Southern Gate of Angkor Thom

Site common name	Southern Gate of Angkor Thom
Type of artwork	Architecture
Village	-
Province/City	Angkor
State	Siem Reap
Country	Cambodia
Geographic Coordinates Decimal degree	Lat : 13.427222 Long : 103.859444

History of production	Jayavarman VII constructed Angkor Thom, his new capital, which is overlapped in the original city of Yaśovarman’s Angkor. Prasat Bayon, the temple of the Buddhist Mahayana pantheon, is conceived to be the central landmark of the city. The city is surrounded by the three-kilometer walls at four sides. There are the gateways at four cardinal directions. The establishment of the new city is the attempt of the king to initiate the auspiciousness to his kingdom after the kingdom was sacked by the Chams before his reign.
Art	The Gateway of Angkor Thom composes of 2 elements, the tower decorated with the gigantic four human faces and the bridge crossing the city moat. The balustrade is associated with the story of the churning of the milky ocean in accordance with Hindu mythology. This iconography is associated with the auspiciousness for the people who would be blessed to be the immortals. Concerning the gigantic four human face at the tower is possible to be the faces of the lords of the cardinal directions.
Period	Historical Period
Art period	Bayon
Age	13th Century A.D.
Religion	Buddhism
Sect	Mahayana

Type of License	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
Rights	Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre
Date of record creation	2015-02-00
Record creator	Chedha Tingsanchali