Shattered God, Restored Legacy: Rebuilding Shiva’s Dance

via Southeast Asia Globe, 29 September 2023: A meticulous restoration journey by a French and Cambodian team is underway to reassemble the monumental Dancing Shiva statue, shattered into over 10,000 pieces by looters during past decades of conflict. This effort not only aims to restore a historical masterpiece but also to reclaim a lost legacy of Cambodia.

Stone restorers and archeologists have spent more than a decade piecing back together the monumental statue of the Hindu god Shiva from the Koh Ker temple complex in northern Cambodia, which was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List earlier this month. The seven-tonne, 10th century work depicts a 10-armed Shiva in a dancing pose – but over long years of turmoil during the country’s civil conflict in the 1980s and 90s, looters gradually smashed the stone deity into more than 10,000 pieces.

Some larger fragments, including two of the heads, had been preserved in Phnom Penh before the 1970s. A third head was shattered before looters got to it, and the final two looted faces have yet to be found.

Source: Five heads, 10,000 pieces: Restoring the dancing Shiva