Jayavarman VII
The similarity of the 216 gigantic faces on the temple's towers to other statues of the king has led many scholars to the conclusion that the faces are representations of Jayavarman VII, himself (). Scholars have theorized that the faces belong to the bodhisattva of compassion called Avalokitesvara or Lokesvara. Others have argued that the faces, arranged in four, resemble those of Brahma. The two hypotheses need not be regarded as mutually exclusive. Angkor scholar George Coedès has theorized that Jayavarman VII stood squarely in the tradition of the Khmer monarchs in thinking of himself as a "devaraja" (god-king), the salient difference being that while his predecessors were Hindus and regarded themselves as consubstantial with Shiva and his symbol the lingam, Jayavarman VII was a Buddhist.