Sculptures from Angkor National Museum:
The age-old identity argument between Apsara or Devata is on show at the ANM, in the final gallery of the museum before you leave through the book shop. There are a series of high relief carvings of beautiful female divinities, which have been removed from temples at Angkor or beyond and have been put on display. Usually, these figures would’ve decorated the walls of temples built in the 12th and 13th centuries but these half a dozen examples may’ve been impossible to return to their original location after renovation or even destruction, as in the case of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay, or were kept in safe storage for fear of theft. The ANM labels them as Apsara, while I prefer to identify them as Devata to differentiate them from the dancing Apsaras, celestial beings, which are also captured on the walls of Angkor temples, though usually smaller in size and in dance or flying mode, having been born from the Churning of the Sea of Milk. The style of Devata can be wide-ranging and varied, but these examples follow many of the characteristics seen among the nearly 1,800 sacred goddesses that adorn the walls of Angkor Wat, perhaps the best known of the kingdom’s Devata. They all have headdresses of varying styles, some exuberant in design, some simple, most with jeweled crowns, one without. They each have long pendant earrings and were adorned with necklaces, as well as arm and wrist bangles on their naked upper bodies. Their hands are usually holding flowers, or the stems of lotus buds, often one arm raised to head height. Their long sampots drop down to their ankle bracelets, all have belts of different designs with some depicting a pattern of florets or a fishtail fold. Each Devata is different from the others and many would've been gilded or painted in their heyday. I don’t have the details from all of these exhibits.
