THE ART OF ANGKOR.

Byline: Phillip Zonkel Staff Writer

ABOUT 1,500 years ago, the spread of Indian culture in Southeast Asia led to the emergence of the city of Angkor. This civilization is regarded by many scholars as one of the most glorious and creative in the history of the region.

In Angkor, the arts thrived. The crown jewel of Angkorean art and architecture was Angkor Wat, a 12th-century Khmer temple located in what is known today as northeastern Cambodia.

Breathtaking in size and beauty, Angkor Wat is an architectural allegory of Hindu religion dedicated to the god Vishnu. A series of rectangular walls surround a central, interior temple symbolizing the sacred Mount Meru, the center of the universe and home of the gods, according to Hindus. Along the walls, bas-reliefs depict military victories of Angkorean kings and Hindu legends.

The site is renowned as one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World and stands as a shining example of art from the Angkor period, 802-1431.

``This whole period is one of the major creations of art by any society of any time in the world,'' says Robert Brown, Indian and Southeast Asian art professor at UCLA and curator of Southeast Asian art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, whose permanent collection houses several stone and metallic statues of Vishnu.

The city of Angkor was built by a series of kings, starting with Jayavarman II.

``Jayavarman II freed the area from foreign rule and proclaimed himself chakravartin (universal ruler),'' says Teri Shaffer Yamada, associate professor of comparative world literature and classics at California State University, Long Beach. ``He was crowned King of the Khmer Kings in 802, the beginning of the Angkor period.

``From the 10th to 13th century,'' she says, ``Angkor was the capital of the most powerful empire in Southeast Asia.''

The 80-temple city was the size of Manhattan, and the kingdom stretched across what is modern-day Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, with Cambodia as its center. Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century under the reign of King Suryavarman II. Today, the ancient city is in ruins with 40 temples, including Angkor Wat, still standing.

French archaeologist Bernard-Philippe Groslier, who spent several years excavating Angkor, was in awe of the ancient city's splendor.

``Imagine that within the city limits of Paris, you found thrown together Versailles, the Place de la Concorde, the Louvre, the Place des Vosges, the palace of Fontainebleau and, surrounding these, the cathedrals of Notre Dame, Chartres, Reims, Amiens, Bourges and Strasbourg flanked by all the churches built in Paris before the 19th century,'' Groslier has said about the site.

``It was a highly sophisticated culture in social organization, hierarchy structure and the richness of resources,'' says Ingrid Aall, Asian art history professor at California State University, Long Beach.

Jayavarman II also initiated the focal point of Angkor art - representing kings as gods. Today's existing bronze or stone Angkor statues and temples were commissioned by the elite (kings, local rulers, emperors).

``They used the art to glorify themselves,'' Aall says. ``The emperor was supposed to be the ruler of earth and sky.''

``Many of these kings viewed themselves as living incarnations of these gods,'' says Christine Knoke, assistant curator at the Norton Simon museum, whose extensive permanent collection of Southeast Asian Art includes several larger-than-life stone statues of Vishnu and a 37-inch-high by 21-inch-wide bas-relief. ``They wanted people to think of them as powerful, in the same sense that these religious figures are powerful.''

But it's not considered religious art.

``In ancient India and ancient Southeast Asia, as in ancient medieval Europe, art was always religious,'' Brown says. ``The distinction between secular and religious is a Western distinction. They didn't see their art as religious.

``By having the images and worshiping them, they were communicating with the gods,'' he says. ``What was important to the elite making the objects was their relationship with these deities. Art was essential to their lives. It was their way of accessing power and understanding about themselves and their world. It could not be more central to them and how they functioned.''

Art for the common people was made from wood or other delicate materials that, over time, was destroyed or disintegrated. However, some bas-reliefs in the Bayon Temple, commissioned by Jayavarman VII (1181-1219), who changed worship from Vishnu to Buddha, depict common people in everyday life (village and market scenes, people selling pots and wine or playing games), not religious themes.

``Anthropologists have been particularly taken with them since they can find out about the everyday life of common people,'' Yamada says.

``He changed the system,'' Brown says. ``It was a radical change in terms of style and images.''

But it also was the end of an era. During the 13th century, the kingdom began to decline, and by 1431, Thai forces captured Angkor. The Khmer abandoned the city, and Angkor Wat was overtaken by jungle until 1860, when it was discovered by Frenchman Henri Mouhot. During the colonial period, the French used the glory of Angkor as a form of pride for Cambodians.

That pride still exists today. Angkor Wat is featured on the Cambodian flag and currency.

``Angkor Wat painted replicas can be seen on the sides of Khmer businesses on Anaheim Street (in Long Beach's Little Phnom Penh neighborhood),'' Yamada says. ``It symbolizes Khmer pride.''

ANGKOREAN ART

What: Statues and bas-reliefs (part of Southeast Asian art exhibits).

Where: Norton Simon Museum, 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: Norton Simon hours are noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday; noon to 9 p.m. Friday. LACMA hours are noon to 8 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; noon to 9 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Tickets: Norton Simon: $6 adults; $3 seniors; free for members, students with ID, and visitors 18 and under. LACMA: $7 adults; $5 seniors and students with ID; $1 children 6 to 17; free for kids 5 and under (free for everyone second Tuesday of the month).

Information: Norton Simon, [phone] or www.nortonsimon.org; LACMA, [phone] or www.lacma.org.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1) Sandstone Slate With Five Planetary Deities is on display at the Norton Simon Museum.

(2) The Hindu god Vishnu.

(3) Finial With Vishnu on His Mount Garuda.

(4) Shiva With Uma and Bull.

(5) A stone causeway leads tourists to Angkor West with the lotus-shaped towers. This temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World.