Gods and Temples

Abstract

The ProblemOur understanding of religion in the Angkorian World was initiated by Indianists and Khmerologists more than one century ago. The standard academic narrative developed from this work focused on the Khmer kingdom's adoption of Indian religions (Hinduism, Buddhism) around the beginning of the Common Era (Chatterjee 1964(Chatterjee [1927; Bareau 1976). At this time, the long-standing maritime exchanges between South and Southeast Asia germinated and created the hypothesis of a 'natural' impregnation of peninsular and insular Southeast Asian cultures by Indian models (Pollock 1996, 239). A first wave of Indianisation swept over the peninsula into Cambodia, then known as Funan, spreading South Asian habits and customs and thereby ensuring a particularly strong diffusion of their religion(s) (Coedès 1989(Coedès [1948). Śaivism and Vais . n . avism became deeply integrated within the local milieu, with Buddhism also being adopted, though to a lesser degree (Briggs 1951;Coedès 1953). An important part of this religious package, the Khmer temple, first appeared around the 5th-6th centuries CE and would eventually become the apex symbol of Angkor's political, religious, and economic power.Scholars recognising these obvious connections to India soon came to consider Angkorian religion as a classic example of syncretism, a label originating in mid-19th-century Indian scholarship (Burnouf 1876(Burnouf [1845; Senart 1883; Lévi 1896). Hinduism and Buddhism were seen as being intertwined throughout their histories, most dramatically in the formation of Buddhist Tantra. Given the intellectual influence of this research in Cambodia, it is perhaps unsurprising that syncretism was also discovered within multiple domains of Angkorian religion within Hinduism (Śaivism and Vais . n . avism), between Śaivism and Buddhism, and also between the Indian religions and local chthonic belief systems (Barth 1889;Finot 1901;Briggs 1951). How well these interpretations reflect local realities of Angkorian religious organisation is not yet clear, especially since Indic gods were absorbed into the Khmer cultural substrate with its own collection of landscape-based tutelary spirits (Mus 1933). This chapter suggests that viewing Angkorian religion as pluralistic, not syncretic, more accurately represents the diversity of faiths-exogenous and local-that Angkorian kings, brahmins, and commoners practised than does syncretism. Key to this view is the recognition that Angkorian religion stems from inherently indigenous manifestations linked to a particular Cambodian landscape. This discussion also evaluates the nature of religious practice and seeks to explain how and why Śaivism was selected as the primary focus of Angkor's Brahmins and elites.