In Angkor Wat are some two-thousand devata reliefs: at the outer walls of the four gates and of the three tiers of the pyramid. They are also at the inner walls of the lower cruciform gallery and inside of the galleries at the summit of the pyramid.

In the beauty of eternal youth, Devata are guarding and embellishing the temple. Their outfit is stunning: fantastic hairdos, heavy jewellery, effectively designed and draped sarongs, their hands in charming gestures. According to the customs of the period they are bare breasted.

Their charm and sensuality are an obvious representation of the divine. They help to transform the man-made building into a sanctified area.

Not knowing the rules of the perspective the sculptors had problems to depict the feet in these flat reliefs; they turned them unnaturally.

Who they are?

Devata means 'deity, divinity, or goddess'.

Goddesses are invisible. Their images are in the likeness of worldly females: queens, princesses, other ladies from the court, ore just of pretty girls and women.

Devata are not 'Apsara'! Calling them 'Apsara' is an inexcusable insult. 

Angkor Wat - the temple of the devata

Entering Angkor Wat from the East – what is recommended in the morning – we pass by the east gate, an elegant pavilion. The walls are decorated with numerous reliefs of devata.

The east face as well as the small north & south faces are covered with some of the finest devata reliefs.

The temple was dedicated to Vishnu. Later monks undertook the change to a Buddhist sanctuary; they expelled Vishnu and disfigured the centre of the sanctuary (Glaize, p. 65.), without a convincing result: The interior of Angkor Wat looks somehow 'godforsaken'. The Devata were originally secondary. But if you open your eyes you see them dominating the temple. They have become the owners.

East gate

Pyramid

West gate