Ideals and Architects: Khmer Temple Pyramids (Eighth to Eleventh Century)

Abstract

The Khmer temple pyramid— a worldly manifestation of Mount Meru, abode of the gods— is unique to medieval Khmer architecture and among its most intriguing architectural forms. A comparative analysis of the proportions of nine temple pyramids built between the eighth and eleventh century has revealed a remarkable and thus far unrecognised similarity. The operation of a proportional schema, applied across four hundred years to the design and construction of such temples, indicates a distinct Khmer spatial patterning that is unlikely to be consistently bound to declared Indian texts or to fixed conceptual ideals. Rather, Khmer temples and their idiosyncratic pyramids can be assessed in terms of the political, economic, social and environmental context of the Khmer architects and builders who created them.