Style, Hydraulics, Political Power and Angkor's West Mebon Viṣṇu – Marnie Feneley (2023)

In December 1936, a villager was led by a dream to the ruins of the West Mebon shrine in Angkor where he found the remains of a bronze sculpture. This was the West Mebon Viṣṇu, the largest bronze remaining from pre-modern Southeast Asia, and a work of great artistic, historical and political significance. Prominently placed in an island-temple in the middle of the vast artificial reservoir, the West Mebon Viṣṇu sculpture was a key focus point of the Angkorian hydraulic network. Interpretations of the statue, its setting, date and role, have remained largely unchanged since the 1960s, until now. Integrating the latest archaeological and historical work on Angkor, extensive art historical analysis of the figure of Viṣṇu Anantaśāyin in Hindu-Buddhist art across the region, and a detailed digital reconstruction of the sculpture and its setting, Marnie Feneley brings new light to this important piece.

Framed with a useful update on the latest archaeological and historical insights into the history of the Angkor World Heritage Site, this new understanding of the West Mebon Viṣṇu sculpture reorients our understanding of religious and political change in Angkor in the 12th cen- tury. Fully illustrated in colour throughout, the book will be of interest to art historians and curators, historians of Southeast Asia, and anyone with an interest in the art and history of Angkor.

Marnie Feneley is an accomplished scholar, with 20 years of experience in academia, museums and galleries in Australia and Southeast Asia. She specialises in the nexus between Southeast Asian art history, archaeology and religion. She has researched and co-curated many exhibitions, including the “Atlas of Maritime Buddhism” and “Buddhist Artworks” (Hong Kong, 2021), pioneering 3D immersive reconstructions of Asian temples and sculptures. She designed and taught the University of NSW's course Asian Cities: History, Culture, and Trade, and was Scientist-in-Residence at Heidelberg University, Germany. She currently serves as President of the Association of Mainland Southeast Asia Scholars. 

Professor John Miksic - National University of Singapore

Dr. Feneley’s book makes an important contribution to the study of Classical Southeast Asia. In it she tackles one of the most enigmatic and unique sites in all Cambodia. Using new archaeological discoveries and recently deciphered ancient inscriptions, the author argues for a new date for one of Cambodia’s most iconic sculptures, the reclining Vishnu statue found on a small island in the western reservoir at Angkor.  This is one of the most important feats of bronze casting ever created in Southeast Asia. Though it is now in fragments, she creates a computerized reconstruction of its original form. In addition to its religious symbolism, the statue may have had functions related to regulating the water in the reservoir.

Drawing conclusions from this statue and its site, Dr. Feneley uses data from recent archaeological excavations to build a strong case for the conclusion that Angkor’s kings were directly involved in planning water management in ancient Angkor, where water works were among the most sophisticated in the ancient world. She then takes another step forward by reinterpreting the relationship between agriculture and religious symbolism in what was the most centralized of all premodern Southeast Asian kingdoms. This publication constitutes a significant step forward in our understanding of the integrated nature of Angkor's art, water management, and society. 

Peter D. Sharrock, Senior Teaching Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Feneley’s critical analysis of jewellery and dress brings Angkor’s largest bronze forward to the city’s 12th century apogee, when Angkor rivalled the scale of China’s capital, redefining the 6m long reclining Viṣṇu on the West Mebon island as a replacement of the original Śivaliṅga by the empire-builder King Sūryavarman II, who revived Viṣṇu veneration after three centuries of Śaivism and constructed Angkor Wat, the largest Hindu temple on earth.

Professor Charles Higham - University of Otago

If Angkor Wat is the greatest temple mausoleum at Angkor, the gilded bronze Visnu is the greatest statue. Fully six metres long, the date and significance of this remarkable artefact has been much debated since its discovery in 1936. In this superb volume, Marnie Feneley has concluded that it was Suryavarman II, one of Angkor’s greatest sovereigns, who ordered the reclining Visnu to be placed in the island temple in the midst of the huge Western Baray. This minutely documented and generously illustrated book illuminates like no other, the vital nexus linking royal intercession with Visnu to ensure through the control of water, the well-being of the kingdom.

Paul Lavy, Associate Professor, Art History Area Graduate Director, University of Hawai’i

This beautifully illustrated volume is the most thorough study of a single Cambodian masterpiece ever undertaken. Interdisciplinary in approach, it offers insights into Khmer aesthetics, Angkor’s cultural landscape, and the chronology of a unique sculptural tradition.

Professor Sarah Kenderdine – Professor of Digital Museology at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

By skilfully navigating the realms of art history and archaeology, Feneley breathes life into the past through the medium of digital technology. Her groundbreaking work on the West Mebon Viṣṇu exemplifies a vision and commitment to preserving and showcasing cultural heritage in a captivating detail with extensive scholarly research at its fundament. Reconstructing God is an essential text for the next generation of digital humanists.