Modern technology, an eye for detail and recent excavations at the Angkor temple of Ta Prohm have finally pieced back together a mystery that began 99 years ago. It was in 1927 that a damaged though uniquely-crowned head (with a Tricira hairstyle) of Buddha was retrieved from inside Ta Prohm and has been kept at the Angkor Conservation depot in Siem Reap ever since, one of many such heads seemingly forever missing their bodies. Fast forward to March 2025 when excavations by the Apsara team and their partner, the Archaeological Research of India (ASI), unearthed a series of buried sculptural elements including a torso of a bejeweled Buddha statue from the late twelfth century. Detective work and the use of modern scanning equipment have now matched the torso to an arm and two feet with pedestal which were unearthed by the same team in July 2024, and have combined the fragments with the 1927-found head languishing in the storeroom at the Angkor Conservation HQ to produce an almost complete statue. It’s a remarkable recovery for a sculpture that had been broken into four separate pieces, scattered and buried. Now they are reunited and another piece of Cambodia’s glorious heritage is restored.
The re-assembled Buddha, with the four elements combined, from Ta Prohm. Sandstone, H 116 cm. Photos by Phog Chea and Olivier Cunin.
The torso of Buddha found at Ta Prohm in March 2025. Photos by Phog Chea and Olivier Cunin.
Independent researcher and Cheltenham, UK-born and bred, Andy Brouwer made his first trip to Cambodia in 1994, and that white-knuckle ride hooked him for life. He upped sticks to Phnom Penh in 2007 after more than thirty years in banking back in the UK to join Hanuman Films for the next 15 years.
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