It is remarkable that Mohammedanism remained almost unknown to Camboja, Siam and Burma. The tide of Moslim invasion swept across the Malay Peninsula southwards. Its effect was strongest in Sumatra and Java, feebler on the coasts of Borneo and the Philippines. From the islands it reached Champa, where it had some success, but Siam and Camboja lay on one side of its main route, and also showed no sympathy for it. King Rama Thuppdey Chan[320] who reigned in Camboja from 1642-1659 became a Mohammedan and surrounded himself with Malays and Javanese. But he alienated the affections of his subjects and was deposed by the intervention of Annam. After this we hear no more of Mohammedanism. An unusual incident, which must be counted among the few cases in which Buddhism has encouraged violence, is recorded in the year 1730, when a Laotian who claimed to be inspired, collected a band of fanatics and proceeded to massacre in the name of Buddha all the Annamites resident in Camboja. This seems to show that Buddhism was regarded as the religion of the country and could be used as a national cry against strangers.
As already mentioned Brahmanism still survives in the court ceremonial though this by no means prevents the king from being a devout Buddhist. The priests are known as Bakus. They wear a top-knot and the sacred thread after the Indian fashion, and enjoy certain privileges. Within the precincts of the palace at Phnom Penh is a modest building where they still guard the sword of Indra. About two inches of the blade are shown to visitors, but except at certain festivals it is never taken out of its sheath.
The official programme of the coronation of King Sisowath (April 23-28, 1906), published in French and Cambojan, gives a curious account of the ceremonies performed, which were mainly Brahmanic, although prayers were recited by the Bonzes and offerings made to Buddha. Four special Brahmanic shrines were erected and the essential part of the rite consisted in a lustral bath, in which the Bakus poured water over the king. Invocations were addressed to beings described as "Anges qui êtes au paradis des six séjours célestes, qui habitez auprès d'Indra, de Brahmâ et de l'archange Sahabodey," to the spirits of mountains, valleys and rivers and to the spirits who guard the palace. When the king has been duly bathed the programme prescribes that "le Directeur des Bakous remettra la couronne â M. le Gouverneur Général qui la portera sur la tête de Sa Majesté au nom du Gouvernement de la République Française." Equally curious is the "Programme des fêtes royales à l'occasion de la crémation de S.M. Norodom" (January 2-16, 1906). The lengthy ceremonial consisted of a strange mixture of prayers, sermons, pageants and amusements. The definitely religious exercises were Buddhist and the amusements which accompanied them, though according to our notions curiously out of place, clearly correspond to the funeral games of antiquity. Thus we read not only of "offrande d'un repas aux urnes royales" but of "illuminations générales ... lancement de ballons ... luttes et assauts de boxe et de l'escrime ... danses et soirée de gala.... Après la crémation, Sa Majesté distribuera des billets de tombola."
The ordinary Buddhism of Camboja at the present day resembles that of Siam and is not mixed with Brahmanic observances. Monasteries are numerous: the monks enjoy general respect and their conduct is said to be beyond reproach. They act as schoolmasters and, as in Siam and Burma, all young men spend some time in a monastery. A monastery generally contains from thirty to fifty monks and consists of a number of wooden houses raised on piles and arranged round a square. Each monk has a room and often a house to himself. Besides the dwelling houses there are also stores and two halls called Salâ and Vihéar (vihâra). In both the Buddha is represented by a single gigantic sitting image, before which are set flowers and incense. As a rule there are no other images but the walls are often ornamented with frescoes of Jâtaka stories or the early life of Gotama. Meals are taken in the Salâ at about 7 and 11 a.m.[321], and prayers are recited there on ordinary days in the morning and evening. The eleven o'clock meal is followed by a rather long grace. The prayers consist mostly of Pali formulæ, such as the Three Refuges, but they are sometimes in Cambojan and contain definite petitions or at least wishes formulated before the image of the Buddha. Thus I have heard prayers for peace and against war. The more solemn ceremonies, such as the Uposatha and ordinations, are performed in the Vihear. The recitation of the Pâtimokkha is regularly performed and I have several times witnessed it. All but ordained monks have to withdraw outside the Sîmâ stones during the service. The ceremony begins about 6 p.m.: the Bhikkhus kneel down in pairs face to face and rubbing their foreheads in the dust ask for mutual forgiveness if they have inadvertently offended. This ceremony is also performed on other occasions. It is followed by singing or intoning lauds, after which comes the recitation of the Pâtimokkha itself which is marked by great solemnity. The reader sits in a large chair on the arms of which are fixed many lighted tapers. He repeats the text by heart but near him sits a prompter with a palm-leaf manuscript who, if necessary, corrects the words recited. I have never seen a monk confess in public, and I believe that the usual practice is for sinful brethren to abstain from attending the ceremony and then to confess privately to the Abbot, who assigns them a penance. As soon as the Pâtimokkha is concluded all the Bhikkhus smoke large cigarettes. In most Buddhist countries it is not considered irreverent to smoke[322], chew betel or drink tea in the intervals of religious exercises. When the cigarettes are finished there follows a service of prayer and praise in Cambojan. During the season of Wassa there are usually several Bhikkhus in each monastery who practise meditation for three or four days consecutively in tents or enclosures made of yellow cloth, open above but closed all round. The four stages of meditation described in the Piṭakas are said to be commonly attained by devout monks[323].
