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Kampuchea Chef In late 2003, Emma Bunker was using her status as a scholar of Asian art and decades of involvement with the Denver Art Museum Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Khmer Art Overseas 1/3:
In late 2003, Emma Bunker was using her status as a scholar of Asian art and decades of involvement with the Denver Art Museum as a research consultant and board member, to prepare the ground for her lavishly illustrated book published in 2004, Adoration and Glory, which she co-authored with Douglas Latchford. The pair used it as a vehicle to give works of art a semblance of scholarly legitimacy, while Latchford also saw it as a catalogue of treasures that he could sell to collectors and museums. To pave the way, Bunker published an article titled Tantric Hinduism in Khmer Culture a few months earlier. In it she identified three impressive bronze sculptures that I’ve not seen since, so it’s worth having a look at them individually, with Bunker’s text as our guide:
The first is a dynamic ten-armed representation of Shiva which radiates a powerful blend of calm and restrained inner energy. The great god Shiva, richly jeweled and wearing a sampot can kpin with an ornate girdle, is perfectly balanced on one foot. His pectoral and girdle are decorated with pendants front and back. The long earrings fall to the shoulders. The peaked top of the chignon is decorated with a lotus-flower design. Shiva is shown with ten arms, eight of which are raised on either side, and the other two are held in front of the body with the palms of the hands facing outward. The Shiva image is cast in a post-Bayon Angkor Vat revival style, and reflects Jayavarman VIII’s renewed enthusiasm for Hinduism during the latter half of the thirteenth century, probably as a reaction to the Buddhism of Jayavarman VII. Shiva’s characteristic third eye is shown on his forehead, and the Sanskrit symbol for the mantra Om is displayed on the front of his chignon. Early in Hindu mythology Shiva was known as a yoga master, and the third eye, crown of hair, and symbol Om combined present Shiva in the guise of a yogin. In its original assemblage, the figure was probably shown dancing on top of a corpse on a bronze base, both of which are now lost. So little is known of Khmer Tantric Hindu images that there is no known Khmer mandala with which to associate this figure. His “dance” posture is the same frenzied dance posture in which Hevajra is traditionally depicted. This Shiva image is lost-wax cast in several parts. The two sets of five arms were each cast separately, and then attached to the pre-cast head and torso. This type of construction is typical of twelfth-and-thirteenth century Khmer bronze sculpture, especially when the deity portrayed is multi-armed. The more common Tantric image of Shiva was Sadashiva, of which several examples apparently cast in the Phimai region were published by George Coedès. According to the Sdok Kak Thom inscription, Sadashiva, Shiva in his five-headed aspect with ten arms and ten hands making the teaching gesture, represents the four Tantric texts involved in Jayavarman’s 802 consecration, though Sadashiva images were apparently not fashioned until the twelfth century.
You can hear a lot more about the relationship between Emma Bunker and Douglas Latchford in the Project Brazen podcast series, Dynamite Doug. https://dynamitedoug.com/ Bunker first came to prominence with her 1972 magazine article on the Prakhon Chai bronzes from NE Thailand. She co-authored three coffee-table books with Latchford, namely Adoration and Glory (2004), Khmer Gold (2008) and Khmer Bronzes (2011).
Description: Dancing Shiva, post-Bayon style 13thC, bronze, H 41 cm. Provenance: Private collection, New York. Published in Tantric Hinduism in Khmer Culture by Emma Bunker, Nov 2003.
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