Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei is a temple in the Angkor region in Cambodia and is due to its ornamentation as one of the most elaborate. It lies about 23 kilometers northeast of Angkor Wat at the top Siem Reap River.

History

The temple was built in honor of Lord Shiva during the reign of Rajendravarman II ( 944-968 ). The client was the Brahmin Yajnavaraha, Guru of the later King Jayavarman V ( 968-1001 ). The inauguration took place on 22 April 967

The original name of the temple was Tribhuvanamahesvara ( "Great God of Trinitarian World"), referring to a manifestation of Shiva in Hindu tradition. The now common name Banteay Srei means " Citadel of Women" or " Citadel of Beauty".

The hard pink sandstone used allows for particularly detailed ornamentation. Nearly all the walls of the buildings in the temple complex are adorned with exceptionally fine relief decoration. Plastic worked out garlands and foliage ornaments alternate with tile -like carved panels, in many niches there are about 70 cm small figures: devatas, apsaras and dvarapalas. These works of art are so finely worked out that they seem more like carved as set in stone. Before the doors cower mythical guardian with human bodies and monkey heads on the staircase walls squat Garuda. Exceptionally beautiful are the bas-reliefs on the door lintels or pediments of the temple towers, libraries and Gopuram with depictions from Hindu mythology, especially the Ramayana.

Shiva and Uma on Mount Kailash, the demon Ravana shaking on its foundations

Indra (on Airavata ), rain -giving to end a drought, below the refreshed beings (lit.: Roveda 1997)

Building complex of Banteay Srei

Rediscovery

In 1914 the temple was rediscovered by accident by French archaeologists who worked in the Angkor region for some time. Caused a stir in 1923 André Malraux with the attempt from the Banteay Srei out broken sculptures and reliefs to Phnom Penh and from there to Cambodia, which was then part of French Indochina still under French colonial rule, to make it to Paris. He was arrested and brought to justice. However, the prison sentence of three years, he had never settle, because influential intellectuals had intervened in France in his favor. André Malraux was culture minister in the government of General Charles de Gaulle after the Second World War.

From 1931 to 1936, the almost completely ruined temple under the direction of Henri Marchal of the École française d' Extrême -Orient was rebuilt in elaborate detail work with the then new methods of Anastylosis.

Since 2004, the Banteay Srei temple - is restored with the financial support of Switzerland.