The gods and their temoples
In Cambodia and in ancient India there were two distinct types of deiry: the 'autochthonous' or home-grown gods, and those of Brahmanic or Buddhist origin.There is hardly any direct information available about the former, since the inscriptions are virtually silent in this respect, But the existence of these ancestor spirits, called Neak ta by the Khmers, and the worship they attracted is still widely attested up to the present day and there is little doubt that from time immemorial they have been invoked and honoured, Their shines are usually humble and people typically make offerings of a little food, or sometimes a chicken and on special occasions even a pig, together with a few flowers, cigarettes, and liquor, the meat and alcohol ensuring the distinction between these gods and those of Indian origin. In the everyday lives of the Khmers they have a significance which belies appearances. They are the guardians of the earth, ensuring its rich produce, If they are well-treated they will favour the supplicant with benefits. They are neither virtuous nor vicious, but they can be bad-tempered and inflict illness if they consider they have not been properly treated.
There was naturally a hierarchy among these deities. The most important of them is the Devaraja- the muchvaunted 'king of the gods' - who reigns over all the kingdom's local divinities. At the same time as Jayavarman II had himself consecrated 'emperor of the world' in 802, he installed as his divine counterpart a kind of 'super-Devaraja', without iconic features, to remain close to the king as his presence in the spirit world. Significantly, the same deity is still present in the main hall of the throne room of the Thai king's palace in Bangkok, and the Khmer Devaraja doubtless enjoys a corresponding place of honour in Phnom Penh's royal palace.
For their part, the gods of Indian Origin were also the guardians of the kingdom's prosperity, providing the king wihth essential support in this regard. They were gods of the cosmos rather than of particular localities, so they were necessarily on a different plane from the autochthonous deities,but they could on occasion bestow favours on individual devotees. Three faiths were practised in ancient Cambodia, although they can be viewed as varieties of a single creed, as each derives from the same primorkial principles. They were Hinduism, which manifested itself in the cults of Shiva and of Vishnu,and Buddhism which, it seems, in the earliest period generally followed the Mahayana or 'greater vehicle' parh. Theravada - the ' lesser vehicle' branch of Buddhism = is attested by a few inscriptions but although there must have been monuments, none have survived, Probably built of perishable materials, they have long since disappeared.
The 'personality cults' mentioned above deserve some further comment. It is an established fact that over a considerable period the Khmers commissioned sacred statues to be carved in the likeness of recently-deceased relatives, giving the image the name of a deity which was often a straightforward adaptation of the deceased's personal name during their their lifetime. Indeed the word 'apotheosis' has been mentioned, but this is not what was intended, since in the poems which sometimes accompany these stature, their donors petition for the portrayed relative to attain nirvana. The practice of placing of such statues in major temples beside those of the main pantheon began relatively late, appearing in the 12th and 13th centuries. Ancestor worship existed then and has survived to this day. The ancestors are celebrated on the great annual feast-day of prachum Ben, and people often ask them through a medium, as they must have done in former times, for their counsel on any important course of action involving the family.
The gods and their temoples
In Cambodia and in ancient India there were two distinct types of deiry: the 'autochthonous' or home-grown gods, and those of Brahmanic or Buddhist origin.There is hardly any direct information available about the former, since the inscriptions are virtually silent in this respect, But the existence of these ancestor spirits, called Neak ta by the Khmers, and the worship they attracted is still widely attested up to the present day and there is little doubt that from time immemorial they have been invoked and honoured, Their shines are usually humble and people typically make offerings of a little food, or sometimes a chicken and on special occasions even a pig, together with a few flowers, cigarettes, and liquor, the meat and alcohol ensuring the distinction between these gods and those of Indian origin. In the everyday lives of the Khmers they have a significance which belies appearances. They are the guardians of the earth, ensuring its rich produce, If they are well-treated they will favour the supplicant with benefits. They are neither virtuous nor vicious, but they can be bad-tempered and inflict illness if they consider they have not been properly treated.
There was naturally a hierarchy among these deities. The most important of them is the Devaraja- the muchvaunted 'king of the gods' - who reigns over all the kingdom's local divinities. At the same time as Jayavarman II had himself consecrated 'emperor of the world' in 802, he installed as his divine counterpart a kind of 'super-Devaraja', without iconic features, to remain close to the king as his presence in the spirit world. Significantly, the same deity is still present in the main hall of the throne room of the Thai king's palace in Bangkok, and the Khmer Devaraja doubtless enjoys a corresponding place of honour in Phnom Penh's royal palace.
For their part, the gods of Indian Origin were also the guardians of the kingdom's prosperity, providing the king wihth essential support in this regard. They were gods of the cosmos rather than of particular localities, so they were necessarily on a different plane from the autochthonous deities,but they could on occasion bestow favours on individual devotees. Three faiths were practised in ancient Cambodia, although they can be viewed as varieties of a single creed, as each derives from the same primorkial principles. They were Hinduism, which manifested itself in the cults of Shiva and of Vishnu,and Buddhism which, it seems, in the earliest period generally followed the Mahayana or 'greater vehicle' parh. Theravada - the ' lesser vehicle' branch of Buddhism = is attested by a few inscriptions but although there must have been monuments, none have survived, Probably built of perishable materials, they have long since disappeared.
The 'personality cults' mentioned above deserve some further comment. It is an established fact that over a considerable period the Khmers commissioned sacred statues to be carved in the likeness of recently-deceased relatives, giving the image the name of a deity which was often a straightforward adaptation of the deceased's personal name during their their lifetime. Indeed the word 'apotheosis' has been mentioned, but this is not what was intended, since in the poems which sometimes accompany these stature, their donors petition for the portrayed relative to attain nirvana. The practice of placing of such statues in major temples beside those of the main pantheon began relatively late, appearing in the 12th and 13th centuries. Ancestor worship existed then and has survived to this day. The ancestors are celebrated on the great annual feast-day of prachum Ben, and people often ask them through a medium, as they must have done in former times, for their counsel on any important course of action involving the family.
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