They Weren’t Always the Killing Fields

WASHINGTON —  For much of the last half-century, most of the great treasures of classical Cambodia, including the wondrous temple of Angkor Wat, have been hidden from the rest of the world by war, American bombing, Pol Pot savagery, Vietnamese occupation and political turmoil.

Now, some of the finest-wrought of the stone and bronze sculptures are making their way around the world in an exhibition that will serve as a dazzling discovery for most of those who see it.

Uniting 99 pieces from the two largest collections of Cambodian art in the world--the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh and the Guimet Museum in Paris--the exhibition, called “Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory,” opens today at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, in its only stop in the United States. There has never been a Cambodian show of this size and importance in the United States before. In fact, there has not been a comparable show anywhere in the world since the Paris Colonial Exposition of 1931.

The government of Cambodia, which has lent two-thirds of the sculptures in the exhibition, has done so for two reasons. Helen Ibbitson Jessup, the guest curator, says that many Cambodian officials have told her, “This will show the world that Cambodia is not just a bunch of thugs.” Cambodians also hope that the exhibition, which runs through Sept. 28, will prompt outsiders to help their impoverished country preserve monumental sites now prey to natural deterioration and looting.

As workers mounted the sculptures in the exhibition space recently, Jessup told a visitor: “People may have read about Oriental art. They may have read about Cambodian art. They may have seen many photos. But when they stand in front of one of these objects for the first time, their mouths fall open.”

Almost all the pieces are religious works of art--either of Hinduism or Buddhism, the two Indian religions that took hold in Cambodia during the thousand years (the 6th to the 16th century) that produced the sculptures.

Although the Indian influence is strong, the sculptures have a serenity, gentleness and aloofness that mark them as specially Cambodian. Jessup often describes the Cambodian pieces as exalted and sacred.

Their beauty may also make a Westerner pause to wonder about the crafting of such exquisite, classical forms in Southeast Asia at a time when Europeans, after sacking Rome, were passing through their Dark Ages, trying to learn the most rudimentary techniques of art.

Much of the sculpture in the exhibition comes from an area known as Angkor (near the present-day town of Siem Reap) that served as the capital of powerful Khmer or Cambodian kingdoms for most of the 9th through 16th centuries. French missionaries, officials and travelers came upon the temples of these kingdoms in the forests of Cambodia in the mid-19th century and spread the word to Europe.

They were most enthusiastic about the massive temple of Angkor Wat, with its five intricately carved towers and scores of bas-reliefs of episodes from Hindu mythology. French naturalist Henri Mouhot, who did the most to popularize the glories of Khmer architecture in the 1860s, wrote in his journal after seeing Angkor Wat: “At the sight of this temple, one feels one’s spirit crushed, one’s imagination surpassed. One looks, one admires, and, seized with respect, one is silent. For where are the words to praise a work of art that may not have its equal anywhere on the globe?”

Angkor Wat has become such an icon of Cambodian greatness that the outlines of its walls and towers appear on the modern Cambodian flag, and now that the borders are open, foreign tourists have started to trickle back to see this wonder of Oriental architecture.

The French took over Cambodia as a protectorate in 1863, but the Angkor area, now regarded as the largest archeological site in the world, had been annexed by Thailand at the end of the 18th century. That political arrangement gave the French access to Angkor from Cambodia but no responsibility for the site, a formula for plunder. In one 19th century expedition, French explorer Louis Delaporte returned with 70 pieces of sculpture and architecture, all now part of the collections of the Guimet Museum in Paris.

In 1907, however, Thailand returned Angkor to Cambodia, and the French began to look on themselves as the protectors of classical Khmer art. French conservators traveled to Cambodia to restore the monuments and to set up a museum in Phnom Penh for those pieces that no longer fit into the ruins of temples.

French administration of Angkor attracted French tourists, who began arriving in 1907 from other parts of French Indochina by steam launch, sampan and water buffalo cart. By 1912, French tour operators organized stays at Angkor at $12 a day for room and board plus $2 for a half-day excursion to the monuments by elephant. Increased tourism, however, led to increased looting.

The lure of Cambodian art was so great that, in one infamous case, celebrated young French novelist Andre Malraux made his way by cart to the newly discovered ruins of Banteay Srei, just north of Angkor Wat, in 1923 and dragged off several sculpted pieces. Malraux and an associate were arrested with their loot in Phnom Penh and charged with dealing in antiquities. But French intellectuals rallied to Malraux’s defense, and he and his accomplice, though convicted, escaped with suspended sentences.

Jessup, an Australian-born art historian married to an American, says her “dream of Angkor” began in the early 1960s when she was living in the Thai capital of Bangkok. She had planned an excursion to Angkor Wat by car but was forced to give it up because she was pregnant with her first child and doctors deemed the trip too arduous.

She had to wait 30 years to get there. The way was blocked first by the Cambodian civil war that accompanied the war in Vietnam and the American bombing of Cambodian supply lines used by the North Vietnamese. In 1975, Pol Pot and his Communist Khmer Rouge took over and launched a four-year reign of terror that attempted to wipe out all vestiges of European education and culture. More than 1 million Cambodians died in Pol Pot’s “killing fields.”

