You say Apsara, I say Devata!
Since writing this article, I have changed my mind! I now use the term apsara. My reasoning is described in my new article What the Celestial Ladies Are Called.
The many beautiful ladies adorning the walls of the Angkor temples are almost universally referred to as apsaras.
The name 'apsara' has certainly caught the imagination of writers, tour guides, documentary producers and hotel owners alike. The name and their lovely images can be found throughout Angkor and in Siem Reap's guide books, hotels and guest houses, restaurants, gift shops and other businesses.
The name is further reinforced in visitors' minds because the Cambodian management authority responsible for protecting the Angkor Archaeological Park is called APSARA.
Furthermore, the Apsara Dancers that can be seen performing in modern-day Cambodia look more like what experts traditionally referred to as devatas in academic texts discussing Angkor imagery.
I prefer to stick with the classical (perhaps old-fashioned) distinction between the apsaras, the celestial nymphs born from the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, and the devatas, semi-divine beings who guard the sanctuaries devoted to goddesses, such those as at Preah Ko Temple and Lolei Temple. This distinction is not only more classically correct, it also helps me to identify and understand the ancient carvings on the walls of Angkor.
So, at Angkor, apsaras are always seen flying in the air or dancing in Indra's heavens with smiles illuminating their faces.
Devatas are the ladies that are standing, usually holding a lotus flower. They sometimes smile, though it is usually more enigmatic, more sensual, and many of them have a haughty expression.
Both apsaras and devatas can be found in their thousands at Angkor Wat Temple and at all of the many temples built under Jayavarman VII.
So, for example, I refer to the standing ladies seen throughout Angkor Wat Temple as devatas. The ladies represented as dancing, also present throughout Angkor Wat Temple, are apsaras.
If you enjoyed this article, and you would like to continue to share in my adventures, please sign up for my newsletter below. Since I no longer post on social media, this is the best way to stay up-to-date with my work.
Also in Library
What the World Remembers
July moved through walls, bodies, songs, scars, cups, pages and stones—ordinary and mythic things that remember what human beings forget. Across Angkor, the Odyssey, Tolkien, Vedic creation, Greek war and quiet domestic rooms, the Library returned to one governing question: when memory fails, what in the world continues to know us?
The Story on the Wall
At Angkor Wat, more than fifty metres of carved sandstone hold the Battle of Lanka. Rama is present, but he must be found. This Prologue to The Story That Became Cambodia begins with the monumental certainty of the wall—and asks what the finished image cannot reveal about the Ramayana’s earlier journey into Khmer history.
The Mouth You Gave Me
A spare lyric poem from The Vow on breath, speech, gratitude, and the received body through which every answer must be formed and released.
Continue Reading
If this piece found something in you, you may wish to continue the journey elsewhere.
On The Lantern Chronicles, I gather writings from Angkor, myth and legend, contemplative essays, and poetry — works shaped by silence, beauty, wonder, memory, and the deeper questions that follow us through the world.
It is a place for stone and story, reflection and vow, shadow and revelation.
You would be most welcome there.