Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c43.18

c43.18

In viewing the wide range of building undertakings attributed to the Khmers during the period of their domination the magnitude of the labour involved, and the amount of material required are astonishing. The layout, excavation, preparation of the foundations, the quarrying of the stone, the transport, the shaping of the blocks, and the mason-craft all these imply, must have been prodigious Moreover these operations were evidently maintained at full strength for several hundred years, necessitating a large and efficient organization and the regular employment of an immense amount of skilled and unskilled labour. For such purposes a very considerable proportion of the population must have been directly or indirectly engaged on these stupendous building enterprises, so that the development of the building art in Cambodia postulates a mass concentration of constructional sensibility almost without precedent. When in addition to this preliminary process the architectural and plastic manipulation of the building material so laboriously won from the distant quarries is studied, some idea of the high standards achieved by the Khmer craftsmen may be realized. It should be noted however that in their constructional practice the masons displayed no special mechanical aptitude, for instance the system of the true arch was not employed, the bridging of spaces being effected by means of the beam or lintel, although in certain parts of the buildings, as for example in the curved roofs of the corridors, an arcuate treatment may be detected, but this effect was obtained by oversailing course, and not by the scientific method of voussoirs Further, the masonry, was of the "dry" order, no adhesive such as mortar or cement being introduced, so that in their building technique, the structural principles put into effect by the Khmers corresponded in several essential particulars to those prevailing at this time in India. But if the constructional procedure was not according to that being developed in Western countries, on the other hand the artistic character of the architecture of Cambodia has been accorded high praise In the words of one writer the Khmers possessed "the imagination of the Gothic worker, the gift for harmonious charm of the Greek, the power of the Renaissance craftsman, and the prodigality and wealth of ideas that can exist only in the East."¹