Martial orchestras of Banteay Chhmar
MAJ : 3 décembre 2023
Compared to the Bayon, the Banteay Chhmar temple has a limited number of orchestras, concentrated on the wall of the western gallery. However, one of the orchestras is atypical, featuring an instrument that is totally absent elsewhere: a carillon of drums and oboes. This is a recent discovery (2020), as this part of the western wall was still in the rubble before this date. The images opposite show the gallery's historiated wall and the pillars supporting the roof, which has now disappeared.
Western gallery: martial orchestra 1
This ensemble is located on the west gallery wall. Organological precision is not rigorous, but all the instruments can be identified (L. to R.): a goblet drum, an hourglass drum, a pair of trumpets, a pair of cymbals, a conch shell, and a large shoulder carried drum struck by the rear carrier. These are the classic instruments known since the time of the Baphuon and Angkor Wat.
Western gallery: martial orchestra 2
This bas-relief is in poor condition. We can see a large shoulder carried drum struck by a small dancing figure, as we can see many at Bayon, and perhaps a horn or a conch shell in the perspective of the drum.
Western gallery: martial orchestra 3
This orchestra consists of just two instruments: a large shoulder carried drum and a conch shell. The way it's depicted, you might think it's a large bossed gong, but it's not, because as we explained in the section on large shoulder carried drum, it's only attached by a single point downwind. While the two carriers are clearly visible, the drummer is not. The carrying bar ends in polycephalic nagas.
The conch shell is not visible, but the musician's position, at the back of the drum, is characteristic.
The general plan sheds light on the context of this orchestra's presence. Although the instruments belong to the martial orchestra, this is not a war scene, but the accompaniment of sacred fire, as in the famous scene in Angkor Wat, third gallery south, west wing. Before the deity, two men prostrate, followed by soldiers with spears and rectangular shields, bearers of oriflammes, then the orchestra, bearers of three types of fan, the sacred fire, a Brahman in a palanquin with canopy, women wearing tiaras similar to those of sacred dancers.
Western gallery: martial orchestra 4
This ensemble is reduced to a large shoulder carried drum struck by a small dancing figure, as can be seen in many Bayon pieces, and a horn perhaps made from a buffalo horn or even an elephant's tusk. Its shape is perfectly defined: beautifully curved, flared and stopping straight, while other models present a sort of stylized makara mouth.
Western gallery: martial orchestra 5
We only discovered this martial ensemble in 2020, following the reassembly of the western enclosure wall. It brings the unexpected discovery of an instrument unknown elsewhere in Angkorian iconography: a drum chime. The bas-relief is damaged, but most of the instruments are identifiable if we compare this orchestra with other occurrences.
From left to right:
- A cylindrical drum struck with bare hands.
- Two trumpets: the first is not visible, but the musician's arm is in the same position as the next, whose horn is perfectly visible. In view of the decoration featuring a succession of rings, it could be a bamboo horn, as on the outer western gallery of the Bayon.
- A drum chime with nine elements (two are broken).
- A barrel drum (slightly swollen in the middle) struck with a stick.
- A long hourglass drum.
- A conch shell, although the nature of the instrument is not discernible. There were probably two originally.
- A large shoulder carried drum. The support is broken. The representation of the drummer is singular: he has been engraved on the surface of the drum so as not to conceal the membrane. We're already familiar with the twirling little players of the Bayon, but here the sculptor has gone one step further!
- On the other hand, the cymbals and the cymbalist, obligatory in this type of formation, are not identifiable, given the state of the bas-relief.
Western gallery: martial orchestra 6
This orchestra is unusual, to say the least, in its composition and execution. The first musician, on the right, appears to play an oboe, recognizable by what we might consider a reed and its pirouette in the shape of outstretched bat wings. The appearance of this instrument in the 12th century, here at Banteay Chhmar, when it does not appear in any other temple, is surprising. We are familiar with mid-sixteenth-century representations of oboes in the north gallery of Angkor Wat.
In other martial orchestras (Angkor Wat, Bayon), the natural accompaniment to the horn is the conch. There are at least two contemporary occurrences of a trumpet/oboe mix among the Damaï of Nepal and Tibetan Buddhists.
Other musicians and instruments from right to left:
- A long trumpet player ending in a stylized makara mouth. Note that the instrument is carried like a conch shell in other martial arts orchestras, with one arm exaggeratedly raised.
- Cymbals.
- A drum — of indefinite nature due to the deterioration of the bas-relief — carried horizontally with a strap; the musician appears to be striking it with two sticks.
- A curious cylindrical drum carried vertically. The uniqueness of this occurrence throughout the Angkorian world leads us to believe that the creator of the bas-relief had some distant idea of the organology and playing style of this instrument.
- An hourglass-shaped drum struck with bare hands.
In conclusion: it's hard to deny the presence of an oboe in this ensemble. However, the presence of this cylindrical drum held vertically casts doubt on the sculptor's knowledge of instrument organology. Nevertheless, even if it wasn't an oboe, the artist must have seen such an instrument to depict its reed and bat-winged pirouette.