The jesters of Angkor

MAJ : June 18, 2024

Angkor Thom, the royal city, was erected during the reign of the Royal Triad Royal Triad who governed from the late 12th century until the early 13th century. At the heart of this city stands the Bayon, the state temple. Approximately 300 meters north of the latter, one discovers an imposing esplanade 400 meters long, called the "Terrace of the Elephants." This name comes from the multitude of sculptures representing pachyderms adorning the base walls of the former royal palace. About half a century after the death of Jayavarman VII, an unidentified king had a monumental ensemble of obscure symbolism erected, now known as the Northern stoop. There, one observes representations of multi-headed mythological animals, martial deities, as well as characters with abnormal physical characteristics, who would be considered artists today: musicians, singers, jesters, and dancers. This Northern stoop offers a singular perspective, specific to an ancient society, on the notion of "disability." It is not only envisioned from the angle of physical or intellectual deficiencies but also from that of abnormal mental faculties.

The entire lower part of the Northern stoop is notably complex. We will focus our study on the scenes depicting artist figures. This architectural portion presents two five-headed horses, one led by a Cham figure (South) and the other by a Khmer figure (North). These mythological animals, unique in Angkorian art, raise questions about the foundations of their presence in these places, perhaps linked to a Hindu or local legend.

These horses are surrounded by different representations:

• Male deities resting on lotuses, armed with a staff and seeming to perform a martial dance. They could be naga kings (guardians of waters and earth), recognizable by their headdress and position between lotus stems.
• Sacred dancers adopting a stereotypical posture in line with the canons of previous centuries, one foot on a lotus, the other raised, adorned with an imposing diadem.

Figures with singular physical traits, integrated into the interstices of the composition. Although we use the Western notion of "artist" here, this terminology did not exist in the Angkorian era, where each person was designated by an appellation linked to their social rank and role.

The characters we have just mentioned compose two immense tableaux, themselves subdivided into scenes associating one or more deities with one or more artists (delimited by the red rectangles on the photos). The sculpture, like Brahmanical ceremonies, creates a profusion, synonymous with beauty from the Brahmanical point of view.

Four categories of artists take part in the entertainment of the gods: singers, musicians, jesters and dancers. The first three perform in the gaps left by the gods. The female dancers, on the other hand, take pride of place. 

The jesters are characterized by various physical traits, attitudes and accessories: they are dwarves with small ears and thick continuous eyebrows, their hands crossed over their chests. They wear what appears to be a belt and a necklace of bells as well as a second necklace with a pendant, already visible in scenes of buffoonery at Bayon and Banteay Chhmar. Regarding the eyebrows, it could be a wig or a black line aimed at reinforcing the grotesque character of the figure. This artifice remains used in Cambodia and Southeast Asia by jesters performing on stage and on television.

The sacred dancers present near the deities generally do not present any pathology. However, one of them adopts an uncommon attitude. In the totality of Angkorian sculpture, the facial expression of dancers remains relatively standardized: a smile or expressive neutrality. Here, she wears a broad smile revealing six teeth, namely the four incisors and the two canines. She wears five pearl necklaces adorned in their center with a lotus flower design and a sixth one below, adorned with a chan flower. In the center of her forehead, a lotus flower. Below her diadem, passing above her forehead, over her ears and descending on either side of her body, a jasmine garland. This representation of a dancer is parodied to the extreme.

After having briefly described these "celestial" artists with singular physiques, it is appropriate to examine a scientific analysis published in August 2007 in the magazine "Pour la Science" (p. 96-97), co-signed by P. Barbet, J.L. Fisher and C. Jacques, entitled "The Dwarves of Angkor". The authors describe, among the possible pathologies, cases of "achondroplasia — one of the most frequent forms of dwarfism accompanied by an exaggeration of the lumbar lordosis and characteristic anomalies of the skull and face (protrusion of the frontal bosses, truncated aspect of the back of the skull, flattening of the root of the nose)".

The physical characteristics of jesters differ from those of singers and musicians.

