The Play of Language, Art and Ritual | SOAS University of London
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 2019-06-28

The Play of Language, Art and Ritual: Interpretation of Iconography at Banteay Srei Temple, Angkor was a seminar given by Siyonn Sophearith (Royal University of Fine Arts, Cambodia/UC California, Berkeley) at the Centre of South East Asian Studies, SOAS University of London on 6 March 2019. Find out more at http://bit.ly/2Fy7yWi

Built by Yajñavarāha, a guru of King Jayavarman V (968-1001), and his family relatives, Banteay Srei is considered a “jewel” of Khmer architecture. The 10th century temple presents unique characteristics, starting from its “pink” color, its finely and meticulously sculpted reliefs and, most importantly, the narratives depicted on its lintels and pediments. Drawing mainly from the great Indian epics, the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, as well as from the Purāṇas, most of these narratives focus on the theme of “killing”. This paper aims, firstly, to explore how intricate play on language, art and ritual can be understood to have inspired this thematic choice; and, secondly, to explore the meaning of the Indic ‘killing’ theme in the  Khmer socio-religious context of the time of the temple’s construction.  

Speaker Biography
Siyonn Sophearith is the Director of Statistics and Planning of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Cambodia, and Lecturer in Cambodian History and Art History at Cambodia’s Royal University of Fine Arts. He undertook graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) and is currently completing his PhD dissertation entitled, ‘A Long Cambodian Tradition of Assisting the Dead: A Historical and Ethnographic Study of Pchum Ben.’ He has a wide range of research interests including Khmer mythology, History and Art History and religious practices in Cambodia. He is the author of a book entitled Pidan in Khmer Culture (Reyum 2008), and a number of articles including ‘Cows in Ancient Cambodia: A Reflection on Indians and Indian Tradition in Khmer Society,’ in India and Southeast Asia: Cultural Discourses (CAMA 2017); ‘Neak Pean: A Purifying Tīrtha [in Khmer],’ in Udaya, Journal of Khmer Studies (2009); ‘Significance of Teanh Prot, Cambodian Tug-of-war’ in ICH Courier online; ‘The Life of the Ramayana in Ancient Cambodia: A Study of the Political, Religious and Ethical Roles of an Epic Tale in Real Time (I and II),’ in Udaya, Journal of Khmer Studies (2006, 2007). He is also a regular contributor to an online journal in Khmer, Khmerenaissance of yosothor.org, an online website dedicated to Khmer culture. Articles in Khmerenaissance include “Depictions of chess playing on ancient bas-reliefs” (2006).