Artists and Craftsmen

The history of the Khmer Empire is quite literally carved into stone. Much of what we know about this period of Cambodian history stems from the intricate bas-reliefs carved into surviving structures. These present modern visitors with tantalising images of the past. When combined with surviving artefacts of everyday life like ceramics, mortar and pestles, and net weights among others, archaeologists and historians have been able to piece together a relatively comprehensive understanding of Angkor’s past.

In this module, we explore the material culture of Angkor through three key themes:

1) Etched in Stone, 2) Metal Goods 3) Of Earth and Clay

The ancient city of Angkor survives in the stone structures that dot the landscape. Many of these are richly ornamented with carved reliefs, motifs, and sculpted features. Inside religious structures like the prasat and wat, we find stone sculptures of Hindu deities as well as buddhas and bodhisattvas, figures brought to life by the master craftsmen of the Khmer empire. The epigraphic record of Angkor can be found chiselled in neat lines on stone doorframes or on imposing stelae. The temples often contain a significant foundation of laterite, but this is rarely sculpted beyond the fitting of building blocks. The stone that permeates Angkor is an ideal type of sandstone soft enough to carve easily but hard enough to last several lifetimes—as Angkor Wat attests to.

Read the excerpts from Ian Mabbett and David Chandler’s The Khmers and Rachna Chhay, Thon Tho, and Socheata Em, “Guide to Understanding Khmer Stoneware Characteristics, Angkor, Cambodia” then examine the 3D visualisation of a typical Cambodian workshop before answering the following questions.

Reading Excerpt 1:

Excerpt from Ian Mabbett and David Chandler, The Khmers

We know the names of some court priests who planned and organized the construction of monuments, and it may be that these priests supplied the master schemes for the symbolism of their constructions; but they were served by hosts of lesser beings who were responsible for the creation of these works in detail. Perhaps these lesser beings are the people whose work we admire.

In part, this anonymity must be seen as a result of the royal monopoly on glory. All the great things done in the kingdom had to be seen as the achievement of the ruler; artists, craftsmen, and poets were instruments of ideology. But there is an important religious dimension too. The anonymity of the artist reflects a particular, entirely rational, attitude that belongs to a pre-scientific, traditional world view. It is not very different after all, from the world view embodied in the religious architecture of mediaeval Europe, where craftsmen toiled just as anonymously to raise soaring cathedrals in praise of God.

What went for Christianity went for the religion of the Khmers. The principle at work was that a teaching ideally gains all its conviction, its moral force, from its conformity to a known canon that tells eternal truths; it gains none from the original thought of its merely human author. This is true for builders as well as artists. So things made with the hands evoke the divine only to the extent that (by a sort of sympathetic magic) they capture the divine energy that lives in a known pattern or symbol.

In prehistoric times, Khmer artists and architects, necessarily anonymous, made and decorated jewellery, beads, clay models, tools and utensils; they hewed wood into shapes that were prescribed by unquestioned standards and joined them to make houses that were not expected to last very long.

When the Indian traditions came, the craftsmen remained anonymous, while they learned new techniques … however the Khmers and other peoples of South-East Asia came to acquire their knowledge of Indian art and architecture, local genius asserted itself.

What has not yet been adequately evoked by this outline is the minuteness of artistic detail with which the sculptor’s craft was bent to the service of religious symbolism on walls, in niches, on lintels and tympana, on capitals and entablatures, indeed, wherever a chisel could be inserted, so that the walls, terraces and shrines of each complex became an encyclopaedia of sacred lore twined in rich foliate decoration.

What was symbolized in the art and architecture of Angkor was an invisible order whose existence patterned and made comprehensible the world in which people lived. A craftsman, then, was not just a man with a chisel: he was a priest, thaumaturge [a saint performing miracles], psychopomp [spirits guiding the deceased], nuclear scientist. Yet, because his work was no more than a vessel for pre-existing ideal forms, he did not care to leave his name for us to read.

