Brahma

Brahma is the Hindu creator god, carved in Khmer stone with four faces and four arms.

Brahma, a Koh Ker-style sandstone statue from Wat Baset, Battambang Province, in the Musée Guimet, Paris

Deity details
Religion	Hinduism
Sites	Preah Ko, Preah Pithu, Koh Ker, Trapeang Phong, Prasat Prei

In the Explorer

Brahma connects to 17 pages

Shiva, Bayon, Vishnu, Angkor Thom, Siem Reap province and 12 more.

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Explore the 17 connected pages

On this page

1. Form
2. Images in Cambodia
3. In museums abroad
4. Looting and return
5. References

On this page

1. Form
2. Images in Cambodia
3. In museums abroad
4. Looting and return
5. References

Brahma (ព្រះព្រហ្ម) is the Hindu creator god, carved in Khmer stone with four faces and four arms. With Vishnu (ព្រះវិស្ណុ) and Shiva (ព្រះឥសូរ) he makes up the Trimurti (ត្រីមូត៌ិ), the three great gods of Hinduism. Several Khmer heads of the god were looted and later came back to Cambodia.

Form

The four faces are read as a sign that Brahma sees every direction at the same moment; another account links them to the four Vedas he created. His four hands can carry a scripture, a spoon, a rosary and a vase, and he rides a hamsa (ហង្ស), a sacred swan.

Varuna, god of rain and the ocean, rides the same bird but in Khmer art usually has only two arms. During the Angkor period Brahma's cult, part of Hinduism in Cambodia, stood beside the worship of Buddhist deities.

Images in Cambodia

A Baphuon-style head from the 11th century comes from tower S5 of Trapeang Phong temple, in Bakong district of Siem Reap province (ខេត្តសៀមរាប). Photographs the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) took in July 1936 show the full figure with four faces and a rosary in one hand; three faces survive.

A grey sandstone head with four faces, in the Bayon style of the late 12th to 13th century, was kept at Preah Ko (ប្រាសាទព្រះគោ) in Roluos, a 9th-century temple of King Indravarman I (ឥន្ទ្រវរ្ម័នទី១). Every face has a gentle smile, and ears hung with large lotus-bud pendants stand between the faces. It is listed as stolen.

On a linga from the Preah Pithu (ព្រះពិធូ) group in Angkor Thom (អង្គរធំ), one carved side shows Brahma riding a hamsa, with his four faces and four arms. A headless rider of a hamsa in the Bayon style of the late 12th to early 13th century has four arms, and one of them may hold a scripture. The Angkor National Museum (សារមន្ទីរជាតិអង្គរ) shows it in Gallery E and reads it as Brahma rather than Varuna. EFEO archives of August 1962 give its origin as Prasat Prei.

In museums abroad

A sandstone Brahma of the 10th century, 1.20 m tall and with four faces, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

London's Victoria and Albert Museum holds a late 10th-century sandstone Brahma, 91 cm high, with three heads, its hair in a high, flat-topped bun, and a belted sampot (សំពត់). Its gentle features and its hair resemble the statues of Banteay Srei (បន្ទាយស្រី), a Hindu temple of the 10th century near Angkor.

Looting and return

The Trapeang Phong head was taken from the Angkor region and found in Britain in November 1994. It was returned in Phnom Penh on December 4, 1996, and the Angkor National Museum shows it in Gallery B.

Two 10th-century heads of Brahma from a temple at Koh Ker, in Preah Vihear (ព្រះវិហារ), were looted during the civil war and passed to an unnamed collector in Paris. They joined the collection of the National Museum of Cambodia (សារមន្ទីរជាតិកម្ពុជា) in March 2016.

References 6