Thursday, January 27, 2011

HAIRSTYLE OF APSARA IN THE ANGKOR ERA AS THE PEAK OF KHMER HAIR ART


Apsara is the spirit of Khmer Empire, especially Angkor City. Even though Cambodia used to go through the unstable political situation, Apsara is still the real evidence for glorious Khmer Art to stand for thousand of years for next generation Khmer artists to follow. Remarkably, all Khmer temples through out the mainland Southeast Asia include Thailand, South of Vietnam, Laos, & Cambodia consists of many Apsara dancing on the wall with much jewelry in the excellent manner of Khmer Art. However, only Apsara in Angkor City shows the special talent of Khmer Artists in Angkor Era to sculpt the Apsara on the wall of the temples with special manners. Among those special manners, the hairstyle is the most noticeable thing on Apsara Sculpture. Only Angkor Wat Temple’s Apsara Sculpture has shown many different hairstyles of Apsara in which were designed by Khmer Artist in Angkor Era. Most Apsara appears with three-top side of hairstyle. Besides that, Apsara are sculpted with five-top side, two-top side, one-top side, and only tied hair. Significantly, there is also the different design for each kind of hairstyle. For other temples through out the Khmer Kingdom as Angkor Empire, Apsara’s hairstyle, Apsara has more than three or five-top side of hairstyle. Also, the art of sculpture sometimes is different from Apsara on the wall of Angkor Wat. It is sure that Cambodia has its own identity in hairstyle since Angkor Era or before that. Therefore, there is the recommendation for Khmer Artist today to take for showing Khmer Art in modern movie or show with the innovative ideas to adapt these hairstyles to the modern influence into new manners. For example, Khmer modern artists could take the techniques of Apsara hairstyles to follow in the modern art just without wearing jewelry as Apsara. All Apsara hairstyle is so good for modernized hairstyle. It is believed to be the best way to reduce foreign influence and to show the real style of Khmer Art to the world. The picture below shows the different hairstyle of Apsara:





























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