The face of a king

This “face tower” at Bayon Temple at Angkor Thom represented the Buddhist Khmer king Jayavarman VII as a god. (Learn more)

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Four faces, looking toward the cardinal directions, are carved on the sides of fifty-four standing towers at Bayon Temple. The preservation of many of the towers, however, is poor so it is difficult to know exactly how all the towers were carved. Over 200 giant smiling faces remain, but there may once have been between one and two hundred towers, each with four faces. These structures are known as “face towers.”

The faces depicted on the Bayon towers clearly resemble faces on known portrait statues of Jayavarman VII. Given his Buddhist leanings, it is thought that the huge faces portray him in semi-divine form as a boddhisattva, an enlightened being conceived in Mahayana Buddhism who postpones entering Nirvana in order to remain on earth helping others towards salvation. Boddhisattvas are somewhat like Mahayana Buddhist saints.

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Definitions

Nirvana n.
In Buddhism, a final state of being in which one is freed from passions such as lust, anger or craving; a state of great inner peace and contentment.

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