A series of previously unnoticed images consisting of paintings of boats, animals, deities and buildings has been discovered on the walls of Cambodia’s ancient Angkor Wat temple. Rock art researchers believe the paintings belong to a specific phase of the temple’s history in the 16th century CE when it was converted from a Vishnavaite Hindu use to Theravada Buddhist.
Angkor Wat temple complex.
Angkor Wat is one of the world’s most famous monuments and a national symbol of Cambodia.
Built in the 12th century, Angkor Wat was in the center of the city of Angkor, which was the capital of the Khmer Empire from the 9th to the 15th centuries.
Noel Hidalgo Tan, a researcher at Australian National University’s Department of Archaeology and Natural History, found hidden paintings in the Angkor Wat temple complex while working as a volunteer at an archaeological excavation in Angkor Wat in 2010.
This is an image of the painted elephants at Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, with no enhancement above, and with enhancement below. Image credit: Noel Hidalgo Tan.
“I was walking through the temple on a lunch break and I saw some pigments on the wall. I took some pictures, but didn’t think they would be anything special,” he said.
Mr Tan returned to the temple in 2012 to carry out a detailed investigation in collaboration with Cambodian researchers Im Sokrithy, Heng Than and Khieu Chan.
The paintings were largely faded to the naked eye, in dark areas of the temple, and were originally thought to be graffiti left by early travelers to the temple.
A hidden image at Angkor Wat temple showing life scenes. The enhanced image is below, and the original image is above. Image credit: Noel Hidalgo Tan.
But to Mr Tan’s surprise, many of the paintings portrayed elaborate details of daily life, with little resemblance to other documented graffiti images.
According to the researchers, the paintings seem to come from the 16th century reign of King Ang Chan, who commissioned a restoration of the temple to Theravada Buddhist use from a Vishnavaite Hindu temple. The discovery is reported in the journal Antiquity.
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Noel Hidalgo Tan et al. 2014. The hidden paintings of Angkor Wat. Antiquity, vol. 88, no. 340, pp. 549–565
