far East, the existenceof Angkor, the fine layout of itsbuildings, the richness of its decora¬tions and even certain of its sculptureswere known. These accounts however,were only known to a restricted public,since they often remained stored in thearchives of monastic orders.

If we cannot accord to 19th centurytravellers the glory of having dis¬covered Angkor, at least they have themerit of having revealed the celebrateddead city to the public at large. In1858, Father Bouillevaux published adescription of Angkor, which he hadvisited in 1850. Bouillevaux was

subsequently to contest the title of"discoverer of Angkor" with HenriMouhot. But Bouillevaux had not

really discovered Angkor, and the

forgotten city

cleared from the jungle

profound beauties of Khmer art quiteclearly utterly escaped him.

This was not the case with the natu¬

ralist Mouhot, who visited Angkor in1860. He died shortly after, but hisnotes were published after his death.If not the "discoverer of Angkor", atleast he appreciated the extraordinaryartistic value of these ruins. He

imparted his enthusiasm to the readersof a variety of publications, includingthe mass-circulation "Tour du Monde",

and from then on visitors to Angkorbegan to increase in numbers.

A permanent Mission to Indochina,later to become the Ecole Françaisede, l'Extrême Orient, was founded onDecember 15th, 1898, under thepatronage of the Académie des In¬scriptions et Belles lettres. Its aim wasto study not only the monuments, butalso the history, the languages andthe civilizations of south-east Asia

and neighbouring countries. Whenthe treaty of 1907, concluded withSiam, returned the province of SiemReap to Cambodia, the Conservationd'Angkor was set up to clear andrestore the monuments.

From its foundation, the Conserva¬tion was entrusted to J. Commaille.

When, in 1916, Commaille was mur¬dered by pirates while delivering theworkmen's pay, his place was takenby H. Marchai who remained theretill 1932. H. Marchai was subsequentlyto return to the Conservation twice:

in 1935, and, in 1947, in order torestore the South Gallery at AngkorWat. Since 1960 the Conservation

has been directed by B. Groslier.

Commaille's first task was to openup the monuments, to clear away theforest which had engulfed them, keepthe ever threatening undergrowth atbay, remove the accumulated earthand the piled up debris, and preventtheir further degradation. Only verysimple equipment was available to thefirst curators. Nonetheless this was

sufficient to deal with the most urgentproblems.

The most important innovation in therestoration of the temples was theadoption of anastylosis, a processwhich consists in restoring a monu¬ment with its own materials and

according to the original constructionmethods.

In 1930, H. Marchai was sent toJava, where archaeologists had alreadyused this method. On his return,Marchai applied the method to therestoration of the temple of BanteaySrei. Anastylosis was subsequentlyused in the restoration of the greatestmonuments, and it has remained the

basic process for work carried outsince that time.

The piety of the Cambodians, andthe establishment of two monasteries

within the enclosure had saved AngkorWat from invasion by the undergrowth;but ground subsidence and the poorstate of the stonework had led to

widespread decay. Long years ofeffort have gone into the restorationof Angkor Wat; the tireless work ofrestoring collapsed elements, of con¬solidating and reconstructing the gal¬leries has begun; finally research hasproduced good results in dealing withstone decay.

The Bayon temple was clearedbetween 1911 and 1913, and anasty¬losis of the towers with faces was

carried out between 1939 and 1946.

After 1960, research was undertakenaimed at removing the lichen whichcovers the stone reliefs, giving themonuments a leprous appearance.

w<ORK was begun on theGreat Palace of Angkor Thorn and itsapproaches in 1911. Bas-reliefs inthe interior of the Elephants' Terraceand the Terrace of the Leprous Kingwere discovered at that time.

Just before the events of 1970,

excavations had revealed a prolonga¬tion of the Terraces to the north of the

Terrace of the Leprous King. Closeto the Great Palace of Angkor Thorn,the Temple of Baphuon, built on anartificial hill of light soil, had beendislocated in ancient times by sub¬sidences. The many attempts to con¬solidate the monument had broughtonly temporary relief and so, in 1958,it was decided to reconstruct the

temple completely. This considerableundertaking the base of Baphuonmeasures 120 m. x 100 metres was

partially carried out in 1970.

Restoration work has been carried

out both within the enclosure and m

the surroundings of Angkor Thorn.Three of the roads, lined by stonegiants, which give access to the city,have been restored, each road leadingto a monumental gate surmounted bya tower with four faces. The templesof Ta Keo, Ta Prohm, Preah Khan,Banteay Kdei, Ta Nei and many othershave been excavated and partiallyrestored. Following the restoration ofBanteay Srei, Banteay Samre, NeakPean and the central sanctuary ofBakong were restored by anastylosis.

While the excavation and the resto¬

ration of the temples was going on,researchers were studying the con¬siderable documentation afforded bythese monuments.

Those who were beginning to takean interest in Khmer art could lingerlovingly over the romantically exoticdrawings that illustrated Louis Dela-porte's "Voyage to Cambodia" andexamine the first photographic docu¬mentation in John Thomson's book.

Publication of the works of H. Dufour

and G. Carpeaux has meant that fulldetails of the bas-reliefs of the Bayonare available to researchers. Car¬

peaux, the son of the famous Frenchsculptor, was to die at this task.

At the same time Commandant

Lunet de la Jonquière produced a"Descriptive Inventory of the Monu¬ments of Cambodia", a basic workstill of great value 60 years later.The abstracts and architectural studies

of the monuments were primarily thework of Henri Parmentier, head ofthe Archaeological Department of theEcole Française d'Extrême Orient.To pinpoint the vestiges of monu¬ments, of successive town walls andthe traces of roads and hydraulicworks, Victor Goloubev directed an

aerial survey lasting from 1931 to1934. This survey was resumed byBernard Groslier in 1951.

The sites of Angkor have yieldeda large number of inscriptions. Fol¬lowing the work of the German epi¬graphist Adolf Bastian, the Dutchscholar Hendrik Kern became inte¬

rested in Khmer epigraphy. He inturn was followed by the GermanAugust Barth and the FrenchmanAbel Bergaigne who translated thefirst collection of inscriptions. FinallyGeorges Coedès published eightvolumes of these inscriptions and suc¬ceeded in re-constituting the historyof Angkorian Cambodia and in bring¬ing to life again great kings who hadlong been forgotten.

Thus we learnt which kings anddignitaries had constructed templesand the nature of their religious foun¬dations was revealed. Like Bernard

Groslier, Laurence Briggs, who publish¬ed a history of Angkor, followed thefortunes of the city after the removalof the capital to the east. Finally,Jean Filliozat, Director of the Ecole

Française d'Extrême Orient, began astudy of the temples as seen inIndian texts.