While dancers, singers and musicians are widely mentioned in Angkorian epigraphy, jesters appear only more rarely: the stelae of Sdŏk Kǎk Thom, Phnom Sandak (K. 194) and Práh Viḥār (12th century) — Georges Cœdès, Pierre Dupont (1943). They are referred to as smevya, a conjectural translation based on a connection with the Sanskrit term smetavya, lit. risible (1943:148). In the pre-Angkorian Khmer inscription K. 78, they are called bhanda. In modern Khmer they are called neak kampleng (អ្នកកំប្លែង), lit. "comedy man".

• K. 194, stanzas 42-44. "He instituted a service of supplies according to this list: husked rice, oil, sacred cloths, candles, incense, ablution necessities, dancers, singers, jesters, musicians, flower vases for worship, daily."
• K. 194, stanzas 45-48. "At K. J. Çrī Çikharīçvara, the venerable lord Guru Çrī Divākarapaṇḍita erected the Dancing Lord, a golden image [of the dancing Çiva] for the deceased queen (kanlon kamraten an). He offered goods the villages of ... (Çambhu)grāma, Bhavagrāma; he dug water reservoirs in all the villages . . . , founded an āçrama, placed male and female slaves, offered goods and instituted a service of supplies, according to this list: husked rice, oil, sacred cloths, candles, incense, ablution necessities, dancers, singers, jesters, musicians, flower vases for worship, daily." (1943: 148).
• K. 194, stanzas 7-10. "At K. J. Çivapura Danden ... (he gave) the villages of Caraṅ, Tvaṅ Jeṅ, Khcoṃ, dug a water reservoir, founded an āçrama, placed complete male and female slaves, and offered all sorts of goods. The daily supplies are: dancers, singers, jesters, musicians, husked rice, oil, sacred cloths, candles, incense, ablution necessities, four (sorts of) oil, flowers for worship, flower vases. The goods offered are: golden bowls, rings, jewels, footed cups, cups, ewers, spittoons, elephants, horses, standards, white parasols, tiered parasols, dlaḥ spittoons, pitchers, dlaḥ basins, jars, trays, hangings, and innumerable cloths. He covered the towers, courtyards and causeways with cloths." (1943: 149)

It should be noted the mention of gifts of jesters together with those of dancers and musicians. In these inscriptions, the men and women offered for temple service as dancers, musicians and jesters are considered supplies.

In the time of Chaufa Bên, one had ten girls for a silver bar and five widows for a half-bar; now it takes five bars to have a girl and the widows have as much pretension as the girls.

We wear sampots and the French wear pants like the Chinese, but we wear our hair like the French and the French women wear it like the Annamites.

Cambodian women are in love all night, Annamite women are in love all day. It is said that French women are only in love in the evening.

O girls, remove your sampots, so that I may see which one of you pleases me the most.

I am ugly, I have a clubfoot, I have swallowed my teeth, and the bees come to deposit their wax in the corner of my eyes; my hair is kinky and my nostrils are black and dirty like the mouths of Annamite women. Yet there are five beautiful and young ladies who are vying for my favors.

Dogs greet each other by sniffing at the...., the French by shaking hands, and we kiss our wives by sniffing their face or breast..... it depends on the time.

O woman, I do not know what I have had for six months, it makes me hot in the chest when I see you, and I cry when I no longer see you.

O women, you are cunning, but I am in love; - you will take all my money, but I will take you for wives and you will cook your husband's rice; - you are cunning, but you will become pregnant and you will nurse my children; - you are cunning, but I will be the master of the house and you will be my servants; - you are cunning, but you will love and I will beat you; - you are cunning and to avenge me you will make me.... a cuckold."*

And the author adds in conclusion: "And the pirogues parade and the king smiles; the women laugh heartily, and it is a joy when one of the grimacing buffoons utters a well-turned ribaldry."

From: Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient / Year 1904 / Volume 4 / Number 1 / pp. 120-130. La fête des eaux à Phnom-Penh / Adhémard Leclère.

