Origin of Phnom Penh National Museum

The Phnom Penh National Museum was begun 1917, under the reign of King Preah Karuna Preah Bat Samdech Preah Sisowath. Most of the collections displayed in the Museum come from temples and archaeological sites throughout Cambodia.

Before the war, in the early 1917s, a number of works of art housed in the provincial museums and at the Conservation d’Angkor were moved to the National Museum storerooms for security reasons.

On 10 October 2002, under the discerning leadership of Samdech Preash Ream, daughter of His Majesty King Morodom Sihanouk and then Minister of Culture and Fine Arts, the National Museum was entrusted with the management of 178 works of art from the Conservation d’Angkor, which had been sheltered as early as 1993 under the Throne Room of the Royal Palace. In addition to these works of art, the Museum is in charge of managing the donations received from both Khmers and foreigners, from the provincial authorities, the Ministry of Interior, ICOM and various friendly countries.

The sculptures of female deities selected for this exhibit include works of art that have long been displayed in the Museum and includes pieces from the storerooms, which had never previously been restored. We also selected some important bas-reliefs and heads of deities. A number of the works of art described hereafter remain on view in the galleries as the exhibition rooms are too small to accommodate them.

It is important to remember that all the pieces described and displayed represent only a fraction of the cultural heritage of ancient Cambodia, but by good fortune they escaped from destruction and illicit trafficking.

All the works on display capture the sensibility of our ancestors in their practice of Brahmanism and Buddhism, shaping these religions to their own thinking. As a consequence, they have created rich and unique forms of expression through their approaches to religion and indigenous art forms.

However, this paper does not purport to be a study on female deities in the temples or to explain the role of women in contemporary society. It is merely a study on the female sculptures known as ‘Preah Neang Devi’, through the interpretation of relevant writing materials, rather than an exhaustive presentation of this art form.

The research work carried out, which led to this publication of a small compendium, provides an overview of the different types of female deities found in the National Museum collections. It is our hope this catalogue may subsequently serve as a basis for more in-depth research work.

The ‘Preah Neang Deví’ are concrete evidence of the ideals of our Khmer ancestors, Who used religion as a policy and made ancient Cambodia a powerful economic and cultural empire, whose glorious Angkor civilization exerted its influence over much of Southeast Asia.