Religion and beliefs

The following presentation does not purport to be an in-depth study of ancient Cambodia’s religion and beliefs. It merely presents the major figures of the time and provides a brief overview of religious practice. It aims to provide insight into the meaning of the Preah Neang Deví.

Female deities are not only representations of the Brahmanist and Buddhist gods from India; they also reflect the primitive ideals of ancient Khmers through religious practice.

Even though we are not able to determine accurately which of these two great religions was first adopted in ancient Cambodian, we do know that Cambodia was influenced by Indian civilization, probably as early as the beginning of the Christian era. As reference materials, the inscriptions also provide information on the ways that the faithful practiced these two great religions.

The influence of Brahmanism and Buddhism turned Khmer art into religious art, which is represented by the temples in its architectural form and by the deities in the field of sculpture; not forgetting other art forms.

There are no objects remaining in the museum’s sculpture collections to provide evidence of the practice of these two religions in Cambodia between the 1^st and the 5^th centuries. Most of the sandstone and bronze items have already been studied and catalogued by the archaeologists into several periods. The most ancient one being the Phnom Da period, late Fu-Nan era (6^th century), followed by the Angkorian and Post-Angkorian eras.

Historical research shows that the Fu-Nan existed long before the arrival of a new civilization from India and that Fu-Nan kings were given the title of Cakravartin (‘king of the mountain’), as evidenced by George Coedés.

The significance of such a title shows that in the past, Khmer people believed the mountain –a natural symbol – held magical powers. As such, the mountain was considered to be a sacred object. Contemporary scholars have described this belief as ‘animism’.

This interpretation indicates that the Khmers considered their king as a god endowed with the forces of nature.

This ideal vision was more clearly expressed at the time when the Khmer kings practiced Brahmanism and Buddhism as state religions. The inscriptions and the Chinese historic records provide additional evidence. Kamaleswar Bhattacharya mentions that, “…these very documents (the Chinese dynastic records) teach us, among other things that Sivaism had fused with native worship and beliefs”.

Such evidence can be found in the names of some of the mountains where the Khmer kings developed the cult of Siva, such as the Lingapparvata Mountain, which towers above the Vat Phou site in southern present-day Laos, and the Chinese-named Motan Mountain in Ba Phnom district Prey Veng province. Nowadays, Khmer people call the latter Phnom Ksach Sar, ‘White Sand Mountain’, or Phnom Chhoeu Kach, ‘Broken Tree Mountain’.

On both mountains, the Khmer kings erected the symbols of the Brahmanic god Siva in its ling an appearance, to meet their religious beliefs. In doing so, the kings achieved a successful fusion of native cuts and religious concepts.

Man represented the Brahmanic and Buddhist supreme gods through works of art to make their power and functions more accessible to all.

To understand these works of art, it is necessary to know more about the main figureheads of these two religious trends.