An important step forward in ourknowledge of Khmer art was due toPhilippe Stern who established thechronological order of the monumentson the basis of the evolution of their

decorative motifs. ftftNow, after a century of research /H

and effort, Angkor is as well known tothe general public as to the scholarand the art-lover.

12 th CENTURY

DIARY IN STONEan extraordinary record of daily life

carved on the walls of the Bayon temple

photographsby Luc Ionesco

text

by Soubert Son

On the following pages we

present a remarkable series

ofphoto-studies of the bas-

reliefs of the temple of

Bayon made by a French

photographer, Luc Ionesco.

Ionesco spent five years

examining and photograph¬

ing the monuments at

Angkor, often waiting many

hours in order to obtain the

right shot. The result is an

extraordinary testimonial

revealing details with a

depth and precision rarely

attained before. A young

Khmer ethnologist, Soubert

Son, has written the com¬

mentaries on these photos

specialty for the "Unesco

Courier". Mr. Son was

born in Phnom Penh and

is a former Unesco scho¬

larship-holder for the study

of the conservation and

restoration of monuments.

Photos © Luc Ionesco, Paris

he walls of the Bayon temple

of Angkor bear striking testimony to the exceptional care andinterest that King Jayavarman VII took in the joys and suffer¬

ings of his people. Towards the end of the 12th century,

Jayavarman ordered his sculptors to carve on the outer wallsof the Bayon the minutest details of the daily life of his

subjects, providing a veritable saga of the humble men andwomen who had contributed to his empire's greatness.

A profusion of carvings of people, plants and animals unfoldsbefore our eyes like a gigantic strip cartoon, completely

covering the 1,300 square metres (approx 14,000 sq. ft.) of the

Bayon gallery walls (above, the outer gallery to the south ofthe temple). The carvings present scenes from the everydaylife of the common people, their work, their food, their

amusements, etc. The daily life of the Khmers was linked to

the rhythm of the two main seasons of the year: the dryseason, the time of festivals and leisure activities, and the

rainy season, the time of work in the paddy-fields. Here the

close link between the temple and the rice crop is clearly

evident (see article page 6).

From sunrise to dusk, craftsman, merchant and housewife

went about their business. From 6 a.m. to noon the markets

were particularly animated with their stalls laden with

vegetables, rice, herbs and spices, fish and meat, silks from

China, pewter-ware from Chen-chou, porcelain from Ch'uan-

chou, fishing tackle, medicines, combs and trinkets and hard¬

ware of every kind. (Photo left, detail of a teapot measuringonly a few centimetres on the Bayon wall.)

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

31

12TH CENTURY DIARY IN STONE (Continued)

The Khmer sculptor had a keen eye for the human foibles and

idiosyncrasies of his fellow men whom he carved with

spontaneous realism and an occasional touch of humour. We

can pick out merchants and craftsmen, masons shaping their

stone (above right), pedlars selling grilled fish on skewers

(above left), cooks busy at their ovens preparing cakes,cooking rice or serving drinks (below). Elsewhere the artist

regales us with scenes from the life of the nobility, from

military life, of craftsmen sitting down to a communal meal.

He shows us landscapes, farmyard scenes, cattle (right, a bull

tethered to a tree), as well as amusing incidents such as the

youngster pilfering goods from a stall while its owner is

taking a short siesta.CONTINUED PAGE 34

-l 4é¡&&<

I- a «- > - WÊÊÊ

»V ¿L r^ Jw \ -, ^^Mr^t^^ - ~a%il > - Jr30

12TH CENTURY DIARY IN STONE (continued from page 32)

On the following four pages we present a photo-panorama

of one of the complete outer walls of the Bayon temple.

The bas-reliefs on the inner walls are devoted to religious and

court scenes. The outer walls portray scenes from daily life

and historical events in Angkor's past. Here the sculptors

gave free rein to their narrative talents.

Many of the scenes they depicted were doubtless inspired

by the festivities connected with the celebration of the New

Year and the Rice and Dance Festivals. Below, an acrobat,

lying on his back, manipulates a wheel with his feet, while

another actually seems to be performing a juggling act,

balancing children on his head and hands. A tightrope-walker

sways above the crowds, who watch with open-mouthed

admiration. Hunting scenes are frequent, with the hunters

attacking game of all kinds with bow and arrow, crossbow

and blowpipe. (Photo right, detail of bird perched on a branch).

CONTINUED PAGE 36

^Vk^f ^^-4 ':^E2^

V *3i*atjL:^-ri

Wm^MmíMM sola : mn:*S S.S&gZ

:#^§¡ 'i

Ifei*

FIND THE CROCODILE !

Amidst the wealth ofplants and animal and human figures in

the Bayon bas-relief (above), can you spot the crocodile andfish, captured and magnified by the camera's lens (right) ?If not, turn the page and you will see this same detail in itsbroader fishing scene setting. The three photographs togeth¬

er illustrate the extraordinary carving ability of the Khmerartists and their skill in portraying fine detail as well as the

revelatorypowers ofmodern photographic art. The panorama

shown on these two pages and the two previous pages

represents 26 metres, that is 85 ft. or one tenth of the lengthof the wall with its bas-reliefs five metres (16y2 ft.) highwhich surrounds the Bayon temple.

36

12TH CENTURY DIARY IN STONE (continued from page 34)

The temples of Angkor Wat were veritable cities within a city

and their towers looked out over a huge urban area with its

artificial lakes, its palaces, its residential quarter for ambass¬

adors and high dignitaries its jewellers' and weavers' stalls,

its painters' and sculptors' studios, its masons' and carpen¬

ters' workshops. Beyond lay the rural suburbs where lived

the peasants, market-gardeners and fishermen. Thanks

to the genius of the Khmer sculptors, many details of their

working methods have come down to us across the gulf of

eight centuries. For example, a whole sequence of the

Bayon bas-reliefs is devoted to fishing which, though practi¬

ced all the year round, really came into its own during the dry

season, when the amateur angler, freed from his work in

the paddy-fields, could devote himself to the sport.