Reading Excerpt 2:

Excerpts from Rachna Chhay, Thon Tho, and Socheata Em, “Guide to Understanding Khmer Stoneware Characteristics, Angkor, Cambodia”

Khmer stoneware were decorated using several techniques including incising or freehand decorations, modeling, and molding. The most common decoration involves horizontal incising. This technique produces a variety of horizontal incisions and bands of various widths and textures and frequently occurs on pedestal-base vessels, lids, shoulders, and necks. Vertical or diagonal incised or impressed lines occasionally supplement the horizontal incising designs.

Buriram stoneware vessels [named after Angkorian kilns found in Buriram province in Thailand] have been found as: pumpkin boxes, bird-shaped boxes, animal figurines, kendi jars, dishes, bowl, bowl-shaped lamps, elongated water vessels, and jars. Buriram stoneware decorations include incised or freehand designs, modelling, and, molding, Many different patterns have been documented in Buriram stoneware freehand decoration; some of the more notable examples include wavy lines, zig-zag lines, and “X” designs.

Shaping technique: Angkorian and Buriram potters both used the wheel, coiling, modeling, and molding … Angkorian potters frequently incised a ‘potter’s mark’, while Buriram potters did not.

Modeled method: Angkorian and Buriram potters both used modeling to produce small container lids in the shape of a lotus flower or Chan fruit, to produce animal figures. Angkorian potters produced more of these modelled ceramics than Buriram.

Decoration technique: Angkorian and Buriram potters used the same range of decorative techniques on their stonewares, but varied in their freehand decorations. Typical Buriram patterns include wavy lines, zig-zag lines, and “X” design. Angkorian potters incised at least seven different designs on their container lids, including a stamen, a star, a saw tooth, a Chan flower, another floral shape, a lotus leaf, and lotus petal shapes.

Angkor 360: Sculpture Workshop

Comprehension Questions

What sculpture techniques and design decorations can be found in Angkorian stone sculptures? What can this tell us about the skill of Angkorian craftsmen?
Study the 360 of a typical Angkorian workshop closely, what features can you identify? What materials are the craftsmen working with? How does this accord with what we know about Angkorian material culture?
Who were the artisans and craftsmen of the Angkorian Empire? Why do you think they might have gone unrecorded in history?

Theme 2: Metal Goods

When we think of metal goods left behind from the Angkorian era, we usually think of bronze items because museum collections feature these in their exhibitions of mediaeval Cambodia. Bronze is almost indestructible and preserves the features of Angkorian pieces. By contrast, stone sculptures invariably wear away in the tropical climate, unless they were buried and subsequently spirited off into a museum collection (sometimes legally, sometimes illegally). Alongside bronze, gold was also a recurrent feature in displays at Angkor, much of which was used to decorate the statues of gods and deities. Yet, the most common material used for metalwork in Angkor was iron, owing to the country’s rich deposits of the mineral as well as a long tradition of metalworking with the material.

Read the excerpts from and Groslier, “Introduction to the Ceramic Wares of Angkor” and Zhou Daguan, “A Record of Cambodia” before answering the following questions.

Reading Excerpt 3:

Paul A. Lavy and Martin Polkinghorne, Bodies of Glory

The production of Angkorian statuary was truly prodigious. In addition to the thousands of sculptures that survive to the present-day, the foundation stele from the sprawling temple of Preah Khan (Jayaśrī), dedicated in 1191/92 CE, provides a remarkable indication of the scale of fabrication during the reign of Jayavarman VII.

It declares that 20,400 statues rendered in precious metals and stone were distributed across the kingdom. This one temple complex alone housed 430 deities surrounding the central image, with another eighty-five deities residing in nearby shrines. Other temples of the same reign further indicate the immense scale of production. Ta Prohm (Rājavihāra), dedicated in 1186 CE, housed 260 deities surrounding the principal icons and hosted an annual festival with offerings to 619 deities who were present there. At the nearby temple of Banteay Kdei, Japanese archaeologists excavated a cache of 274 Buddhist sculpture fragments mostly dating to ca. late twelfth–early thirteenth centuries.

