page_title: Khmer architecture
section_title: Bas-relief
hierarchical_section_title: Khmer architecture / Elements / Bas-relief
caption_attribution_description: English: This pediment shows the burning of Khāṇḍava Forest.
context_page_description: Khmer architecture, also known as Angkorian architecture is the architecture produced by the Khmers during the Angkor period of the Khmer Empire from approximately the later half of the 8th century CE to the first half of the 15th century CE.
  The architecture of the Indian rock-cut temples, particularly the sculptures, were widely adopted in South Indian, and Indianised architecture of Cambodian, Annamese and Javanese temples. In any study of Angkorian architecture, the emphasis is necessarily on religious architecture, since all the remaining Angkorian buildings are religious in nature. During the period of Angkor, only temples and other religious buildings were constructed of stone. Non-religious buildings such as dwellings were constructed of perishable materials such as wood, and so have not survived. The religious architecture of Angkor has characteristic structures, elements, and motifs, which are identified in the glossary below. Since a number of different architectural styles succeeded one another during the Angkorean period, not all of these features were equally in evidence throughout the period.
context_section_description: Bas-reliefs are individual figures, groups of figures, or entire scenes cut into stone walls, not as drawings but as sculpted images projecting from a background. Sculpture in bas-relief is distinguished from sculpture in haut-relief, in that the latter projects farther from the background, in some cases almost detaching itself from it. The Angkorian Khmer preferred to work in bas-relief, while their neighbors the Cham were partial to haut-relief.
  Narrative bas-reliefs are bas-reliefs depicting stories from mythology or history. Until about the 11th century, the Angkorian Khmer confined their narrative bas-reliefs to the space on the tympana above doorways. The most famous early narrative bas-reliefs are those on the tympana at the 10th-century temple of Banteay Srei, depicting scenes from Hindu mythology as well as scenes from the great works of Indian literature, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. By the 12th century, however, the Angkorian artists were covering entire walls with narrative scenes in bas-relief. At Angkor Wat, the external gallery wall is covered with some 12,000 or 13,000 square meters of such scenes, some of them historical, some mythological. Similarly, the outer gallery at the Bayon contains extensive bas-reliefs documenting the everyday life of the medieval Khmer as well as historical events from the reign of King Jayavarman VII.
  The following is a listing of the motifs illustrated in some of the more famous Angkorian narrative bas-reliefs:
  bas-reliefs in the tympana at Banteay Srei (10th century)
  the duel of the monkey princes Vali and Sugriva, and the intervention of the human hero Rama on behalf of the latter
  the duel of Bhima and Duryodhana at the Battle of Kurukshetra
  the Rakshasa king Ravana shaking Mount Kailasa, upon which sit Shiva and his shakti
  Kama firing an arrow at Shiva as the latter sits on Mount Kailasa
  the burning of Khandava Forest by Agni and Indra's attempt to extinguish the flames
  bas-reliefs on the walls of the outer gallery at Angkor Wat (mid-12th century)
  the Battle of Lanka between the Rakshasas and the vanaras or monkeys
  the court and procession of King Suryavarman II, the builder of Angkor Wat
  the Battle of Kurukshetra between Pandavas and Kauravas
  the judgment of Yama and the tortures of Hell
  the Churning of the Ocean of Milk
  a battle between devas and asuras
  a battle between Vishnu and a force of asuras
  the conflict between Krishna and the asura Bana
  the story of the monkey princes Vali and Sugriva
  bas-reliefs on the walls of the outer and inner galleries at the Bayon (late 12th century)
  battles on land and sea between Khmer and Cham troops
  scenes from the everyday life of Angkor
  civil strife among the Khmer
  the legend of the Leper King
  the worship of Shiva
  groups of dancing apsaras
caption: A bas-relief in a tympanum at Banteay Srei shows Indra releasing the rains in an attempt to extinguish the fire created by Agni.
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