Head of a female deity Sandstone Khmer, Bakheng Style

The exquisite head of the deity with large leaf-shaped eyes set beneath fine, ridged brows, her full mouth curved in a slight smile. Her hair is arranged in a tall chignon composed of tiered symmetrical loops and secured at her forehead with a richly carved foliate diadem. Her neck bears the three auspicious beauty folds or trivali.

Martin Lerner, Ancient Khmer Sculpture, catalogue of the Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, 1994, no. 7, pp. 20-21.

The treatment of the eyebrows in a continuous raised ridge is a formal Bakheng convention, as is the careful attention paid to the delineation of each individual facial feature. While Bakheng period sulptures are characterized by a slight severity in their expressions, this face with its wide, open eyes and gentle smile exudes benevolence.

Compare the arrangement of the hair and detailing of the headdress with two sculpures of devatas, see Bunker and Latchford, 2004, cat. 35 a & b, p 125. The treatment of the face may be compared to a sculpture of Shiva from the following Koh Ker period, see ibid., cat. 42, p. 143.