Heritage site
Preah Norodom Sihanouk-Angkor Museum
សារៈមន្ទីរព្រះនរោត្តម សីហនុ-អង្គរ
The Preah Norodom Sihanouk-Angkor Museum (សារៈមន្ទីរព្រះនរោត្តម សីហនុ-អង្គរ) is a museum in Siem Reap. It stands just outside the town, in Boeung Don Pa village of Slakram commune. It was built for 274 Buddhist statues found buried at the temple of Banteay Kdei (ប្រាសាទបន្ទាយក្តី), and is run by the APSARA National Authority.[1][2]
History
In 2001 a team from Sophia University in Tokyo and Cambodian archaeologists dug at Banteay Kdei to study its water system. They came on a pit about 2 meters (6.6 feet) deep holding 274 Buddhist statues and a stone pillar carved with images of the Buddha.[2][3] The statues had lain there about 800 years, and many of their heads had been cut off. The team's leader, the historian Yoshiaki Ishizawa, read the find as a sign of a movement against Buddhist images at Angkor at the end of the 13th century.[2]
The APSARA Authority and Sophia University set up the museum together, with funds from the AEON 1% Club of Japan, and it opened in 2008.[4][1] It has since added two more exhibitions of objects from digs in the Angkor park.[4][5] Its collection had grown to about 3,000 objects by the time of the Phnom Penh Post's visit, with around 300 on show at once.[1]
Collection
The best-known piece is the Thousand Buddhas pillar, from the Banteay Kdei pit. It is a block of sandstone in the Bayon style of the late 12th century, 122 centimeters (48 inches) high, with 1,008 small seated Buddhas carved on its four sides.[6][3]
In May 2022 the museum put a painted sandstone footprint of the Buddha on show, with six lacquered and gilded wooden Buddhas in the style of the 14th to 18th centuries. From the 14th century the footprint had been kept in the Thousand Buddhas Gallery of Angkor Wat. In the 20th century it was moved to the Angkor Conservation store in Siem Reap, and it was restored in 2012 and 2013.[3]
Visiting
The museum opens from Tuesday to Sunday and closes for Pchum Ben, the Khmer New Year and the Water Festival. Cambodians pay 1,000 riel, and entry is free for them on the first Saturday of each month; foreign visitors pay US$3.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Phnom Penh Post, Museum a must for Siem Reap visitors (undated)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Angkor Database, Angkor Buddhist Treasures from Banteay Kdei (undated; a review of Yoshiaki Ishizawa's book)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Cambodianess, Siem Reap's Museum of Buddhist Artefacts (undated)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 ASEF culture360, Preah Norodom Sihanouk Angkor Museum (undated)
- ↑ Southeast Asian Archaeology, Preah Norodom Sihanouk Angkor Museum to undergo assessment for renovations (December 18, 2015), from Khmer Times
- ↑ The Phnom Penh Post, 'Thousand Buddhas' carved sandstone pillar on display in Siem Reap (undated)