A stone and bronze workshop northeast of the Royal Palace in Angkor Thom and another stone workshop north of the Hariharālaya Royal Palace at Prei Monti preserve unfinished sculptures and the archaeological waste of stone and copper-base alloy production. There is some evidence that metallurgical activity also took place within the Angkor Thom Royal Palace complex and another stone workshop may have existed at Phnom Dei north of Angkor Thom.

The close proximity of the known workshops to Royal Palaces and the physical and ceremonial centres of the kingdom imply that the royal court directly commissioned their products. Specialized artisans, including sculpture stonemasons and bronze casters, were of great significance to the political administration, who employed their outputs to confer and maintain political legitimacy and spiritual authority. Additionally, the specific position of ateliers north or northeast of the Royal Palace may reproduce a tradition of urban planning observed throughout Cambodian history. For example, a representation of the Royal Palace of Oudong in the early 1860s denotes gold ateliers in the northern-eastern quadrant of the enclosure. Furthermore, royal ateliers were situated close to the northeast corner/quadrant of the Royal Palace of Phnom Penh in the early twentieth century CE.

Reading Excerpt 4:

Mitch Hendrickson and Stéphanie Leroy, “Sparks and Needles”

Following Arthur’s assertion that the function of a technology is to harness specific phenomena or effects, the primary technology with the most transformative potential on Khmer architecture is iron. In addition to quarrying and carving, iron improves agricultural potential as well as the daily activities of those working on the temple projects. Epigraphic evidence of iron production and use is rare with the exception of a few texts such as the Preah Khan inscription (K.908; 1192 CE) that lists 460 bhara, or roughly ~22 metric tons being needed to build the temple. Numerous types of chisels and carving implements are mentioned in Angkorian texts and chisel marks are found on unfinished blocks. The most direct evidence of iron used in Khmer architecture is the inclusion of iron architectural ties, or crampons, to stabilize blocks within masonry walls. While iron is not necessary for constructing stone buildings, a fact that is amply demonstrated by the immense projects of the Inka and throughout Dynastic Egypt, access to large quantities of iron can significantly assist the process. Iron technology may also be interlinked with the numerous military campaigns and territorial expansions undertaken by Angkor’s kings between the 11th and 13th centuries.

Previous explanations for the transition from brick to sandstone in temple architecture emphasized the general aesthetic qualities of stone or the lack of quicklime used in the process of rendering brick temple surfaces. Both explanations are possible but do not take into consideration the multifaceted impact of the increased availability of iron for enhancing different physical effects within Angkorian temples. Iron, and more specifically steel, tools facilitated quarrying, shaping blocks and carving intricate decorative motifs while crampons became integral to temple projects by providing structural support within the masonry coursing. The ability to build with large stone blocks expanded the inherent engineering limitations of corbelled arch construction and facilitated the transition from individual towers to large, integrated complexes surrounded by galleries and secondary buildings through which people could move through the religious space. Iron was an integral part of Angkorian temple construction projects from start to finish.

While iron can critically enhance sandstone modification and various aspects of temple architecture, the ‘sparks’ for transforming the latter are directed by human decisions formulated at institutional levels. Angkor’s temples played dual roles as houses of gods on earth and as markers of a king’s authority; consequently, it is necessary to consider religious and political catalysts that caused the growth in architecture and transformation in iron technology.

