During my fellowship at the IIAS I plan to gather the study material and, next, write a postdoctoral research proposal concentrating on the religion among the Khmers during the Angkor Period and the relations with the Hindu India. The relation between India and adjacent regions, especially Southeast Asia, is one of the issues which have been debated since the first decades of this century. Still, many questions concerning this relation remain unanswered.
The project will explore the way Hinduism was practiced by the ancient Khmer during the Angkor Period (9th to 13th centuries AD). One of the leading research topics is the extend to which Indian Shaivism of ca. 8th-10th centuries AD influenced the ‘ritual behaviour' and the artistic expression of the Khmer. The relation between the Khmer religion and Indian Shaivism will be studied, on the one hand, on the basis of Indian ritual and architectural manuals and, on the other hand, on the basis of Cambodian inscriptions (some of which mention Indian Shaiva texts) and works of art (with special attention for the iconography of the Hindu deities).