"The role of comic characters intervening in theaters staging didactic stories and/or addressing religious themes is neither a new fact, nor an element specific to Cambodian theater. The presence of comedy in the royal performances of the Mahabharata and Ramayana epics was found in many South and Southeast Asian kingdoms, whether in men's, women's, or leather theaters (Epskamp 1993: 275). Even today, jesters retain an undeniable place in most of these practices. In India, several forms combining ritual and theater stage deities, including or not the possession of participants, alongside which jesters, the vidūṣaka, emerge (Tarabout 1998: 271-272, 274). Through their play, these clowns are led to perform or parody important ritual elements and their very presence can be perceived as a way of distancing themselves from the powers at play in the event and thus embodying them without risk (Tarabout 1998: 277-278, 289). These jesters can also attest to a state of affairs, such as the possession of a third party. It remains that their presence, beyond the amusement generated, is often ritual in these contexts (ibid.: 289). In fact, the comic sketches convey an object that goes beyond the framework of entertainment and contribute to the accomplishment of the cult. In another form of Keralan theater, Tarabout notes that the interventions of the clowns constantly transgress the social norms of interaction between characters of different caste or social status. However, the object of these sketches is not to challenge the hierarchical system and the pre-established order, but rather to reaffirm it year after year (Tarabout 1996: 362-363)."

*From the thesis of Stéphanie Khoury: "Quand Kumbhakār libère les eaux Théâtre, musique de biṇ bādy et expression rituelle dans le lkhon khol au Cambodge (When Kumbhakār Releases the Waters Theater, Bin Bady Music and Ritual Expression in Lkhon Khol in Cambodia)". January  2014.

As stated in the preamble, the underlying legendary Hindu or popular origin of these sculpted ensembles remains unknown. However, in light of Angkorian Khmer ethnography and epigraphy, we can affirm that the sculptors drew inspiration from a tangible reality: that of characters affected by genetic pathologies integrated into the highest spheres of society. Let us recall that these scenes are sculpted at the foot of the former royal palace. Although Angkorian society had hundreds of thousands of slaves fit for work, these individuals, who would be described as "disabled" today, were not set apart.

There is probably an exaggeration in having represented together such musicians, singers and jesters, whereas the iconography of the Bayon period (late 12th-early 13th centuries) generally shows characters with standardized physical traits in real situations.

A second interpretation could be to consider that certain celestial realms are populated by singular beings, fantasized worlds where one could express one's pain towards the powerful and the gods, insult them for the ills suffered, mock them and cry for vengeance.

These tableaux are like the cabinets of curiosities that appeared during the Renaissance in Europe, offering everyone the opportunity to reinforce their beliefs in unreachable worlds. Today, don't the mainstream media play a similar role with their supposedly "real" comments and images? These representations propose a distancing from difference, provoking both anguish and fascination, a form of catharsis perhaps.

The dwarf jester embodies this ambiguity between object and humanity, without being truly categorizable. He can mock the king and the gods, which no human would dare without risking his life. The jester makes the king and gods heroes capable of accepting the unacceptable. In return, humans must accept the troubles imposed by power and the gods. The jester bears, by proxy, the suffering of the people. As an object, he can be destroyed by royal power in the real world or the gods in the afterlife. Today, Facebook plays the role of outlet for the ills and tensions of Humanity, while video games, the world's leading entertainment, allow for the channeling of anguish by immersing oneself in an extraordinary, equally unreachable world.

Angkorian society (c. 802-1432 CE) included many slaves. The servants of the temples - singers, musicians, dancers - were considered "supplies" in the service of the deity's cult, in the same way as ritual objects. By assimilating them to objects, any type of individual, regardless of gender, age or physical/mental condition, could enter divine service.

Contemporary Indian ethnography shows that some abnormal people are seen by Hindus as living deities. One can therefore assume that dwarves may have been considered "special objects" that could be mocked, but who in return had the power to rail at the king or the deities.

Although the legend that inspired these sculptures remains unknown, the sculptors, responding to a royal commission, transposed reality into the world of the gods by adding exaggerations such as the multi-headed animals.

Until the 20th century, commoner girls could be offered by their parents to the King of Cambodia from the age of eight so that they could become royal dancers or musicians. Once in the palace, they could only leave under drastic conditions. They were then subjected, in every sense of the term, to the will of the sovereign.

There are still geographic areas around the world in the 21st century where abnormal individuals are set apart, locked up, mistreated, eliminated or providers of organs for the most abject mafias. Disability (to use this trivialized term) is not reserved for those who suffer from a diminution of their physical or mental faculties, but also for those who are superior to the upper limits of their environment. There are also abnormal individuals because of their intelligence (memory, reasoning by flashes, mediumship, etc.) who are ostracized from society because they are potentially dangerous for the established power...