Khmer Sculpture
In
the early period of Khmer Empire, Khmer culture was greatly affected by two
main religions, Hindu and Buddhism, making most aspects of the country including
architectures and arts involve in religious representation. As a part of arts,
sculpture is seen to have been a major mean of symbolizing Hindu and Buddhism.
By the 7th century, Khmer sculpture started to drift apart from
Hindu gradually; and by the 10th century, it became completely and
absolutely of Khmer work. Since then, sculpture has had its own roles to play
in Khmer culture independently.
Although
it got its independence from Hindu in the 10th century, sculpture is
still, up to now, used as ornaments in relation to religion and the advancement
of the work in various needs of the society. As seen attached to the walls of
the temples remained, sculptures such as reliefs at Angkor Wat show the expertise
of the ancient arts and the belief of people of that time in their gods in one
set of masterpiece. Because of the competition among the artists, this piece of
arts became more sophisticated from one generation to another, making it a
desirable decoration of all time in terms of implicit religious affiliation.
Besides
reliefs seen on the walls of temples, statues are included in the arts of
sculpture as well. Those standalone sculptures were widely used in the ancient
time to represent gods and goddesses of their belief, but most of which in the
today’s culture are used to give real images of kings, queens and some other
powerful and famous people such as writers, singers, inventors and others who
are most worth remembering as well.
Another
use of sculpture besides the big pieces mentioned above is found in such small
things as offerings. In ancient time, when a country is lost to another one,
ornate offerings were given to the victorious country, all of which were
carefully sculpted. Today’s ornaments such as bowls, vases, pots, spoons…etc
are also covered in sculpture as additional beauty and attraction; and those
things as such are very valuable in terms of price and culture representation.
To
wrap up, Khmer culture covers a good deal of custom and arts including
sculpture; and sculpture itself has been playing a very compulsory role since
the early period of the emergence of the Khmer empire. Not only does this piece
of arts involve in such big construction as temples and palaces, but also in
public expressions as standing statues and as household ornaments. This art
also show the world how creative and superior our ancestors were. Since this
legacy is essential to this extent, we young generation should help keep this
art alive and pass it to the next generation for the sake of our nation.
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