Description of the attraction
Located north of the Royal Palace, the National Museum of Cambodia is housed in an exquisite traditional terracotta building dating from 1917-1920. The courtyard has a beautiful garden.
The museum is a repository of the world's best collections of Khmer sculpture and art objects dating back millennia. The exhibits are arranged from left to right in chronological order. The first significant sculpture to welcome visitors is a large fragment of a bronze statue of Vishnu with his head, shoulders and two right arms intact. The sculpture was brought from the Western Mebon Temple near Angkor Wat in 1936.
The southern pavilion displays a Pre-Angkor collection illustrating the transition from the human form of Indian sculpture to the divine form of Khmer sculpture from the 5th to 8th centuries. The main examples that attract attention are the imposing eight-armed statue of Vishnu from the 6th century, found in Phnom Da, and the sculpture of Harihara, combining the attributes of Shiva and Vishnu, from the Kampong Thom province.
The collection of the Angkor period includes several striking statues of Shiva from the 9th-11th centuries, a pair of giant monkeys (Koh Ker, 10th century), a beautiful 12th century stele from the Oddar-Myanchi province, which depicted scenes from the life of Shiva, a statue of a seated in a position of meditation Jayavarmana VII with bowed head (1181-1219, Angkor Thom).
The museum also displays ceramics and bronze exhibits dating back to the pre-Angkor periods of Funan and Chenla (IV-IX centuries), the Indvarvarman period (IX-X centuries) and the classical Angkor period (X-XIV centuries), as well as a beautiful wooden royal barge.
The collection is not allowed to be photographed, only the central courtyard can be photographed. Guided tours are conducted with English, French or Japanese-speaking guides and themed booklets can be purchased at reception.
