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Khmer Empire, Angkor Borei, 8th – 9th century. Superbly sculpted, standing in samabhanga wearing a diaphanous sanghati, the folds elegantly draped over his left shoulder and elbow, the hem stopping above the ankles. The serene face sensitively rendered with heavy-lidded eyes showcasing sinuous lids and round pupils, gently arched brows, and full lips, flanked by long pendulous earlobes, the hair arranged in snail-shell curls surmounted by an ushnisha.
Provenance: English private collection assembled in the 1980s. From the private collection of a Cambridgeshire gentleman, acquired from the above in 1990. Private collection in Luxembourg, acquired from the above. A copy of a geologic report by Dr. Ronald L. Bonewitz, signed and dated 20 December 2019, confirming the material and the condition report, accompanies this lot.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age, with extensive wear. Signs of weathering and erosion, deep gouges made during excavation, structural cracks, losses, and the lobe of one ear reattached. The sculpture was broken in two and reattached after its excavation.
Weight: 38 kg (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 97 cm (incl. stand), 89 cm (excl. stand)
Mounted to a metal stand.
The earliest stone sculptures of the region were created in the Mekong Delta, where Indian trading communities introduced their own Buddhist and Hindu beliefs. Contacts with regions to the north and China were also strengthened by trade. This Buddha retains elements of form that are associated with India while the two lotuses, rather than one, on which he stands indicate a Chinese influence. His appearance has been transformed by the introduction of a purely regional aesthetic, however. Separated from the South Asian sangha (religious establishment), local devotees came to see the Buddhist faith as their own and consequently endorsed their beliefs with images resembling themselves.
Buddhism had reached Southeast Asia by the 1st century AD, largely thanks to its popularity amongst Indian merchants who established trading communities around the Mekong Delta. They initially sourced gold in the region but found other rare commodities such as ivory, gemstones, minerals and fine woods for markets both at home and further west. As a result, the Mekong Delta became part of a wider trading network linking the China Seas with the Roman Empire. There are epigraphical accounts describing the journeys on merchant ships of Buddhist missionaries from southern India and Sri Lanka, but the earliest visual record of stone sculptures indicates that evangelists from northern India and possibly Gandhara and China were also active in the region.
International trading predated the establishment of diplomatic links between the rulers of the Mekong Delta with China in the 3rd century and various Indian kings in the 4th century. Indian and to a lesser extent Chinese culture gradually infiltrated the region’s hierarchy and while the higher echelons were attracted to the Buddhist and Hindu faiths, the vast majority of the people maintained their traditional beliefs.
A number of cities linked by canals existed in the Delta region, including the extensive sites of Oc Eo, Phnom Da, and Angkor Borei, which may have been autonomous principalities or part of a confederation. Along with the adjacent Phnom Da, Angkor Borei was a notable ritual center; its influence outlived the eclipse of Funan, perhaps through association with an ancestral cult. Buddhism and Hinduism had a unifying effect to some extent but within the region, devotees only adopted those aspects of the Indian faiths that were relevant to their needs; these probably varied from place to place. It is possible that the Buddha and Hindu gods were honored with temples and statues, emulating those of India, in order to bolster the political or social status of their Southeast Asian adherents.
Chinese writers left a number of accounts describing the kingdom of Funan in the Mekong Delta, which led French scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries to conclude that it was a great power whose influence stretched across much of Southeast Asia. During the last thirty years, however, an intensive amount of archaeological investigation in Southeast Asia has led to a reappraisal of the work conducted by the Ecole Fran?aise d’Extrème Orient during the French colonial period. This in no way diminishes the achievement of archaeologists such as Louis Mallaret, historians, for example Paul Pelliot and art historians including Pierre Dupont; rather, it places their work in a different context. The French believed that Funan was politically dominant until the 7th century but scholars now suggest that a number of small rival principalities existed, possibly city states whose strength and influence depended on changing political and economic circumstances. We do not know the names the inhabitants gave their homelands; Funan was a Chinese attempt at recording a local name, possibly ‘Phnom’ (meaning ‘mountain’). Funan may have spread its influence along the coast as far as the Malay Peninsula, but it is more likely that this was through the establishment of trading posts rather than political control. The French believed that a single culture spread through much of mainland Southeast Asia, but this is not strictly accurate. Away from the coast, communities were scattered and remote from one another, although ethnic groups shared certain spiritual ideas concerning village and nature deities.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related sandstone figure of Buddha standing on a lotus base, 98.3 cm high, dated to the 7th century, in the NMC, Phnom Penh, accession number Ka.1589.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 20 March 2012, lot 151
Price: USD 338,500 or approx. EUR 423,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A sandstone figure of Buddha Shakyamuni, Khmer, Angkor Borei, 9th century
Expert remark: Note the similar modeling and size (82.6 cm).
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