Buddhist PedimentInner Gallery (obscured)
This Buddhist pediment - the figure is four-armed Avalokiteshvara, not four-armed Vishnu - from the inner gallery was made during the original construction of the Bayon under Jayavarman VII, then obscured when Jayavarman VIII remodeled the temple; it's a good visual symbol of the complex history of this monument. According to some scholars, it is also evidence-by-analogy that the tower faces might represent that same god (discussion). Although Jayavarman VIII destroyed most of the temple's Buddhist images during his rebuilding, this one seems to have been spared, perhaps because it was mostly hidden by Jayavarman's reconstruction. The pediment is seen here from the upper terrace, its only vantage point. |