CONTINUED PAGE 38

A-i ' '-

" eus ír^i ¿¿v'^-j^r..' J X V. -^ ^ - . .^ *r i»

1 7 \ '' * ' ' 1 / > J »in Aíi r-i^&^r~

J^ZJ%f-

"~^C;¿\ac'-£

ns

* ' f *í\ ~~~ -» v- --i - .1 ^v j ! '-~7» -> '»> 'mV -J I í'-jí^ o" v- W

M'& »fl

V*- Ï*m

$ fyrr-

fr , . ^

irV

^^a

^5^

-ÄÄ^ft*>y^

thcc*

>X

tV'

'. V^?r.-V3&

S^-^WÍ U^

.7^ ^.Sat SSÏ

^3V

38

12TH CENTURY DIARY IN STONE (continued from page 36)

In this scene (top of photo) a fishing-boat makes headway

through waters abounding with turtles, crocodiles and fish

of all kinds. In the stern is the oarsman, while, in the bows,

the fisherman has just cast his net. Between them, a third

member of the crew displays his catch. Fishing with nets

probably took place on rivers and on the great artificial lakes

which the Khmers built. The fishermen's flimsy craft are

dwarfed by the big pleasure boats, like the one in the centre

of the scene, on which the passengers amuse themselves

with all manner of games and dances. The bottom of the

frieze depicts a series of common scenes, including (right)

a group laying bets on the outcome of a cockfight. These are

just a few pages from this history book in stone, vibrant

with life, bequeathed to us by Khmer sculptors and artists.

THE KHMER SMILE OF THE BAYON (continued from page 18)

(the asura) holding out the mythicalserpent above the waters of the moats.

According to Paul Mus and toG. Coedès, this is all intended to

symbolize the rainbow, linking theworld of men to that of the gods, andalso the Churning of the Sea of Milk,a cosmic myth related to the grandeurof the kings frequently found in Khmerbas-reliefs, in this case sculptured inthe round and on a gigantic scale.

The story goes that in one of hisincarnations, or avatars (the Hindubelief in avatars was retained by theBuddhist Jayavarman VII by syncretismbetween the two religions) the Hindugod Vishnu, in the form of a tortoise,upholds the Sacred Mount whiledeva on one side and asura on the

other, grasping the mythical serpent,with the Sacred Mount serving as achurn, make many wondrous thingsgush forth from the Sea of Milk,culminating with the ambrosia of im¬mortality (amrita).

Paul Mus suggests that the devaat each gate probably have their corres¬ponding asura at the gate on the oppo¬site side of the town; and that since

the Bayon was situated at the centreof these walls and gates, it was preci¬sely a symbol of the Sacred Mount,used for the Churning of the Sea ofMilk on a gigantic scale.

I HE fact that the Bayon wasconsidered to be the centre of the

town both gave rise to, and later dissi¬pated, a serious error in research. An

inscription which is of a late period, but

lengthy and detailed, indicates that theking who founded Angkor (Yasovar-man) had the royal hnga or "God-King", the phallic emblem of Siva,erected on the central hill, and since

the temple-mountain of the Bayon wasat the centre of these stone walls, it

was assumed that the Bayon was thefirst great Khmer monument. . . whenin fact it was the last.

When I began to study the Khmers,this was the key used in dating all theother temples, with the result that thechronological sequence of the monu¬ments of Angkor was the wrong wayround.

My whole career as an archaeologisthas been based on a method which

lays no claim to replace other methods,but merely to complement them. Itconsists in attempting to establish thechronological order of monuments andof the evolution of types of art, motifsor styles, by making comparisons withthe development of a certain numberof motifs chosen on the basis of

experiments devised for this purpose.When applied to Khmer art, this me¬thod proved that the date attributedto the Bayon was impossible and mustbe considerably later.

I thus had the honour and the good

fortune, together possibly with someinsight, of proposing a completechange which put research on the rightlines. I did not however go far enoughin either direction, and it was

G. Coedès, on examining the inscrip¬tions after I had published the resultsof my work, who situated the exactdate of the Bayon during the reign ofJayavarman VII. At the same time, thecentre of the original town was iden¬tified from the air by V. Goloubev asbeing even more different than I hadthought.

The original error, as indicated inmy first book, derived from the factthat the Bayon is the centre of anenclosure whose gates are of thesame style as the Bayon and accord¬ingly of the same period. Previously,the successive centres of Angkor hadbeen located elsewhere.

Thus the establishment of the entire

chronology of the Khmer monumentshinged on the Bayon.

At the close of my career, it was

again the Bayon, with the constructionsadded by Jayavarman VII to monu¬ments built during his own reign tohouse new gods (this was a time ofgreat enthusiasm for deifying humanbeings), which enabled me to cross¬check the method employed.

To take a single example, the femalefigures on the walls (devata or apsara)differed considerably according towhether they belonged to the first, orthe third and last period of the style.Where these two different types, indic¬

ating the beginning and the end of thestyle, are to be found side by side onthe same gallery in the same monu¬ment, there is always between them avestige on the wall of the architecturaladdition separating the new part fromthe older one, providing objective proofof the accuracy with which thedevelopment of the motifs has beenstudied.

This is demonstrated in my book"Les monuments khmers du style duBayon et Jayavarman VII" whichincludes the essential parts of thetexts concerning Jayavarman VII writtenby G. Coedès, with whom I collaborat¬ed throughout, constantly exchangingarchaeological and philological observ¬ations. It also contains texts byPaul Mus. To both these scholars, who

died recently, I wish to pay particulartribute for their outstanding work.

While the Bayon of Angkor was the

temple-mountain of Jayavarman VII, itis only one of a great number of build¬ings in the same style. Examples arethe two great groups of buildingsdating from the beginning of his reign(the date was estimated using themethod indicated above, and sub¬

sequently confirmed by an inscription):the first, Ta Prohm, dedicated by the

king to his mother and his guru, andthe second, still larger, Preah Khan atAngkor, to his father (the head of TaSom colour photo page 24 comesfrom the enclosure added by Jaya¬varman VII to one of his own, smaller,

monuments). But monuments in theBayon style are very numerous atAngkor and even outside the Angkorcomplex.

B Y far the most remarkable

site of all, Angkor itself containsmore than 30 temples; but scattered

throughout the country there are anenormous number of Khmer monu¬

ments, many of which are remarkableand some unique in style. Representa¬tive examples of pre-Angkorian Khmerart are the astonishing 7th centurygroup of Sambor Prei Kuk and, perhapsthe most perfect Khmer temple of all,the small, delicately detailed, 10th cen¬tury temple of Banteay Srei. It is aconstant source of anxiety to us to

think of the dangers to which theyare daily exposed, particularly thetemples at Angkor and the Phnom Penhmuseum, with its unique collection ofKhmer sculptures, other Khmer templesand the Cham monuments in what is

today Viet-Nam. Many difficulties havebeen surmounted and much patienteffort devoted to the reconstruction of

seriously dilapidated monuments, someof which have even been restored to

their original state, yet a monument,and the work done on it, could be redu¬

ced in an instant to a heap of rubble.

These buildings which we havestudied for so long have become forus almost like living friends.

We implore those involved in thepresent hostilities, whatever theirconvictions, to spare these monuments.Most of them were the work of their

ancestors, a valuable treasure house

of beauty enriching mankind as awhole, which is entrusted to their care.

