Banteay Srei

…preserved—of the early Khmer temples, Banteay Srei. It was actually a private foundation, built some 12 miles from Angkor by a Brahman of royal descent. Its auxiliary buildings, all of sandstone, are adorned with a profusion of elaborate ornament and relief figure sculpture. The roof gables, in particular, are treated…

…the rose-colored sandstone shrine of Banteai Srei—arguably the loveliest temple at Angkor—was built on the outskirts of the capital under the patronage of a wealthy priestly family, one of whose members had been Jayavarman’s teacher. In Yaśodharapura itself, Jayavarman V began work on the imposing temple mountain now called Ta…

…in search of a Khmer temple of whose discovery he had read in an archaeological bulletin. Plunging into the Cambodian forest, he reached the temple, which was not then being considered for restoration. He had some bas-reliefs removed from it and took them back to Phnom Penh, the capital of…