Pandoraspace

The Churning of the Sea of Milk

A scene from the Hindu myth, the Churning of the Sea of Milk, is carved on one of the walls of Angkor Wat. The scene shows the Hindu snake-god, Vasuki, twined around a tower (Mount Mandara). On one side, the gods are pulling Vasuki’s head, and on the other side, the demons are pulling Vasuki’s tail. To prevent Mount Mandara from sinking in the Sea of Milk, a god (maybe Vishnu) transforms itself into a giant tortoise, which is seen keeping Mount Mandara afloat. (See Michael Buckley, The Churning of the Ocean of Milk, www.veloasia.com.)  As Padma and I were perplexed by what we saw, our guide explained that the amrita (the Hindu elixir of immortality), the apsaras and the three-headed elephants (whose Hindu/Khmer name I can no longer recall) were lost in a fight between the gods and the demons. Upon Vishnu’s advise, the gods and demons later worked together to churn the Sea of Milk to produce those lost items.  After our guide explained the myth to us, I was even more perplexed. The myth is mysterious, strange, funny, fascinating and definitely out of this world.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 12:08 am and is filed under Siem Reap, Cambodia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.