They are also a tourist attraction fromwhich everyone stands to gain. It isour fervent hope that once peace isrestored (which we all hope for, andwhich must come one day), all thesebeautiful monuments, all these totallyirreplaceable groups of buildings OQwhich we love so intensely, will emerge ^*»unscathed.

Philippe Stern

Letters to the Editor

NEW

WMO EMBLEM

Sir,

I have noticed in the August-Septem¬ber 1971 issue of the "Unesco Courier-

that you are still using the World Meteo¬rological Organization emblem whichwas amended by WMO's Fifth CongressIn 1967.

F.T. Hannan

Chief, External and Public Affairs OfficeWorld Meteorological Organisation

Geneva

PERILS OF PESTICIDES

Sir,

The article by Gene Gregory in theJune 1971 issue of your excellent maga¬zine tells us that:

"... some gifted polemicists, with anemotional, romantic and mystical bent,have effectively managed to persuademany people, including some publicofficials, that pesticides especiallyDDT are dangerous and should bebanned. Contrary to many reports, noone has yet been harmed in any wayby residues of crop protection pro¬ducts..."

If this had been written at the end

of the last war shortly after the dis¬covery of DDT it would have surprisedno one. But, published in 1971 in amagazine concerned with modern worldaffairs, it is, to say the least, a causefor some astonishment.

If the idea of a complete ban onpesticides is absurd, it is no lessabsurd to maintain that pesticide resi

dues have never harmed anyone inany way. Over the years, numerousexamples have shown that the use ofpesticides has harmful, often unfore¬seeable, side effects which sometimes

deeply disturb nature's equilibrium.One of the most striking examples isthe progressive disappearance of cer¬tain species of birds due to a risein sterility and a drop in the hatchingrate a direct result of the use of

pesticides.

Unfortunately, such tangible harmfuleffects are not confined to animals, but

are now being noted in human beings.Certain vegetation defoliants, such as2-4-5-T, result in genetic malformationsand defects, and some organo-mercuryfungicides can cause damage to thekidneys and serious disorders of thenervous system.

Many similar examples could begiven. Should we then ban the useof these toxic agents? No, since wecan use them to control a wide rangeof destructive pests, disease-carryinginsects and parasites of all kinds. Toban them would result in unprecedenteddisasters to crops and orchards andthe re-appearance of illnesses thattoday have virtually disappeared.

So it is difficult to draw up anaccurate balance sheet on the use of

pesticides, particularly one that takesinto account long-term effects, many ofwhich are still unknown.

Another article published in theAugust-September 1970 issue of the"Unesco Courier" stated: "Minute

amounts of pesticides such as DDThave been found to inhibit photosyn¬thesis in marine algae by 75 per cent.Yet we have dumped an estimated1,000 million lbs of DDT into our envi¬

ronment and are adding some 100million lbs per year."

This long-term effect upon photosyn¬thesis is easily the most disquietingfactor of all.

What remedies can we adopt? Re¬search is opening up new possibilitiesof combatting parasites. These solu¬tions include: the development of arational system of "pest management"

in place of the systematic (and oftenexcessive) use of pesticides; the repla¬cement of a purely chemical onslaughtby an integrated attack which wouldinclude crop rotation and a carefullyphased use of pesticides; research intoa biological control of pests by theintroduction of their natural enemies,the use of hormones to attract or repelpests and sterilization of the males.

Indeed, how much easier it would be

if only pesticides were not dangerous!

Jean-Pierre Ribaut

Head of the Division for

the Environment and Natural

Resources

Council of Europe, Strasbourg

STANDING ROOM ONLY

Sir,

In his article "The Magic of ModernChemistry" (June 1971) Gene Gregoryassures us that chemistry is nowsupplying and will continue to supplymankind with the food, clothing andother requirements for its continuinglife and comfort. Mr. Gregory seemsto forget that the population of theworld is growing and that the earth'ssurface is limited; this means that oneday there will just be room for all ofus if we remain standing packedtogether side by side. Can Mr. Gregorytell us what chemical processes willmake life possible under these con¬ditions? There wouldn't even be room

for crops, however well fertilized.

Your author also appears to forgetthat food, medicine, housing, etc. arenot enough, and he slides very rapidlyover the problem of pollution and thedestruction of the world's beauty spots.

Viviane Nordon

Paris, France

ELECTRONIC HANDS

Sir,

In its April 1971 issue, the "UnescoCourier" published a photo of a "Soviet-developed artificial arm and hand unit,"

MASTERPIECE OF TOWN-PLANNING («^t-«.«;

40

achievement. The Bayon representedan entirely new departure which wasrich in significance, as it heralded theirradiation of the Khmer country bythe Buddhist faith.

Such is the moving and impressivelegacy left by the last of the greatKhmer Kings. In his time, architecturebroke through its confines, effaced thedistinction between building andsculpture, and adopted the rôle ofmystic diagram, way of initiation,giving man the key to the universeand the divine world.

During the 14th century, despite

the repeated incursions of the war-likeThais from across the border, a few

weak kings succeeded each other onthe throne of Angkor; but the citywas abandoned in the mid-1 5th

century. The vicissitudes of war andthe widespread destruction altered the

rate of flow in the vast hydraulicinstallations of the plain of Angkor.The water, which was previouslyclouded with silt, became limpid, andfostered malaria.

The whole Angkorian mechanism,which had brought wealth, prosperityand power to the Khmers, seemed to

fall under an evil spell, and groundto a halt. Fever and malaria compelledthe decimated population to desertthe immense city, now a useless seatof pestilence. Pollution had broughtlow a powerful empire.

Any attempt to assess the achieve¬ments of the Khmers during their fourcenturies of flourishing civilization atAngkor should recall that the rice-fieldand the temple were the two extreme

links in the same sequence of events

governing the development of thearea. Ecology illuminates the formsassumed by art.

Henri Stierlin

to illustrate an article entitled "A Soviet

Scientist looks at Futurology."

In fact, this photograph was originallytaken to illustrate the use of electronic

hands and myoelectric devices develop¬ed specifically at the RehabilitationInstitute of Montreal, Canada, andparticularly to show the various develop¬ments that have taken place to improvethe original Russian hand prosthesispurchased by the Rehabilitation Institutein 1964.

The original Soviet equipment wasmodified in several respects. On thebasis of clinical experience, all wiringwas incorporated in the structure of theforearm socket. The reliability andconvenience of the device were improv¬ed and the patient's comfort increased.A versatile new battery package utilizinga flexible plastic enclosure was develop¬ed.

The Department of Research of theInstitute decided to design a newcontrol unit. The principal character¬istics of this unit are a very goodstability and performance, small dimen¬sion and negligible weight and it iseasily accommodated between the wallsof a laminated plastic arm socket. Theunit has been used on approximately60 patients for the past four years andhas proved to be reliable.

