In April this year I visited the GUIMET museum in Paris, and it was like stepping into a totally different period in time. It represents the most thorough collection of asian antiquities and ancient art in Europe.
But first, a small introduction to the Khmer civilization - because they are the very reason why I wanted to visit the museum in the first place...
Who Were the Khmer?
The Khmer were an ancient civilization in Current-day Cambodia which held great power and influence from the beginning end of the 8th ce AD till the end of the 13th century AD – they ruled vast areas of the south-east Asian region in those years. Inspired by the Indians, due to connected trade routes, and the Hinduistic religion, they built huge palaces with intricate and symbolistic decorations, irrigation systems, temples and so much more in the jungle. And every new year or so more beautiful and interesting sites are discovered, which only builds upon the knowledge of this ancient civilization.
And of course the most famous and well-known example of these irrigation systems, temples, palaces and so forth are Angkor Wat – and a great deal of literature has been written, as well as documentaries filmed, on this very site. There are some recommendations at the very bottom of this post.
Angkor Wat was the absolute center of political, spiritual and cultural power – and shows great monuments in honour of the gods, ancestors and themselves. But this isn´t a post about Angkor Wat and the culture as such – it´s about the absolutely amazing museum in Paris called GUIMET.
The Museum: GUIMET Paris
As a European, there´s a lot of museums with Greek, Roman, and Egyptian ancient art, among other cultures. But Asian, and specifically Cambodian, Vietnamese, Thai, Himalayan, Japanese etc. There´s terracotta’s, stone works, porcelain, textiles, bronze, netsukes etc. from the entirety of Asia. And the next room is more amazing and impressive than the previous. It´s so different compared to any other museum I´ve visited in Italy, France, Denmark, UK, Austria and so on – simply because the artworks are so unusual to the eye. The immense volume of items displayed is quite extraordinary. Here's just a fraction of the pictures i took!
Pediment from the Banteay Srei Temple near Angkor
Vietnamese Boddhisattva Lokeshvara from 600 AD in Phnom Da Style.
Tang-Dynasty (618 - 907) Terracotta Gravefigures, Musicians and Dancers
So, to make it short, if you ever go to Paris – you have to go and visit the GUIMET – I highly recommend it.
The reason for the introduction to the Khmer is simply because that was the primary reason why I chose to visit the museum – I´ve become quite interested in that particular empire.
So if you´ve visited Cambodia, Angkor Wat, Siem Reap etc. Please feel free to give me some recommendations as I´m beginning to plan a trip there.
And here´s just a lot of pictures from the Museum visit (it´s not exclusively pictures of Khmer art, there´s a lot of other pieces as well). Btw I took about 800-ish pictures, so if you want to see more pictures feel free to reach out to me, and I´ll upload some more to this page, and/or send some to you.
