This image of Vajrasattva, an important Yidam or meditational deity to the Khmer, bears a strikingly close iconographical similarity to North East Indian and Himalayan Tantric pieces of the same period, which is unusual in Khmer art as the Khmer would usually make a deity their own, they would Khemerize an image. The long sampot worn well below the knee with the long flowing robe between his knees, the simple jewelry, the round floral earrings and the crown ties flapping loosely on either side of the head are all features more common in Nepalese, Tibetan and Pala art of Northern India. This piece seems to be a direct copy of a foreign piece by a Khmer craftsman who ethicized the piece with contemporary Khmer 11th century stylistic ideas.

Tantric or Vajrayana Buddhism, a branch of Mahayana Buddhism had already developed as an important separate tradition by the sixth century in northwestern India, from where it quickly spread to Nepal, Tibet and ultimately Southeast Asia. Tantric ideas seem to have been part of the Khmer religious world by at least the early tenth century, and once on Khmer territory, the cult fused with older local traditions to form Tantric practices that appear to have differed significantly from those developed in their original Indian homeland. This change is represented by the Khmerization of the iconography to accommodate the religious requirements of the cult’s new adoptive practitioners. Tantric Hinduism and Buddhism were elite and aristocratic cults in Khmer society that ran parallel to the mainstream official state religion of the time, and hence maintained an esoteric secrecy that makes serious contemporary study into this area of Khmer religion problematical. The only evidence that seems to have survived is in the form of a few bas-reliefs on temple walls and a gaggle of bronze and stone sculptures spread around the world in various museums and private collections, alas no Tantric text has survived.

Age: Second half of the 11th Century, probably Baphuon.

Height: 14.5 cm on base, 10.8 cm off base.

Provenance: The late Dr. Henry Ginsburg, curator of the South East Asian collections at both the British Museum and the British Library. He was a renowned expert in the field of Thai, Laos and Cambodian manuscripts and paintings.