The primary purpose of this com¬munication is to indicate that the

prosthesis illustrated in your article isnot the sole result of the U.S.S.R.

efforts. It is the result of improvementsand research.

G. GingrasExecutive Director

Rehabilitation Institute of

Montreal, Canada

UNESCO'S NATIONAL

COMMISSIONS

Sir,

I read with great interest the articleby Mr. Wayne McEwing on Unesco inthe August/September 1971 issue of the"Unesco Courier" devoted to Unesco's

25th anniversary.I was much impressed by the survey

carried out by this young Canadian andespecially by his fresh and livelyapproach and the sincerity of hisremarks.

Nevertheless, I regret that Mr. Mc¬Ewing said nothing about the role ofthe National Commissions in Unesco's

activities and that consequently theuninformed reader might _ have theimpression that Unesco consists onlyof a headquarters and Secretariat inParis, and be unaware of the nationalbranches of Unescothe National

Commissions which give Unesco astrength and originality in the UnitedNations family.

One further point, it is generallyaccepted that it was Copernicus andnot Galileo who showed that the earth

circled the sun.

Wladyslav GrzedzielskiSecretary-General

Polish National Commission for Unesco

Warsaw

THE 2000 A. D. PROBLEM

Sir,

By the year 2000, 7,000 million peoplewill inhabit the globe, yet Gene Gregory(June 1971) is calmly counting onmodern chemistry to solve the problemsthat this will pose. But if mankindconcentrated its efforts on controllingthe number of births, none of theseproblems would arise. If the populationcould be maintained at a reasonable

level, the quality of life would be muchhigher than it will be with the help ofthe chemicals with which we are

flooded, and which pollute the atmo¬sphere, water and food. Man, after all,is supposed to be an intelligent being?Yet thanks to these "miracle" chemical

products, we are slowly but surelydestroying the balance of nature, andthis may one day threaten the veryexistence of life on our planet.

E. Jamet

Savigny-sur-Orge, France

SOS ENVIRONMENT

Sir,

We were immensely gratified to findthe Menton Statement ("A Message toOur 3è Billion Neighbours on PlanetEarth") featured in the July 1971, issueof the "Unesco Courier". Obviouslywe have not been able to reach all of

the biologists around the world whomight wish to add their signatures to thestatement. Those who would like to

do so and others who have comments

or inquiries can send correspondenceto Dai Dong of the Fellowship ofReconciliation at any of the followingadresses: Glaciset 32, 2800 Lyngby,Denmark; Box 91, Driebergen 2760,Netherlands; Box 271, Nyack, NewYork 10960, U.S.A.

Alfred Hassler

Executive Director, Dai DongNew York

THE PUBLIC AND MODERN ART

Sir,

The Inquiry by the InternationalCouncil of Museums into public attitudestowards modern art ("Unesco Courier",March 1971) was extremely interesting,but the results are rather disappointing.

Putting to a limited, obviously con¬servative section of the public the bluntquestion, "do you like or dislikemodern painting?", was bound to leadto one conclusion, namely that the publicis hostile to modern art because it goesagainst traditional concepts of art. Butthe artist should not merely produceworks which please and can be under¬stood by people of average intelligence.

And surely the inquiry was Invalidatedfrom the start by a method of presenta¬tion that could only baffle the public amixture of unidentified works, old andrecent, figurative and abstract, famousand little-known, sometimes belongingto several different periods of the sameartist.

Dr. Theodore Heinrich, commentingon the results, pointed out that some¬times a particular style of painting mayhave been familiar to the persons

polled but not the particular paintingthey were shown. These persons wouldgive their preference to famous paint¬ings even if they were not in fact totheir taste. We know that if the ordi¬

nary man in the street still rejectsMondrian's works, he neverthelessaccepts in architecture, painting, fashionand theatre, etc., trends which havebeen strongly influenced by the worksof Mondrian and other often criticized

artists such as Malevitch, Kandinsky,Delaunay, Picasso, etc., which goes toprove that the much talked of gap oftwo generations between the artist andthe public does not in fact exist.

On the other hand, we may well askwhether traditional easel and canvas

painting is not on the way out, to bereplaced in the future by mural art anda synthesis of the arts. If thishappens, won't our present conceptionof museums and art galleries be out ofdate? If the public no longer goesto see works of art because our

museums and art galleries do not attractthem, why don't we take these worksout into the streets, the factories, theschools and public transport?

D.J. Corre

Chantilly, France

Dr. Theodore Heinrich (member ofthe Toronto inquiry Committee on publicattitudes to modern art) replies:

Our fasfc was to develop and testa practical working method that couldbe applied in many parts of the world.When that larger study has been done,we shall be justified in starting to drawconclusions.

The "blunt" question, "Do you likeor dislike modern painting?", was neverasked. The testing materials, whichhad for fairly obvious reasons to beanonymous, continue to serve theirspecific purposes quite adequately.

The study was undertaken to providethe museum profession with data uponwhich to re-evaluate current methods

of presentation, interpretation andeducation in modern art.

Our method allows for proper pro¬portional representation of those alreadyinterested, but for the first time beginsto represent that large tax-paying publicwhich mostly avoids museums of allkinds, let alone those dedicated tomodern art.

The museum-going public is notdiminishing and public appetite for artof all periods that it can enjoy andunderstand constantly increases. Butthe evidence collected does show a

sympathy among this public that de¬creases in direct ratio with the new¬

ness and difficulty of art. We havenever suggested that artists or mu¬seums should tailor their activities to

meet the approval of the broad public(let alone the least common denomi¬nator), only that museums questiontheir own methods in order to reduce

the clearly existing gap of comprehen¬sion.

The sad, cold fact is that Mon¬drian's own pure and beautiful paint¬ings, for instance, are still 'caviar tothe general" and the reasons for thatare exactly what we are trying todecipher.

Unesco's

25th anniversary ceremony

Ceremonies to mark Unesco's 25th

anniversary are to be held in Paris onNovember 4 and 5, 1971. This issue ofthe "Unesco Courier" goes to pressbefore the inaugural ceremony which willbe ODened by M. Attilio Dell'Oro Maini,president of the 16th session of Unesco'sGeneral Conference. The President of the

French Republic, M. Georges Pompidou,and the Lord High Chancellor of the UnitedKingdom, Lord Hailsham, are expected toattend the ceremony as well as Mr. PremKirpal, president of Unesco's ExecutiveBoard, M. René Maheu, Director-Generalof Unesco since 1962, and his four pre¬decessors in this post, Julian Huxley (1946-1948), Jaime Torres Bodet (1948-1952),Luther Evans (1953-1958) and VittorinoVeronese (1958-1961). Ministers and high-ranking officials from many countries areto attend as well as several former officials

of the Organization.