Designs and layouts of Khmer temples were based on rules and rituals derived from sacred Indic texts like the Vastu Sastras. While no clear evidence exists for the sudden introduction of new architectural treatises in this period, Angkor’s centralized expansion can be viewed as responses to three religious catalysts: change in veneration of gods, creation of new spaces for rituals and practitioners, and material symbolism. Khmer religion is characterized by a pluralism of Hindu and Buddhist faiths overlaid onto a local system of earth cults. Individual kings typically supported one deity (e.g., Shiva, Vishnu) for their major constructions and also dedicated temples to other gods (e.g., Brahma, Harihara, Buddhist bodhisattvas). During the 11th and 13th century the most notable change in veneration was Jayavarman VII’s decision to make Mahayana Buddhism the state religion and his extensive building program in and beyond Angkor. Jayavarman VII’s success was based on both ambition and administrative ability and infrastructural and politico-religious achievements of his predecessors … From a technological perspective, the change to Buddhism as the state religion explains the increased temple construction – facilitated by well-established iron and architectural technologies – but it does not account for the earlier architectural shifts in temple project size and primary building material.

Reading Excerpt 5:

Martin Polkinghorne et al., “Casting for the King”

From the foundation of modest village shrines to the construction of gigantic royal temples, the venture of building and furnishing temples entailed the employment of a variety of specialists including architects, stonemasons, bricklayers, carpenters, metal workers, painters and sculptors. Artisans were the ones who actively created, captured or redefined social meaning and transformed it into material objects through artistic production. Among the most specialised activities of artisans was the task of crafting images of the gods. Rendered in stone, metal and wood, the sacred images were ancestors, deities, embodiments of spiritual and political authority, the focus of communities, and in some cases, the centre of the entire kingdom.

Gods and Objects in Bronze

The materials of artistic production in metal are recorded from the pre-Angkorian period. First among these is the term samrit, the Old Khmer for "bronze" (Skt. kamsa). Another term related to copper-based metallurgy in the Angkorian inscriptions is the Old Khmer langau, "copper" (Skt. tâmra).1 The production of the workshops must have been considerable. The Preah Khan stele, for example, mentions 20,400 statues of gods rendered in gold, silver, bronze and stone distributed across the kingdom of Jayavarman VII r. 1182/1183 - ca 1220 CE). The work of bronze artisans was not limited to sculptures, and they produced many other items including ritual paraphernalia, adornments for utilitarian objects, and temple decorations.

Conclusions: Crafting for the Royal Palace

Preliminary excavations at a bronze workshop directly north of the Angkor Thom Royal Palace reveal evidence for high-quality production of bronze images and objects. In addition to small castings, large castings are attested by sizable crucibles and mould fragments, certainly the remains of sculpture casting. Rare products such as mercury, unknown in the region, were necessarily imported. The presence of these costly commodities testifies to the commissions of wealthy, elite patrons capable of accessing and supplying the raw materials needed. The close proximity of the atelier to the Royal Palace implies that its products were commissioned by the royal court and political administration. Additionally, specialised artisans like bronze casters were of great significance to the King and his entourage who employed their outputs to authorise, maintain and represent Royal power. The importance of this discovery is considerable: it is the first pre-modern bronze workshop and the first royal workshop known in Southeast Asia.

Comprehension Questions

How significant was metallurgy in the Angkorian Empire?
What role did metalworking artisans play in Khmer society? Consider their place in the social hierarchy in terms of both their practical and spiritual contributions.
How was iron utilised in Angkor’s architecture? What religious and political considerations influenced the development of iron technology and its use?

Theme 3: Of Earth and Clay

The extant archaeological record also tells us about ordinary life in the Khmer Empire. Surviving physical implements from the medieval period alongside contemporary Khmer designs and practices—many of which retain connections to the Angkorian period—provide a remarkable insight into a range of topics. Alongside providing a window into the day-to-day lives of both elites and ‘ordinary’ people, such materials also tell a rich story of Angkor’s integration into larger circuits of trade, religion, knowledge, and people.

Read the excerpts from Groslier, “Introduction to the Ceramic Wares of Angkor” and Zhou Daguan, “A Record of Cambodia” and examine the 3D visualisation of Angkorian pottery before answering the following questions.