The Vietnamese invaded and overthrew Pol Pot in 1979, imposing a quisling government during an occupation of 10 years. The Khmer Rouge joined Prince Norodom Sihanouk and other Cambodians in an uprising against this foreign-propped government. The Vietnamese withdrew in 1989, and foreign governments, led by Indonesia and France and supported by the United States, induced the warring parties to sign a peace agreement in Paris in 1991. This led to United Nations-supervised elections in 1993 and, after so many years of turmoil, a heavy measure of peace. (There are reports that Pol Pot was recently captured by a renegade Khmer Rouge faction.)

Jessup, who was living in Indonesia and had put together an exhibition of Indonesian court arts for the Asia Society in New York and the Sackler Gallery in Washington in 1990 and 1991, followed the peace moves closely from her Jakarta vantage point.

Realizing that the time had come to show the world Cambodian art, Jessup flew to Phnom Penh while the U.N. peacekeepers were in charge, managed to see Angkor Wat and other temples for the first time and persuaded Cambodian officials to let their works tour. Since the Guimet Museum was about to close for restoration in Paris, French officials agreed to let their works tour as well.

“I have 98% of the masterpieces in the Guimet and 90% of the masterpieces in Phnom Penh,” Jessup said. The Cambodians held back four important pieces--a pair too fragile to travel, another pair too sacred to let go.

Reading news of street fighting and tension in Phnom Penh in recent weeks, Jessup said, she was relieved not to have the sacred objects with her. “What if we had them with us, and something happened to Cambodia,” she said. “We would be put into the cycle of blame.”

Jessup found that Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge, despite their wanton killing, had not destroyed the classic architecture and sculpture of Cambodia.

“The Khmer Rouge did not hurt the monuments,” she explained. “Yes, they killed the curators and conservators. They burned down the modern Buddhist temples. But they left the monuments and sculptures alone.”

Khmer temples and sculptures are so related that the French, when they mounted their comprehensive exhibition in 1931, created a life-size model of the top level of Angkor Wat with its five towers. Nothing like that is attempted in Washington. Instead, the mood of the temples is evoked by a series of mural blowups of modern photographs and 19th century lithographs.

Jessup has a favorite piece in the exhibition: a 7th century sandstone sculpture of Durga, sister of the Hindu God Vishnu. She has just slain a demon buffalo, and her beautiful, sensuous body seems to be soaring. The flight is so stirring that a viewer barely notices that her face and arms have broken off. “It’s as good as the Winged Victory,” Jessup says, referring to the armless and headless Greek statue that is one of the centerpieces of the Louvre in Paris.

The crowds at the National Gallery will also see the 8th century carving of Ganesh, the creature in the form of a human body and an elephant head that is one of the most popular gods in Hindu mythology. His ample sandstone belly shines from the countless hands that have rubbed him through the centuries in search of support.

A series of four 10th century sandstone guardian figures from the temple of Banteay Srei, the site that Malraux tried to plunder, will surely prove just as popular. To ward off evil intruders, each sports a fierce head--of a lion, monkey, raptor and genie. Yet they have a wonderful calm and gentleness that belie their role. “Even the lion is smiling,” Jessup said.

Although the Cambodians prefer to leave sculptures in place wherever possible, these guardians were carted off from the temple during the Pol Pot era and transferred to the national museum because they seemed easy to steal.

As an inducement to the Cambodians, American and French conservators have restored and cleaned some of the pieces. Jessup pointed out that a 7th century sculpture of the Hindu god Vishnu had arrived with two faulty supports, a badly attached arm and a good deal of dirt. The conservators removed the supports, attached the arm so the cracks did not show and cleaned up the statue.

“When the Cambodian minister of culture saw this piece,” Jessup said, “he burst into tears.”

Cambodian sculptors worked in bronze as well as sandstone, and the show features an enormous 11th century bronze bust of Vishnu that was uncovered in 1936. The bust is all that is left of a colossal work--one of the largest ever cast in Cambodia--that depicted the mythical story of Vishnu reclining on a serpent slithering through water. Although the head is damaged, it still exudes power.

Cambodian sculptors carved Buddhas throughout the millennium, but they become prevalent toward the last centuries when Buddhism supplanted Hinduism as the main religion of the Khmers. The buddhas are always serene, aloof and placid with sweet smiles, and like a 13th century sandstone carving from the Guimet Museum in Paris, they are usually guarded by a Naga, a massive cobra of many heads that also serves as the symbol of life-giving water.

Since the contributions from the Guimet are so vital, it made sense for the exhibition to open in Paris at the Grand Palais in February. After the stay in Washington, it will go on to Japan, first to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in October and then to the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art in January.

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* “Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory,” National Gallery of Art, 4th Street and Constitution Avenue N.W., Washington. Today through Sept. 28. (202) 737-4215.