The Abbot has considerable authority in disciplinary matters. He eats apart from the other monks and at religious ceremonies wears a sort of red cope, whereas the dress of the other brethren is entirely yellow. Novices prostrate themselves when they speak to him.
Above the Abbots are Provincial Superiors and the government of the whole Church is in the hands of the Somdec práh sanghrâc. There is, or was, also a second prelate called Lòk práh só̆kŏn, or Braḥ Sugandha, and the two, somewhat after the manner of the two primates of the English Church, supervise the clergy in different parts of the kingdom, the second being inferior to the first in rank, but not dependent on him. But it is said that no successor has been appointed to the last Braḥ Sugandha who died in 1894. He was a distinguished scholar and introduced the Dhammayut sect from Siam into Camboja. The king is recognized as head of the Church, but cannot alter its doctrine or confiscate ecclesiastical property.
6
No account of Cambojan religion would be complete without some reference to the splendid monuments in which it found expression and which still remain in a great measure intact. The colonists who established themselves in these regions brought with them the Dravidian taste for great buildings, but either their travels enlarged their artistic powers or they modified the Indian style by assimilating successfully some architectural features found in their new home. What pre-Indian architecture there may have been among the Khmers we do not know, but the fact that the earliest known monuments are Hindu makes it improbable that stone buildings on a large scale existed before their arrival. The feature which most clearly distinguishes Cambojan from Indian architecture is its pyramidal structure. India has stupas and gopurams of pyramidal appearance but still Hindu temples of the normal type, both in the north and south, consist of a number of buildings erected on the same level. In Camboja on the contrary many buildings, such as Ta-Keo, Ba-phuong and the Phimeanakas, are shrines on the top of pyramids, which consist of three storeys or large steps, ascended by flights of relatively small steps. In other buildings, notably Angkor Wat, the pyramidal form is obscured by the slight elevation of the storeys compared with their breadth and by the elaboration of the colonnades and other edifices, which they bear. But still the general plan is that of a series of courts each rising within and above the last and this gradual rise, by which the pilgrim is led, not only through colonnade after colonnade, but up flight after flight of stairs, each leading to something higher but invisible from the base, imparts to Cambojan temples a sublimity and aspiring grandeur which is absent from the mysterious halls of Dravidian shrines.
One might almost suppose that the Cambojan architects had deliberately set themselves to rectify the chief faults of Indian architecture. One of these is the profusion of external ornament in high relief which by its very multiplicity ceases to produce any effect proportionate to its elaboration, with the result that the general view is disappointing and majestic outlines are wanting. In Cambojan buildings on the contrary the general effect is not sacrificed to detail: the artists knew how to make air and space give dignity to their work. Another peculiar defect of many Dravidian buildings is that they were gradually erected round some ancient and originally humble shrine with the unfortunate result that the outermost courts and gateways are the most magnificent and that progress to the holy of holies is a series of artistic disappointments. But at Angkor Wat this fault is carefully avoided. The long paved road which starts from the first gateway isolates the great central mass of buildings without dwarfing it and even in the last court, when one looks up the vast staircases leading to the five towers which crown the pyramid, all that has led up to the central shrine seems, as it should, merely an introduction.
The solidity of Cambojan architecture is connected with the prevalence of inundations. With such dangers it was of primary importance to have a massive substructure which could not be washed away and the style which was necessary in building a firm stone platform inspired the rest of the work. Some unfinished temples reveal the interesting fact that they were erected first as piles of plain masonry. Then came the decorator and carved the stones as they stood in their places, so that instead of carving separate blocks he was able to contemplate his design as a whole and to spread it over many stones. Hence most Cambojan buildings have a peculiar air of unity. They have not had ornaments affixed to them but have grown into an ornamental whole. Yet if an unfavourable criticism is to be made on these edifices—especially Angkor Wat—it is that the sculptures are wanting in meaning and importance. They cannot be compared to the reliefs of Boroboedoer, a veritable catechism in stone where every clause teaches the believer something new, or even to the piles of figures in Dravidian temples which, though of small artistic merit, seem to represent the whirl of the world with all its men and monsters, struggling from life into death and back to life again. The reliefs in the great corridors of Angkor are purely decorative. The artist justly felt that so long a stretch of plain stone would be wearisome, and as decoration, his work is successful. Looking outwards the eye is satisfied with such variety as the trees and houses in the temple courts afford: looking inwards it finds similar variety in the warriors and deities portrayed on the walls. Some of the scenes have an historical interest, but the attempt to follow the battles of the Ramayana or the Churning of the Sea soon becomes a tedious task, for there is little individuality or inspiration in the figures.