Nag Hammadi bibliography

Since the first publication, in 1948, ofinformation concerning the discovery ofCoptic gnostic codices in the vicinity ofNag Hammadi (see the "Unesco Courier",May, 1971), more than 2,400 items havebeen written about the Nag Hammadi library.Details of the literature published between1948 and 1969 have now been broughttogether in a single classified bibliographycompiled by David M. Scholer. In additionto works dealing with the Nag Hammadicodices themselves, the bibliography in¬cludes materials on gnosticism in generaland on certain special topics which providea context for situating the Coptic gnosticlibrary.

Nag Hammadi Studies, Edited by Martin

B3 nmLU w raNEW PRICE OF THE 'UNESCO COURIER'

Repeated rises in production and distribution costs in the past four yearshave made it necessary to adjust the annual subscription rates and singlecopy price of the UNESCO COURIER.

On January 1, 1972, our new rates will go into effect as follows:

SINGLE

COPY PRICE

13 p50 cents (Canada)1,70 French francs

1 YEAR

SUBSCRIPTION

£1.30

$5

17 F

2 YEAR

SUBSCRIPTION

£2.30

30 F

Subscribers will be notified of the new rates in other currencies byUnesco's National Distributors. Where available these rates will be publishedin the list of National Distributors (opposite) of our next issue.

Krause, James M. Robinson, Frederik Wisse;Volume I, Nag Hammadi Bibliography1948-1969, by David M. Scholer, E.J. Brill,Leiden, Holland, 1971, 201 pp., 60 Guilders.

People's Republic of Chinaat Unesco

Unesco's Executive Board decided on

October 29, 1971, that "From today on¬wards, the Government of the People'sRepublic of China is the only legitimaterepresentative of China at Unesco", andit "invited the Director-General to act

accordingly." The vote was 25 for, twoagainst and five abstentions.

African art exhibition

An exhibition of African Art, the 10th in

Unesco's series of travelling exhibitions,opened recently in 20 different countriesthroughout the world. The exhibition ismade up of 34 display panels with 134illustrations covering the history of thedevelopment of art across the Africancontinent. The exhibition was prepared forUnesco's Division of Cultural Developmentby three African art experts: MadameJacqueline Delange, former head of theAfrican section of the Musée de l'Homme,

Paris, Mr. Philip Fry, curator of the Winni¬peg Art Gallery, Canada, and Mr. MangaBekombo, French National Centre for

Scientific Research, Paris.

42

SOME BOOKS ON ANGKOR

In English

Lawrence Palmer BriggsThe Ancient Khmer EmpireAmerican Philosophical SocietyPhiladelphia, 1951

G. Coedès

The Indianized States of South-East Asia

East West Center Press, Honolulu, 1968

J.F. Embree and L.O. Dotson

Bibliography of the Peoples and Cultu¬res of Mainland South-East Asia

Yale University, New Haven, 1950

Bernard P. Groslier

Art and Civilization of AngkorTranslated by Eric Ernshaw SmithPraeger Inc., New York, 1957

G. and E. Porée-MasperoTraditions and Customs of the Khmers

Yale University, New Haven, 1953

O. Sitwell

Escape with MeMacmillan London, 1939

Henri Stierlin

AngkorOffice du Livre, Fribourg, 1970

In French

Georges Coedès

Les Etats hindouisés de. l'Indochine

Ed. de Boccard, Paris, 1964Les peuples de la péninsuleindochinoise

Ed. Dunod, Paris, 1962

Pour mieux comprendre AngkorEd. A. Maisonneuve, Paris, 1947

Madeleine Giteau

Histoire du CambodgeEd. Didier, Paris, 1957Guide national du Musée

de Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, 1967

Les Khmers, sculptures khmères, refletsde la civilisation d'AngkorEd. Office du livre, Fribourg, 1965

Maurice Glaize

Les monuments du Groupe d'AngkorEd. A. Maisonneuve, Paris, 1963

Victor Goloubev

L'hydraulique urbaine et agricole à l'épo¬que des rois d'AngkorBulletin économique de l'IndochineHanoi, 1941

Bernard Groslier

Angkor et le Cambodge au 16e siècleEd. P.U.F.. Paris, 1958Indochine, carrefour des artsEd. Albin Michel, Paris, 1961

Angkor, hommes et pierresEd. Arthaud, Grenoble, 1968Indochine

Ed. Nagel, Geneva, 1966

Henri Mouhot

Voyage dans les royaumes de Siam,de Cambodge, de LaosEd. de Lanoye, Hachette, Paris, 1968

G. de Coral Rémusat

L'art de l'Indochine

Ed. d'Art et d'Histoire, Paris. 1938

L'art khmer, Les grandes étapes de sonévolution

Ed. d'Art et d'Histoire, Paris, 1940

Philippe Stern

Les monuments khmers du styledu Bayon et Jayavarman VIIEd. P.U.F., Paris 1965

L'art du ChampaEd. Douladoure, Toulouse, 1942Evolution du style indien d'AmaravatiEd. P.U.F., Paris, 1961

UNESCO COURIER INDEX 1971

JanuaryCULTURAL POLICYA MODERN DILEMMA (F. McDermott). Strugglefor cultural identity. Mass media and mass culture. Unesco Veniceconference on cultural policy. Africa and cultural decolonization(J. Ngugi). Art treasures (51) Stone age votive figure (Uruguay).

FebruaryTELEVISION: QUANTITY PLUS QUALITY (M. Esslin). Unesco inthe 2nd Development Decade (H. Brabyn). World boom In TV andpublishing. New highways for the developing world (W. Owens).The will to peace (Message of Pope Paul VI). Cyclones and otherdisasters (E. Fournler d'Albe). Latent talent in children (B. Nikitln).Art treasures (52) Serenity of meditation (Korea).

March

THE GENERAL PUBLIC JUDGES MODERN ART (D. Cameron). Quizon modern art. Unesco Art publications. School for disarmament.Educational aid for Palestinian refugees (R. Maheu). Art treasures (53)7th century Mayan dancer (Guatemala).

April

WHAT FUTURE FOR FUTUROLOGY? (F. Le Lionnais). Breakthroughto tomorrow (R. Jungk). Think tanks and workshops of the future.Futurescapes of the 21st century. A Soviet scientist looks at futuro¬logy (I. Bestuzhev-Lada). Pondering the Imponderable (P. Piganlol).Art treasures (54) Noble character (China).

