Buddha torso; I Kmher, Lapbur style, 11th century. Sandstone. Measurements:... Lot 70

Buddha torso; I Kmher, Lapbur style, 11th century. Sandstone. Measurements: 55 x 35 x 13 cm. This torso of Buddha, endowed with singular refinement in every detail of its chiselling, iconographically presents some of the "lakshana" or specific features that allow us to recognise him as Siddhartha Gautama. The slightly bent eyelids are a symbol of spiritual concentration and purity because of their similarity to the petals of the lotus. The serene face is illuminated by a barely hinted smile. A sinuous line follows the lip profile, marking with similar delicacy the perfect arch of the eyebrows, the almond-shaped eye sockets and the bridge of the nose. Each curve has been carefully considered and balanced to convey the serenity characteristic of a perfect being. The elongated earlobes allude to the large earrings worn by members of the upper classes in India contemporary to Gautama Siddartha and represent the concepts of greatness, nobility and wisdom. The Khmer Empire was the largest empire in Southeast Asia and its core roughly corresponded to modern-day Cambodia. The empire, which had gained independence from the kingdom of Srivijaya and eventually replaced the kingdom of Chenla, controlled or made vassals of present-day Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia. During the formation of the empire, the Khmer Empire had very close cultural, political and commercial ties with Java first and with Srivijaya in the south of the empire. Its most important legacy is Angkor, which was the capital of the empire during its heyday. Angkor is the best testimony to the power and wealth of the empire, as well as to the diversity of beliefs that followed one another over the centuries. The official religions of the empire were Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism until Theravada Buddhism took over after its introduction from Sri Lanka in the 13th century. Modern satellites have revealed that Angkor was the largest pre-industrial human settlement in the world, larger than modern New York and everything. The history of Angkor as the centre of the historic kingdom of Kambuja is also the history of the Khmer Empire from the 9th to the 15th century.