Yama riding the buffalo
Copyright © Timothy Tye.
Angkor Wat Judgment of Yama
Cambodia
The Judgment of Yama is a bas-relief executed on the south section of the East Gallery of Angkor Wat. It is 66 meters in length, which makes it shorter than the Procession of Suryavarman Gallery, because of how Angkor Wat is designed. The theme of this Judgment of Yama gallery is suffering for the wicked and eternal rest for the good.
Judgment of Yama Gallery starts with two processions. Great and good Khmer people are carried on thrones and palaquins on their way to Heaven. On the other hand, the wicked are marched down to hell, where demons spare no opportunity in beating them silly, and dishing out creative means of punishment. Yama, the god of judgment, is shown on his mount, the buffalo. Sinners fall through trapdoors into sin-specific Hells - there are all together 32 different Hells, identified with short descriptions.
22 meters on, the scene of Hell is replaced with Heaven, a much less interesting place than Hell, where punishment is creatively extreme and imaginative. The Heavens are depicted as a succession of palaces - a continuous set of full apartments with nothing much happening, and even the delights granted by the heavenly nymphs, the apsaras, and considerably modest. Better perhaps to face the dullness of Heaven than the creative tortures of Hell.
Sinners are given a beating and then transported to 32 different sin-specific Hells
Copyright © Timothy Tye.
Tourists living through the Hells of Yama from a safe distance
Copyright © Timothy Tye.
