The National Authority for Preah Vihear have just started a project to protect and renovate the central tower at Prasat Banteay Pir Choan (or Chan) at Koh Ker - a very unique temple in Cambodia as it appears to be the only temple dedicated solely to the god of creation, Brahma. Distinctive in appearance with his four heads and four arms, Brahma, standing upright inside the tall laterite central sanctuary, would’ve likely risen to a height of between five and six meters. That is remarkable in itself, though somewhat commonplace in the extraordinarily dynamic and colossal statuary of the Koh Ker period of the tenth century. Two of his four heads are currently residing in the National Museum in Phnom Penh, with each head measuring just under one meter, while large broken fragments of the body are strewn across the ground in close proximity to the main tower at the temple itself. Inside the enormous blackened structure, held up by a complex array of metal poles, is what in its heyday would’ve been a beautifully decorated circular pedestal, with Brahma’s mount, the sacred bird Hamsa, providing additional embellishment around the outside. Today’s its disfigured pieces are testimony to the destruction wrought when looters were looking for treasures underneath the pedestal. Banteay Pir Choan was consecrated late in the reign of Jayavarman IV in 937AD (tenth century) and dedicated to Prajapatishvara – the Lord of the Master of Creatures – and a form of Brahma, whereas most temples would’ve been devoted to the other members of the Hindu Triad, namely Shiva or Vishnu. The two conjoined heads, now displayed at the National Museum, arrived home to great fanfare in March 2016, after spending the previous two decades in the safe-keeping of the Cambodian Embassy in Paris, France. Most likely stolen from Koh Ker in the early 1970s, they were seized by a French court in 1994 after they were discovered being offered for sale for a USD1million price-tag at an antique shop in the French capital. Illegally exported into France, they were handed over to HE Hor Namhong, then Cambodia’s Ambassador in Paris and later Deputy Prime Minister, who was on-hand to welcome their return back to Cambodia in 2016. However, the damage to the sculpture of Brahma is very similar to the mutilation suffered by the Dancing Shiva of Prasat Thom, which itself is in more than 10,000 fragments. Trying to piece together the damaged sections of Brahma is the aim of the latest project the NAPV has just kick-started, and which promises to be a mammoth task. At the same time, the conservation team will collect together the pieces of the circular pedestal in-situ and erect a cover to protect it, as it awaits the return of its god in all his glory.