The Final Pre-class Response :(
A statue of a guardian lion that used to guard the entrances of the temples, in particular “the pyramidal structure that represented Mount Meru, the residence of the gods at the center of the Hindu world.”
I thought this sculpture was very interesting because lion iconography has been commonly used in art to represent might and pride. I have no idea how the whole notion of lions making good guards came about, but I thought it was pretty cool that Cambodian and Khmer sculptors had that sort of idea about lions even though there were no lions that roamed around Cambodia. I assume that they probably got their idea of what lions were through trade interactions with other civilizations that existed during the period.