Reading Excerpt 6:

Excerpts from Bernard Philippe Groslier, “Introduction to the Ceramics Wares of Angkor” in Diana Stock (ed), Khmer Ceramics, 9th-14th Century

The Khmers seem to have made little use of ceramics. No doubt this is partially true to the fact that the natural vegetation offered them exceptional resources. Bamboo, coconut husk and baskets, lacquer-coated and thus waterproof, are still used in the countryside. They answered numerous needs economically and effectively, particularly for a people who ate with their fingers, taking food from trays (wicker or metal) and rice from covered baskets. One of the bas-reliefs on the Bayon (ca. 1200) shows a royal feast and its preparation. Meat and rice are cooked in large cauldrons and pots on small three pronged circular stoves which are still in use. Food is served on large trays and taken up directly from them; it is the same for the rice served from the covered baskets. Only stew seems to be placed in small pots. Today the same scene can be found at a celebration in a monastery. As in earlier times, crockery is practically unknown.

At the other social extreme, it is clear that metals, especially brass, but also silver and even gold, was frequently used. Excavations and bas-reliefs show the development of metal-working. Stone inscriptions giving inventories of temple gifts testify to this. In the last century, even in modest houses, copper bowls and plates were still common and crockery was of Chinese manufacture.

Ceramics seem to have been reserved for functions to which their own physical quality and low price assigned them. These were essentially for food preparation: cooking on one hand and foodstuff preservation on the other.

Lessons of the Present

The study of ceramics in the daily life of contemporary Cambodia, is, moreover, a source of useful information. An object exists not so much in itself, but for the way in which it is used, the rhythm of the gestures it requires and the “view” one has of it … Throughout its history, the decoration on [Angkorian] ceramics has been almost on the neck and shoulder, the only visible parts, and never on the belly. This is in contrast to the Grecian cup used by men who ate reclining and raised it for libations and, in so doing, admired the decoration. There is an experiment that demonstrates this dynamic aesthetic. Nothing is easier than to arrange a showcase with Chinese or Greek vases. They can be placed at any height especially at eye-level of the standing viewer. Nothing is more difficult than to display Khmer ceramics. Their bases, mostly unglazed, do not sustain such elevation and their decoration is not really seen unless they are placed in low showcases. This is particularly the case with small, zoomorphic vessels whose significant decoration, eyes, beak and tail, is found on the shoulder and modelled in such a way as to be best appreciated from a downward perspective. Such is the case with small boxes, as well, which are used as sweet meat boxes. Thus, the Chinese holds his cup, without handle, between two fingers, and admires the subtleties of the tea against the glazed interior as he raises it to his lips. A European, his cup with handle, full of dark coffee or chocolate, will raise it to eye-level to appreciate the decoration on the exterior sides.

Domestic Pottery

We will group together hemispherical cooking vessels with a cover on a wide mouth and simply finished with a coiled lip. Two sub-groups can be distinguished: cooking pots without neck which must have served to cook rice, and cooking pots with short neck and everted coiled lip which perhaps would correspond to soup or stew pots, for they could thereby be easily manipulated. Only the shoulders are decorated, almost always by beating with a cord wrapped paddle, but never the bottom.

The second group seems to relate to the gathering and preservation of food: spherical vessels, much more closed – always with cover, in general hollow with a central knob – which could be hermetically sealed with wax or clay. There are also vessels for drawing water, with an elongated neck which allows for easy holding and the lip everted to facilitate filling and pouring. Here one again finds the same type of shoulder decoration but the bottom is often striated or grained by beating, probably to assure a secure hold, support on the hip and stability on the floor. To this we add a range of very large pans or basins intended perhaps for communal cooking, or rather suited for special uses: dyeing cloth, boiling silkworm cocoons etc. We also found basis and strainers intended, probably, to prepare butter for the Brahaminic cult.

