IB World Religion

an area of 1,500 by 1,300 m (4,920 by 4,265 ft) and is surrounded by a vast moat 180 m (590 ft) wide.

giant serpents, which are believed to represent emblems of cosmic fertility.

Hindu mythology, principally scenes relating to the god Vishnu,

"mass of bas-relief carving is of the highest quality and the most beautifully executed in Angkor.

filled with three-dimensional images and every inch of the walls are covered by sculptures.

grandiose and monumental works in sandstone representing goods, mythical guardians and legendary creatures to bronzes used for religious rituals and royal and aristocratic ceremonies.

``The small colonies of Indian traders, who settled at points of vantage along the sea routes into the islands and around the coast of Indochina, merely imported with them their code of living, their conceptions of law and kingship, their rich literature and highly evolved philosophy of life. They intermarried with prominent local families: and dynasties evolved capable of organising extensive kingdoms within which their populations could live ordered and fruitful lives.''

Thai raids on Angkor, the growing importance of Theravada Buddhism in Cambodia a

``At the sight of this temple, one feels one's spirit crushed, one's imagination surpassed. One looks, one admires, and, seized with respect, one is silent. For where are the words to praise a work of art that may not have its equal anywhere on the globe? ... What genius this Michalangelo of the East had, that he was capable of concaving such a work.'' (Le Tour du Monde, 2-1863-299).

ndologist from Leiden, Hendrik Kern, who had no problem in deciphering the Sanskrit-based characters of the ancient Cambodian texts and stone inscriptions, which were related to those used in southern India.

in 1879

The south Indian type, which actually played a historical part, was known and used across all the former territory of Khmer.'' (Khmer Epigraphy - Saveros Pou).

George Coedes, who in 1906, at the age of 20, published a long Sanskrit inscription from Cambodia and who over the next 60 years translated hundreds of complex Sanskrit and Khmer texts with wide-ranging significance and bearing.

, Hinduism and Buddhism existed side by side in Cambodia during the fifth and sixth centuries.

Sivaism, one of the two major branches of Hinduism,

An Indian tradition held that it was Siva himself who had revealed the secrets of grammar to Panini.'' (The religions of ancient Cambodia, Bhattacharya.)

Sivaism and had a lingam installed with all the correct rituals in Phnom Kulen by a Brahmin well-versed in appropriate texts, ``his son and successor, Jayavarman III was a Visnuite,'' according to Bhattacharya, and the founder of Angkor Vat, King Suryavarman II (1113-1145?), believed in Visnuism, thus indicating that the faith in the two branches of Hinduism varied from ruler t

Khmer art was religious

ew records survive to date the sculptures, and nothing is known about the artists who created these marvels.

scrutiny of minute details,

The National Gallery exhibition included two carved pediments of Banteay Srei with scenes from Hindu mythology. One of them depicted two demon brothers fighting for the possession of a nymph sent by the gods to incite their rivalry and provoke a fatal fight to put an end to their crimes.

e National Gallery of Art in Washington w