Lord Vishnu in Western Mebon, Cambodia

By Philip Rawson,

This was one of the world’s great sculptures. Recumbent, bronze image of Lord Vishnu lying asleep on the ocean of non-being - Western Mebon, Cambodia.

One of the most interesting pieces of all is a fragmentary bronze bust of this colossal image, the most extraordinary bronze statue of Southeast Asia. Between two cosmic periods, Lord Vishnu, lying on the snake Ananta (“He who has no end”), is resting on the surface of the primordial waters.

"The genius of the artists of that age was for relief. Indeed one might say that Angkor Wat is a repertory of some of the most magnificent relief art that the world has ever seen. The open colonnaded gallery on the first story contains over a mile of such works, six feet high. The main sources for the relief subject matter are the Mahabharata and Ramayana, as well as legends of Vishnu and his incarnation Krishna. The wars of classical legend, in which incarnations of the various persons of the Hindu deity triumph at length over demonic adversaries. The artists’ skill is everywhere apparent."