May

EARLY CHRISTIAN MANUSCRIPTS FROM THE NILE (J. Robinson).Coptic voices from the past (H. Brabyn). Trieste world rendezvousfor physicists (D. Behrman)* Funerary art of the Bogomils (M. Krleza).The culture of machine living (M. Lerner). Making learning fun forblind children (E. Freund). Art treasures (55) Katharina, aged 20(Germany).

June

THE MAGIC OF MODERN CHEMISTRY (G. Gregory). A new qualityof life. The new chemistry of food. Expanding armoury of drugs.10,000 metamorphoses of plastics. Mendeleyev's periodic table

(G. Teterin and C. Terlon). The missing links of nature (V.' Goldanski).Art treasures (56) Captain from Capestrano (Italy).

JulyS.O.S. ENVIRONMENT. Message from 2,200 scientists. Pollutionin Japan (S. Tsuru). Pittsburgh's anti-smoke campaign (E. Stockton).Pollution fight before the U.S. courts (J. Sax). Environmental controlsand economic systems (H. Brabyn). Ukraine protects its naturalresources (B. Voltovskl). Industrialization without pollution In thedeveloping world (I. Sachs). Art treasures (57) Geometry of beauty(Ivory Coast).

August-September

YOUTH OF THE WORLD, YOUTH OF UNESCO (R. Maheu). 25 yearsof Unesco viewed by a student (E. Naraghi). Seasons of the mind(W. McEwing). In the minds of men, Unesco's anniversary book.Nubia victory of International solidarity (A. El Sawi). Facts andfigures about Unesco. Art treasures (58) Road to asceticism (Ceylon).

October

IRAN, CULTURAL CROSSROADS FOR 2,500 YEARS (P. Avery).Scientific legacy of Iran (D. Stewart). Sacred art in Persian culture(S. Nasr). The romance of Varghe and Golshah (A. Meliklan-Chlr-vani). The epic of the kings (J. Santa-Croce). The thousand and onenights (M. Léturmy). Persian poets and writers. Art treasures (59)Fabulous bird-woman (Iran).

November

ANSWERS TO RACISM (O. Klineberg). Inequality before the lawIn South Africa. The other person's skin (M. Awad). 19th centurychampion of anti-racism In New Guinea (N. Butinov). Learning thethree "T's" in school (A. Mazrui). Unesco's poster contest. Arttreasures (60) Women sculptors of Ashantl (Ivory Coast).

December

S.O.S. ANGKOR (H. Daifuku). Angkor: Architecture and ecology(H. Stierlin). The Bayon temple at Angkor (P. Stem). Rediscoveryof the temples of Angkor (M. Giteau). Daily life in 13th centuryCambodia: Chinese Chronicles (Chou Ta Kuan). Bayon bas-reliefs(S. Son). Art treasures (61) Angkor (Khmer Rep.).

Where to renew your subscriptionand order other Unesco publications

Order from any bookseller, or writ« direct tothe National Distributor in your country. (See listbelow ; names of distributors in countries notlisted will be supplied on request.) Payment ismade in the national currency ; the rates quotedare for an annual subscription to THE UNESCOCOURIER in any one language.

AUSTRALIA. Publications : Educational SuppliesPty. Ltd., P.O. Box 33, Brookvale, 2100, NS; Perio¬dicals: Dominie Pty. Limited,Box 33, Post Office, Brook¬vale 2100, NSW. Sub-agent. United Nations Associationof Australia, Victorian Division, -4th Floor, Askew House,364 Lonsdale St., Melbourne (Victoria), 3000 (S 2.75).

AUSTRIA. Verlag Georg Fromme & C\, Arbeitg se1-7, 1051, Vienna, (AS 82). BELGIUM. Jean deLannoy, 112, rue du Troné, Brussels 5. CCP 3380.00.BURMA. Trade Corporation N' (9), 550-552 MerchantStreet, Rangoon. CANADA. Information Canada,Ottawa, (One.) (8 4,00). CEYLON. Lake HouseBookshop, Sir Chittampalam Gardiner Mawata, P.O.B. 244Colombo 2. (Rs 12.50). CHINA. World Book Co.Ltd., 99 Chungking South Rd., Section 1, Taipeh,Taiwan (Formosa). CYPRUS. ArchbishopMakarios 3rd Avenue, P.O. Box 1722, Nicosia.CZECHOSLOVAKIA. S.N.T.L., Spalena 51, Prague 1(permanent display); Zahran¡cni literatura 11 SoukenickaPrague 1. For Slovakia only : Nakladatelstvo Alfa, Hurba-novo nam. 6 Bratislava. DENMARK. Einar MunksgaardLtd., 6, Norregade, 1165, Copenhagen K. (Dan. Kr. 1 9.001

(ARAB REPUBLIC OF) EGYPT. National Centréfor Unesco Publications, No 1 Talaat Harb Street, Tahrir1 Square, Cairo; Librairie Kasr El Nil, 38, rue Kasr El Nil,Cairo. ETHIOPIA. National Commission for Unesco,P.O. Box 2996, Addis Ababa. FINLAND, AkateemineKiriakauppa, 2 Keskuskatu, Helsinki (Fmk. 11.90).FRANCE. Librairie de I'Unesco, place de Fontenoy, 75-Paris-7'. CCP. 12598-48 (12 F). GERMANY. Allpublications : Verlag Dokumentation, Postfach 148,Jaiserstrasse 13, 8023 München-Pullach. For the UnescoKurier (German ed only) Bahrenfelder-Chaussee 1 60,Hamburg-Bahrenfeld, CCP. 276650 (DM 12).GHANA. Presbyterian Bookshop Depot Ltd., P.O.Box 195, Accra; Ghana Book Suppliers Ltd., P.O. Box7869, Accra; The University Bookshop of Ghana,

