Devotion in the Grain of Stone
A single fierce gesture can illuminate an entire cosmology. In Bhakti Mukta, the vast mythic flood of Angkor’s Battle of Lanka narrows to one incandescent tension: vanara teeth embedded in demon flesh. Lucas Varro finds in this frozen bite not brutality, but pure intention.
Captured before dawn in the uncolored hush of the Western Gallery, the image gathers its strength from what is not yet said. Medium-format black-and-white film receives the moment like an open palm. Long exposure invites shadow to settle. Later, hand-toning lifts the silence to the surface, drawing ember from stone.
Chiaroscuro renders the flesh of myth as if still breathing. Muscles coil. Limbs burn. But at its core, Bhakti Mukta is not about war. It is about a vow—devotion sharpened to fang. This image stands within the Spirit of Angkor as its votive blade, where love is given not gently, but fully.
Each print is shaped with care: archival pigment on Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, hand-toned with reverence. The edition, strictly limited to twenty-five prints plus two Artist’s Proofs, reflects the rarity of the moment it preserves. Each piece is signed, numbered, and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
To live with Bhakti Mukta is to invite a sharpened stillness into your space—one that does not wound, but wakens. Here, devotion bares its teeth and becomes flame.
Also in Library
From Mountain to Monastery
Angkor Wat survived by learning to change its posture. Built as a summit for gods and kings, it became a place of dwelling for monks and pilgrims. As belief shifted from ascent to practice, stone yielded to routine—and the mountain learned how to remain inhabited.
Why Theravada Could Outlast Stone
Theravada endured by refusing monumentality. It shifted belief from stone to practice, from kings to villages, from permanence to repetition. What it preserved was not form but rhythm—robes, bowls, chants, and lives lived close together—allowing faith to travel when capitals fell and temples emptied.
The End of Sanskrit at Angkor
The final Sanskrit inscription at Angkor does not announce an ending. It simply speaks once more, with elegance and certainty, into a world that had begun to listen differently. Its silence afterward marks not collapse, but a quiet transfer of meaning—from stone and proclamation to practice, breath, and impermanence.
$250
Devotion, Unbound
Angkor Wat Temple, Angkor, Cambodia — 2020
Limited Edition Archival Pigment Print
Edition
Strictly limited to 25 prints + 2 Artist’s Proofs
Medium
Hand-toned black-and-white archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Bamboo — a museum-grade fine art paper chosen for its quiet tactility and reverent depth, echoing the spirit of the temples.
Signature & Numbering
Each print is individually signed and numbered by the artist on the border (recto)
Certificate of Authenticity
Accompanies every print
Image Size
8 x 8 inches (20.3 x 20.3 cm)
Before the birds herald day, a dusky hush clings to Angkor Wat’s Western Gallery. Within that hush, two figures ignite—a vanara’s jaws closing upon a rakshasa’s thigh, their limbs blazing across the centuries in unwavering purpose. The wall itself seems to inhale, holding the precise moment when loyalty surpasses fear.
This stillness hums with unseen currents: sandalwood breeze, latent thunder, the breath of hundreds of stone warriors who bear silent witness. Yet all sound recedes into the gravity of this single bite, chiselled conviction etched into sandstone and darkness alike.
Lucas Varro knelt for this encounter as one might kneel at a shrine: heart quiet, shutter poised, body stilled to receive what the wall would disclose. Medium-format black-and-white film gathered the lingering night; long exposure let devotion root itself in silver. Later, chiaroscuro shaping and hand-toning coaxed hidden embers to the surface, until violence revealed its secret tenderness.
Strictly limited to twenty-five prints with two Artist’s Proofs, each sheet rests on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper whose warm fibers cradle the image like well-worn prayer beads. Signed, numbered, and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity, every impression bears the trace of the artist’s steady hand.
Invite this fierce serenity into the room where your quietest questions wait.
To walk further into the silence behind the stone, click here to enter the Artist’s Journal.
Previously titled ‘Battle of Lanka I, Study I, Angkor Wat Temple, Cambodia. 2020,’ this photograph has been renamed to better reflect its place in the series and its spiritual tone. The edition, provenance, and authenticity remain unchanged.
