Two fascinating objects of ancient Khmer art are Chaitya (or Caitya) and/or boundary markers. They present a diverse range of artistic style crossing religion and reigns, and excluding a handful that I’ll list below, most exist only in museums now. Standing around a meter high, carved from a solid block of stone, they are four-sided with representations on each side.
Let’s start with etymology. The term Chaitya leads to a bit of confusion, for example, in India where most of the terminology is drawn from, obviously, a Chaitya most commonly refers to a prayer hall with an example being the Bhaja Caves and the famous Ellora caves, while it seems more correct to say it’s a Chaitya hall containing a Chaitya (which is a stupa…). The term Chaitya (or caitya/cetiya) often gets used interchangeably with stupa as seen, although as researchers point out, Caitya was also in use prior to Buddhism, referring to holy places, sanctuaries, or places occupied by spirits such as Yaksa or Naga (Bareau, 1974). According to the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, the term Caitya in Sanskrit connotes a “tumulus, sanctuary or shrine”, both in Buddhist and non-Buddhist contexts.
In the Khmer universe, perhaps with the initiation of early French researchers or at least passed onto them, the term Caitya/Chaitya is also used for this seemingly stupa-like object, around a meter high with four sides featuring artistic reliefs and diety. They are often lumped into the categories of similar objects including stele, boundary markers, bollards, and temple reductions. Conversely, ornate double-sided stele are sometimes lumped under the term Caitya also, but, I think it’s worth cataloguing them separately.
It’s also worth noting that in neighbouring cultures, Caitya were also used as a place to store bones of the deceased. Aymonier, one of the first French explorers and researchers to make comprehensive notes on the temples across the Khmer Empire, used the term Caitya in this same way, using it interchangeably with chedi/funerary stupa. La Jonquiere, another of the early French researchers, described Caitya as “Cambodian denomination of certain shrines built within the walls of the pagoda” again this would seemingly be pointing to funerary stupa or stupas with relics. The first apparent usage of Caitya (to my knowledge at this stage) to describe these pieces was by Parmentier in 1930 describing a piece he had discovered at Prasat Kdak. To the best of my searching to date, the Sanskrit term “caitya/cetiya” is not mentioned in Khmer inscription.
Regardless, today the terminology is also used by the Museum Guimet, Phnom Penh National Museum, and the Angkor National Museum.
Chaitya point in all cardinal directions, and are artistically symbolic of the religion they are representing. Brahmanic versions often with depictions of Vishnu, and the Buddhist, depicting the Buddha or Lokeshvara, and sometimes with additional deity, also featuring a domed or pointed top as a stupa, symbolizing nirvana. They were seemingly in use from at least the 10/11th centuries through to the 13th century, and, used at both Mahayana Buddhist and Bhramanic sites.
Some examples can be seen at sites such as
Other Examples from Historical Records (via Fonds Cambodge & Persee/BEFEO)
Most of the remaining examples are held in the Angkor National Museum of Siem Reap, the Phnom Penh National Museum, the Museum Guimet (France), and the provincial museums across Cambodia. Also, the beautiful “Thousand Buddhas” Caitya from Banteay Kdei can be seen in the Preah Norodom Sihanouk Angkor Museum.
Prasat Lolei also features four-sided stone, an undecorated bar a lotus bud cap, that sits at the center of the four towers where there are also water channels, perhaps acting more like a linga. At Wat Thmor Puon there is a contemporary version of a “chaitya” embedded into the Buddha’s pedestal of the old pagoda, here, the local monks simply refer to it as a Buddha Image.
At some contemporary monasteries, you can also find remains of chaitya-like objects, yet mostly without embellishment and perhaps dating to the Middle Period 15-18th c, or maybe early 19th c at my own lay guess. Noting the one at Wat Chung Prek, capable of housing relics/remains, so perhaps they are more into the stupa category.
In 1936, Robert Dalet published an article, Note sur les steles edifice avec personnages dans les baies, he provides a deeper inspection of stylistic features and the characters depicted on what he describes as reductions, stele, and in one case caitya. He covers items that were discovered at Phnom Srok, Preah Khan of Kampong Svay, Samrong (NT), Preah Theat Toek Chha, three pagodas in Battambang, Toul Preah Uy, a pagoda in Kandal, and Wat Phnom in Phnom Penh. Of those mentioned, he does not speculate on their use or function bar alluding to them perhaps belonging to grand Buddhist sites.
A votive object, boundary marker, or a stupa-like object irradiating time-space in all directions with its relevant deities?
There’s a bit more to know about Chaitya, for example, their placement, how large an area they demarcated, whether they sat atop sacred deposits, if and how the item was interacted with, perhaps thinking of their larger relative being the stupa, the Neak Ta we see today or even the Chaitya of Nepal where their use is more clear, likewise with India and Manushi Buddha stupas. What’s likely, as usual, it’s another object that’s been wonderfully adopted into the Khmer universe and Khmerized.
There is always more to know, and I think there are a few threads to follow in all of that. If I find out more I’ll add it here!