Ancient Sculptures Unearthed – Part of Churning of Ocean Episode at Banteay Chhmar temple in Cambodia

Three enormous statue heads were unearthed during the restoration work at the Banteay Chhmar Temple in Cambodia. The heads were part of a causeway depicting the famous Samudra Manthan or Churning of ocean mentioned in the Hindu Puranas. 

Phnomepenhpost reports 

The heads were part of a causeway depicting an ancient Hindu legend in which gods (devas) and demons (asuras) worked together to churn the ocean and release Amrita, the nectar of immortal life.

“Three [heads] were found. Two are intact, but one was broken in the head and mouth,” aid preservation official Mao Sy, adding that the statues came from the end of the 12th-century reign of Jayavarman VII. 

Sy estimated the statues’ heads fell off their bodies several decades ago and were buried by layers of earth brought in by floods. 

The heads were part of a causeway depicting the stirring of the Ocean of Milk, an ancient Hindu fable under which gods and demons worked together to churn the seas by wrapping a serpent around a mountain and rotating it.