Appearance of Wheel-made Ceramics

For the most part these were big vessels: water jars with spherical body, long neck, horizontal everted lip, and lined with a vertical band which is the Indian ghata; jugs with globular body, short neck and spout, the Indian bhrngara; small jugs with long spout or kundi; jugs without spouts but with everted lip or kalasa; and a small vessel for ablution with long neck enabling it to be held, and with an elegant twist of the wrist to wash the hand that holds it, the lota.

All these forms are undoubtedly Indian. This is not surprising since they are associated with the Hindu cult. More directly, they proceed very closely from the Fu-nan ceramics so described by Louis Malleret. The continuity of the two civilisations is well established.

Infancy of Glazed Stoneware and Glossy Glaze

It is quite clear that the Khmers, as soon as they could import Chinese ceramics of their choice and in quantity, simultaneously limited their own production of stonewares to a few models… One must consider a “double” Chinese influence: negative, in that it dispensed with certain manufacturing; and positive, in that it furnished a technique and certain models. One can say that the Angkorian production of glazed stoneware was complementary to the imports coming from China.

Merchants of Dreams … or Illusions?

Scholars have always emphasised the Indian influence in Cambodia. There is no point in minimising it and the monuments and the texts prove it. Up until the 14th century, an Indian Brahmin could come to settle in Cambodia and could feel at home. The only thing he had to learn was the Khmer language. For the rest, religion, royalty, he was in an Indian cultural sphere and could read directly in Sanskrit the texts of his culture on the walls of Angkor. However, it is amusing to note that for the period from the 8th century to the 15th century, not one, I repeat, not one single Indian object has been found on the grounds of the capital.

But tens of thousands of Chinese sherds have been unearthed and a whole branch, if not of the art, then at least of the Khmer technology, came from China with glazed stoneware… For builders, as clever and as prolific as were the Khmers, this was not a modest borrowing.

Reading Excerpt 7:

Zhou Daguan, “A Record of Cambodia”

Utensils

Ordinary families have houses but nothing else by way of tables, chairs, jars, or buckets. They use an earthenware pot to cook rice in, and make sauce with an earthenware saucepan. For a stove, they sink three stones into the ground, and for spoons they use coconut husks.

When serving rice they use earthenware or copper dishes from China; sauce comes in a small bowl made from the leaves of the nypa palm, which they spoon liquid into their mouths with, and throw away after using. Even when they are making offerings to the gods and to the Budda, they do things the same way.

They also have a tin or earthenware vessel on one side which they fill with water and dip their hands in. They do this because they eat rice with just their hands, and it sticks to their hands and won’t come off without water.

When they drink wine they do so from a pewter vessel called a qia that holds about three or four small cupfuls. When serving wine, they do so with a pewter pot, though poor people use a clay jug. In the great houses and wealthy homes, silver or even gold is used for everything. In the palace they often use receptacles of gold, different from the others in style and shape.

On the ground they lay out grass mats from Mingzhou [Ming Province in China], or rattan matting, or the pelts of tigers, leopards, muntjaks, deer, and so on. Lately people have started using low tables, about a foot high. When they sleep they just lie on the ground on bamboo mats. Lately, again, they have taken to using low beds, usually made by Chinese.

At night, there are a lot of mosquitoes, so they use cloth nets. In the king’s quarters the nets are made of fine silk with gold filigree work, all of them are gifts of seafaring merchants.

For husking rice they don’t use millstones, just pestle and mortar.

Angkor 360: Pottery Gallery

Comprehension Questions

Groslier mentions that the Khmer both imported Chinese crockery as well as had designs for ceramics that were Indian in origin. Drawing on lessons from the ‘Trade and Diplomacy’ module, how does this fit in with Angkor’s place in a broader world order
What types of ceramics were used by the Khmer and for what purpose? What can this tell us about everyday life in the Angkorian Empire?
Why do you think there is a dichotomy between the Indian cultural influence and the Chinese material influence?