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Faces of Cambodia: Buddhism(S), Portraiture and Images of Kings

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Faces of Cambodia: Buddhism(S), Portraiture and Images of Kings Faces of Cambodia: Buddhism(s), Portraiture and Images of Kings Joanna Mary Wolfarth Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies September 2014 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2014 The University of Leeds and Joanna Mary Wolfarth The right of Joanna Mary Wolfarth to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Acknowledgments Thanks must first go to my supervisor, Dr. Ashley Thompson, for encouraging me to undertake this journey, sharing her expertise and patiently advising me throughout. This thesis, particularly Chapter Four, also benefited from her MA/PhD seminars, ‘Losing Perspectives’, which I attended at Leeds over a number of years. I am grateful to my second supervisor, Dr. Catherine Karkov, for guidance and assistance, especially her editorial input for my final draft. I benefited tremendously from the lively research community in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies and from the mutual support of my post-graduate colleagues at Leeds. Presenting at a number of national and international conferences further increased my confidence as a researcher and I offer my gratitude to the organisers, respondents and audiences who provided me with feedback. Particular mention must go to the Theravāda Civilisations Project and the Southeast Asian Graduate Forum at the National University Singapore. An unexpected but very welcome boon of this undertaking has been gaining a second home in Cambodia, primarily thanks to the warmth and hospitality of friends and colleagues in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Battambang. Special mention goes to Ngin Virath whose Khmer language classes went beyond grammar and vocabulary and I gained much from our chats about Cambodian history, culture and language. My thanks goes to Michael Sullivan, Krisna Uk and the staff at the Center for Khmer Studies for allowing me to participate in their language programme and providing me with a research home away from home. Their librarians Oum Daraneth, Chhor Sivlent and Norng Chealiny were always obliging with my many book and photocopying requests. I was assisted in navigating layers of bureaucracy by Im Sokrithy and Prof. Ang Choulean who also generously shared their vast knowledge of Khmer culture and history. Thanks also goes to the APSARA Authority, the guides at Banteay Chhmar, and the staff of the National Archives of Cambodia. And to the students and staff at Phare Ponleu Selpak, who continue to inspire. I am indebted to Siyonn Sophearith for sharing his wisdom and offering encouragement and energetic conversation over ‘just one beer’. And I could not have completed my fieldwork without the unfailing assistance and sharp intelligence of Siv Sineth. This research was generously assisted by a scholarship and supplementary funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. I also extend my deepest thanks to Joyce Clark and Friends of Khmer Culture for sparking my interest in Angkor by inviting me to attend a conference in Banteay Chhmar during my MA, pressing a book on the Bayon into my hands and, later, generously supporting my work on Cambodia throughout my PhD candidacy. I am forever indebted to the unfailing support of my family and friends, both old and new, who travelled with me on every step of this journey and who have been my greatest cheerleading squad. Thanks in particular to Helen, Birgitte, Jehan and my uncle Martin. Finally, I dedicate this thesis to my parents, Janet and Peter, and to my grandparents, Norman and Dorothy, for teaching me the value of curiosity and without whom none of this would have been possible. Abstract In the late twelfth-century the face dominated the visual landscape of the Angkor Empire, appearing at the Mahāyānist Bayon temple in the form of monumental ‘face towers’, a distinctive architectural-cum-sculptural feature of the reign of Jayavarman VII, the first Buddhist king of Cambodia. Together with statues apparently sculpted as a physical likeness of the king, this artistic output probed the conceptual contours of the face and the scope of portraiture. Since the twelfth century the face, primarily in a four- faced configuration, has continued as a uniquely Cambodian trope, cited and revived in changing politico-cultural contexts. The monumental visages of Angkor have been the subject of a wealth of scholarship over the last century and a half, yet there has been a lack of consideration of the Cambodian faces as faces from a phenomenological perspective. Neither has there been a thorough interrogation of the precise mechanisms by which the faces ‘reappeared’ in twentieth-century Cambodia. Therefore, this thesis addresses questions of the face and portraiture within a multi-layered Buddhist- Brahmānic complex, in order to counter hegemonies which persist in art historical scholarship on the Bayon. This examination of the face is primarily formulated on three levels of interrogation: the face as portrait, the face as the locus of personhood or subjectivity, and historiographies associated with the face. Due to the subsequent, and indeed on-going, appropriation of the Bayon faces, the final chapters give critical emphasis to the face of the king in the contemporary visual landscape of Cambodia. A Note on Language and Terminology I have used Sanskrit renderings of terms unless specifically referring to terms in other languages, such as Pali and Khmer. Non-English terms are italicised and include diacritics, unless they are familiar or frequently used in the thesis. All translations from French to English are my own unless otherwise stated. In the case of Sanskrit inscriptions I include both the Sanskrit transliteration and the French translation with which I have worked, along with my own English translation from the French. The terms “Cambodian” and “Khmer” are used interchangeably. In more technical usage “Cambodian” refers to national citizenship and language, while “Khmer” refers to Cambodia’s ethnic majority and their mother tongue which is the language of the majority of Cambodian nationals, regardless of whether they are ethnically Khmer or not. A glossary is included to provide broad definitions for Buddhist, Brahmānic, and Angkorian terminology and major divinities. Contents INTRODUCTION: FACES OF CAMBODIA .......................................................................... 1 Faces, Portraits, and Histories 5 Some Preliminaries 13 Buddhism(s) ........................................................................................................................................... 13 Kingship .................................................................................................................................................. 14 “Indianisation” ....................................................................................................................................... 17 What Came Before: The Four-Faces in Pre-Bayon Cambodia ................................................................ 18 Periodisation .......................................................................................................................................... 21 CHAPTER ONE: WRITING HISTORIES: RE-DISCOVERY, RECOVERY, STYLE, AND CITATION................................................................................................................................ 25 I: Institutionalising Cambodian History 27 The Myths of (Re)Discovery ................................................................................................................... 28 Colonial Knowledge Production in Cambodia ........................................................................................ 30 History as the Study of Style .................................................................................................................. 34 II: Contesting Linear Narratives: Histories as Citations. 38 Filling in the Gaps: The Middle Period ................................................................................................... 38 Cyclical Conceptions of Time and the Cult of Maitreya ......................................................................... 40 Material Renovations: Middle Period Citations of the Four Faces ........................................................ 42 Conclusion 47 CHAPTER TWO: JAYAVARMAN VII AND ARCHITECTURES OF CONFIDENCE: (RE-)ESTABLISHING ORDER AND ASSERTING KINGSHIP ...................................... 51 The Persona of the King ......................................................................................................................... 53 Angkor’s First Buddhist King .................................................................................................................. 55 Warrior King: Recording Legends at Angkor Thom ................................................................................ 57 Jayavarman VII: Prodigious Builder at Angkor ....................................................................................... 65 Conclusion 70 CHAPTER THREE: THE BAYON: THE ORIGINARY FACES OF CAMBODIA .......... 73 The Bayon: The King’s
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