William Dalrymple Profile picture
Dec 3, 2021 12 tweets 5 min read Read on X
Returning to the Jungle:

The extraordinary 11thC ruins of Preah Khan Kompong Svay lie about one hundred kilometres from Angkor Wat, and are not to be confused with the other Preah Khan in Siem Reap (famous to some as the location of Tomb Raider.)
The Kompong Svay Preah Khan is one of the last completely unrestored major Khmer monuments- a vast tumble of towers and pillars and lintels, badly looted during the time of the Khmer Rouge, when gangs drove in from Thailand to rob the site of its statuary.
I spent the night camping just outside main gate & woke to hear hornbills, parakeets, bee eater & mynahs chattering & had breakfast amid iron slag, from medieval weapon manufacture- this was the base from which Jayavarman VII marched to expel the Cham from Angkor in 1181.
But the site is much older than that. The temple was originally built as a shrine to Lord Shiva by Suryavarman I, and a 10thC Sanskrit inscription records its original foundation:
"The dance of the God who has the moon for his diadem (Shiva), the play of the tips of whose glorious feet cause the earth to shake and tremble in the eight directions, a dance which causes Indra, God of the Winds, to whirl and moan..."
... because of the vigorous arms which cause the palaces of the Gods to sway, a dance which renders space insignificant with garlands of shooting rays from the splendour of his nine modes of dance (erotic, furious, heroic, odious, comic, pathetic, marvellous, terrible& peaceful)
May his dance which brings joy and does honour to Brahma and other Gods be propitious to us."
The famous statue of Jayavarman as Lokeshvara/Avalokitesvara was found amid the rubble of here. It is now in the National Museum in Phnom Penh.
It is one of the great masterpieces of Khmer sculpture, arguably THE great masterpiece, but it's also a strangely and brilliantly contradictory piece.
Like Ashoka & Akbar, Jayavarman VII was a ruthless & hugely successful military man who, full of remorse, turned in middle age into a religious figure who advocated peace & reconciliation who foreswore the sword. The artist recognises this, and yet shows both sides of the man.
The King is presented as a humble worshipper, head lowered with eyes closed in deep and profound meditation. Yet the worshipper still has the powerful physique of a man trained for combat and his expression is full of charisma and strength.
This meditating king may be a man of the spirit, but he is still very much the ruler who conquered and subdued much of Southeast Asia and moulded it to his iron will, leaving behind him more and greater monuments than any other ruler in Cambodian history.

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More from @DalrympleWill

Jul 2
The history of Gaza is full of surprises: I had no idea it was home to a Christian Byzantine school of rhetoric, "an important library that could compete with Athens, Alexandria, Beirut and Constantinople" and also an Festival of Roses that celebrated "the arrival of Spring and the workings of Eros" at which poetry was read- in other words a sort of erotic Gaza Litfest.Image
The Church of St. Porphyrius, which was first built in 425 AD, is the last survivor from this world. It still, just, survives though the Israelis shelled its outbuildings last year. 450 Palestinians, mainly Palestinian Christians, were sheltering there. Eighteen were killed. Image
Image
And as @GhassanDahhan has just pointed out to me, Polybius in about 120BCE commends the people of Gaza for their bravery in the face of external aggression:
penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman…Image
Read 4 tweets
Mar 14
A Morning at the Shaiva caves at Elephanta

The caves were carved with clear Gupta influence in the 5th-6thC, probably under the patronage of the Vakataka or Kalachuri dynasty; but not one inscription has ever been found which can solve the conundrum of who commissioned these fabulous master works.

1. Eight armed Shiva Nataraja, in the graceful Lalitha pose, embodying the eternal energy of creation which shapes and gives birth to the universe.Image
2. The Eternal Shiva- Sadashiva

Of the five faces of Shiva, three are visible:

On the left, Aghora/Bhairavi, the fierce and terrifying aspect of Shiva.

On the right, Vamadeva/Uma, the beautiful, feminine and pleasing aspect of Shiva.

In the centre, Mahadeva/Tatpurusha, the fusion of male and female, locked in meditation, eyelids lowered, lips closed, the embodiment of absolute knowledge.Image
3. Adhikari Shiva- Shiva in the act of skewering the demon Andhakasura, who had desired the beautiful Parvati and tried to abduct her. Not a good move. Despite having been given a boon by Brahma that any drop of his blood that touched the ground would grow a new demon, Shiva made short work of him by collecting his blood in a skull-cup and feeding it to the blood thirsty goddess Chamunda. But Andhaka realised the error of his ways, praised Lord Shiva and was forgiven. Eventually he was made the Chief Commander of the Shiva's dwarf armies, the Ganas.Image
Read 10 tweets
Feb 20
ANNOUNCING A MAJOR NEW @EmpirePodUK SERIES:
IRELAND & EMPIRE

Episode One-
COLONISING IRELAND:
Henry VIII, Elizabeth I & The Tudor Conquest of Ireland Image
Ireland is the only country in Western Europe that has experienced being colonised in the modern era. It was used by England as a laboratory for imperialism, and was the site of bloody colonial wars for centuries, yet many people in the neighbouring United Kingdom have little understanding of Ireland’s history.Image
The new @EmpirePodUK series on Ireland & Empire begins with the Tudor Conquest. By the 1500s, there were small pockets of English imperialism in Ireland via descendants of the Anglo-Norman invasions of the 1190s, but they were concentrated along the southeastern coast.

However, when Henry VIII launched the Protestant Reformation in England, establishing control over Ireland suddenly became a top priority. In 1541, he declared all Irish people as his subjects. He built upon previous laws banning Irish language and customs, and created a militarised society. And by Elizabeth I’s reign, the Tudors introduced plantations in Ireland which granted land to English and Scottish settlers.Image
Read 5 tweets
Feb 10
What sort of democracy ransacks bookshops? The Israeli police just pillaged my brilliant friend Mahmoud Muna's wonderful bookshop opposite the American Colony, the best in Jerusalem. Apparently Muna and his nephew Ahmed have both been arrested & marched into court...
theurbanactivist.com/idea/a-booksho…
Muna is a wonderful, wise and learned guy and has encouraged generations of travellers to read more deeply into the contested history of Jerusalem. He recently co-edited this excellent collection of essays on Gaza. I hope @pen_int will immediately take up his case. Image
"Israeli police raid Jerusalem bookshops and arrest Palestinian owners. Raid on Educational Bookstore branches described by rights groups as part of harassment campaign against Palestinian intellectuals"

theguardian.com/world/2025/feb…
Read 4 tweets
Feb 2
Avi Shlaim and Eugene Rogan discuss Avi's Three Worlds: Memoir of an Arab Jew @JaipurLitFest: "Our Jewish community was very well integrated in Baghdad, where we were one minority among many. Europe had a Jewish problem. Iraq did not." Image
Avi Shlaim: "My mother regarded Zionism as an Ashkenazi thing. She thought it was nothing to do with us. Most of us were very happy in Baghdad." Image
Avi Shlaim: "When I was working on this book I came across new evidence that the Mossad let off bombs in Jewish premises in Baghdad to frighten us to emigrate to Israel. The evidence is, I believe, incontravertible. I am completely certain that Israel was responsible for the uprooting of the Jewish community of Baghdad."Image
Read 5 tweets

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