Accra; The University Bookshop of Cape Coast, TheUniversity Bookshop of Legon, P.O. Box 1, Legon.GREAT BRITAIN. See United Kingdom. GREECE.Librairie H. Kaufmann, 28, rue du Stade, Athens; LibrairieEleftheroudakis, Nikkis 4, Athens. HONG-KONG.Swindon Book Co., 1 3-1 5, Lock Road, Kowloon.HUNGARY. Akadémiai Könyvesbolt. Vici u. 22,Budapest V; A.K.V. Konyvtárosok Boltja, Népkoztírsaságutja 16, Budapest VI. ICELAND. Snaebjorn Jonsson& Co., H.F., Hafnarstraeti 9, Reykiavik. INDIA.Orient Longman Ltd., Nico) Road, Ballard Estate, Bom¬bay 1 ; 17 Chittaranjan Avenue, Calcutta 13; 36a, MountRoad, Madras 2; 3/5 Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi 1 ; Sub-Depots: Oxford Book & Stationery Co. 17 Park Street,Calcutta 16 and Scindia House, New Delhi; PublicationsSection, Ministry of Education and Youth Services,72 Theatre Communication Building, Connaught PlaceNew Delhi 1. (Rs. 13.50). INDONESIA. Indira P.T.,Dil. Dr. Sam Ratulangie 37, Djakarta. IRAN. IranianNational Commission for Unesco, 1/1 54 avenue Roosevelt,B.P. 1533, Teheran. <- IRAQ. McKenzie'* Bookshop,Al-Rashid Street, Baghdad; University Bookstore, Uni¬versity of Baghdad, P.O. Box 75, Baghdad. IRELAND.The National Press, 2, Wellington Road, Ballsbridge,Dublin 4. ISRAEL. Emanuel Brown,, formerlyBlumstein's Bookstores, 35 Allenby Road and 48, NachlatBenjamin Street, Tel-Aviv; 9, Shlomzion Hamalka StreetJerusalem (IL. 1 5). JAMAICA. Sangster's Book StoresLtd.. P.O. Box 36*. 101 Water Lane, Kingston.JAPAN. Maruzen Co. Ltd.. P.O. Box 5050, TokyoInternational 100-31. KENYA. The E.S.A. Ltd.,P.O. Box 30167, Nairobi. KOREA. Korean NationalCommission for Unesco P.O. Box Central 64, Seoul.KUWAIT. The Kuwait Bookshop Co., Ltd.. P.O. Box2942, Kuwait. LIBERIA. Cole and Yancy BookshopsLtd., P.O. Box 286. Monrovia. LIBYA. Agency forDevelopment of Publication & Distribution, P.O. Box 34-35, Tripoli. LUXEMBURG. Librairie Paul Brück,22, Grand-Rue. Luxembourg (F.L. 170). MALAYSIA.Federal Publications Sdn Bhd., Balai Berita, 31, JalanRiong, Kuala Lumpur. MALTA. Sapienza's Library,26 Kingsway, Valletta. MAURITIUS. NalandaCompany Ltd.. 30, Bourbon Street, Port-Louis.MONACO. British Library, 30, Bid des Moulins, Monte-Carlo. NETHERLANDS. N. V. Martinus Ni|hoff,Lange Voorhout, 9, the Hague, (fl. 10). NETHER¬LANDS ANTILLES. G. C. T. Van Dorp & Co. (NedAnt.). N. V., Willemstad, Curacao. N.A. (NA fl. 5.25).

NEW ZEALAND. Government Printing Office,Government Bookshops at : Rutland Street, P.O. Box5344, Auckland; 130, Oxford Terrace, P.O. Box 1721,

Christchurch; Alma Street, P.O. Box 857 Hamilton;Princes Street, P.O. Box 1104, Dunedin; MulgraveStreet, Private Bag, Wellington (S 2.15). NIGERIA.The University Bookshop of Ife, The University Bookshopof Ibadan, P.O. Box 286; The University Bookshop ofNsukka, The University Bookshop of Lagos, The Ah mad uBello University Bookshop of Zaria. NORWAY. Allpublications : johan Grundt Tanum (Booksellers) KarlJohansgate 43, Oslo 1. For Unesco Courier only : A.S.Narvesens Litteraturjeneste, Box 6125, Oslo 6 (K.2.75).PAKISTAN. The West-Pak Publishing Co. Ltd., UnescoPublications House, P.O. Box 374 G.P.O., Lahore;Showrooms : Urdu Bazaar, Lahore, and 57-58 Murree,Highway, G/6-1, Islamabad. Pakistan Publications Book¬shop, Sarwar Road, Rawalpindi ; Paribagh, Dacca.PHILIPPINES. The Modern Book Co., 926. Rizal Ave¬nue, P.O. Box 632, Manila D-404. POLAND. Allpublications : ORWN PAN Palac Kultury I Nauki,Warsaw. For the Unesco Courier only : RUCH, ul.Wronia, 23, Warsaw 10. PORTUGAL. Dias &Andrade Ltda, Livraria Portugal, rua do Carmo 70, Lisbon.

SINGAPORE. Federal Publications Sdn Bhd.. TimesHouse, River Valley Road, Singapore 9. SOUTHERNRHODESIA. Textbook Sales (PVT) Ltd., 67 UnionAvenue, Salisbury. SUDAN. AI Bashir Bookshop,P.O. Box 1 1 1 8, Khartoum. SWEDEN. All publications:A/B CE. Fritzes Kungl. Hovbokhandel, Fredsgatan 2,Box 16356, 10327 Stockholm 16. For the UnescoCourier : Svenska FN-Fórbundet, Vasagatan 15, IV10123, Stockholm 1 Postgiro 18 46 92 (Kr. 18).SWITZERLAND. All publications : Europa Verlag,5 Rämistrasse, Zurich. Librairie Payot, rue Grenus 6,1211, Geneva 11, CCP. 12-236 (Fr. S. 12.-).ZANIA. Dar-es-Salaam Bookshop, P.O.B. 9030 Dar-es-Salaam. THAILAND. Suksapan Panic, Mansion 9,Raidamnern Avenue, Bangkok. (37.50 bäht).Librairie Hachette, 469 Istiklal Caddesi, Beyoglu, Istanbul.

UGANDA. Uganda Bookshop, P.O. Box 1 45, Kampala.SOUTH AFRICA. All publications: Van Schaik's

Bookstore (Pty). Ltd., Libri Building, Church Street, P.O.Box 724, Pretoria. For the Unesco Courier (single copies)only: Central News Agency P.O. Box 1 033, Johannesburg.UNITED KINGDOM. H.M. Stationery Office, P.O.Box 569, London, S.E.I., and Government Bookshopsin London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester,Birmingham, Bristol (£1). UNITED STATES. UnescoPublications, Center, P.O. Box 433, New York, N.Y.10016 (S 5). U.S.S.R. Mezhdunarodnaja Kniga,Moscow, G-200. YUGOSLAVIA. JugoslovenskaKnjiga, Teraziie, 27, Belgrade; Drzavna Zaluzba Slo¬vénie Mestni Trg, 26, Ljubljana.

EVERYDAY LIFE

IN 12TH CENTURY

ANGKOR

Photo ' Luc Ionesco, Paris

The temples of Angkor (Khmer Rep.) are considered one of the greatestarchitectural complexes in all Asia. And among the wonders of Angkor,the Bayon temple, with its multi-faced towers and sculpted wallsliterally covered with thousands of scenes from everyday life, standsout as the acme of Khmer architectural and artistic achievement. Depict¬ed here are traders, surrounded by their wares, taking a hasty nap asthey wait for their customers to arrive. (See pages 30-38 for a series ofexceptional photo-studies of this "diary in stone").