A group of 12 legendary historic military leaders was chosen from among 30 candidates to be cast into copper statues for display at Royal Independence Gardens in front of the Royal Residence in Siem Reap.

The National Television in the province quoted Kong Panha – secretary of state for the Ministry of the Royal Palace who initiated the idea of building the statues – as saying that the statues were built after studies were carried out by culture and fine arts experts and a workshop held in 2021 to identify which military leaders would be cast into copper.

Each figure measures the same height at 2.1m, but the weights vary from between 200kg and 300kg due to the differences in appearance, clothes and weapons held by the chiefs.

“After the study was completed, both in terms of studying stone inscriptions and paying visits to examine various images on temples such as Banteay Chhmar, Baphuon, Angkor Wat and Bayon, we identified 30 military leaders who would make good subjects for the statues,” she said.

“The reason we’ve displayed only 12 statues is because there were 12 kingdoms, as well as other significant aspects to our history that Khmer counted as 12 in number. Therefore, we selected 12 chiefs after a workshop was held in 2021,” she continued.

“But first we established a working group to study how many Angkorian chiefs had special achievements or great achievements for the nation and then we chose from that initial list of 30.”

Twelve statues of military commanders have been cast from copper and placed at the Royal Independence Gardens in front of the Royal Residence in Siem Reap town on December 18. ROYAL PALACE MINISTRY

She explained that of the 12 chiefs, two were born in the period of Baphuon (1010-1080), seven during the Angkor Wat period (1080-1175) and three were thought to be living in the period of Bayon (1180-1230).

The appearance of the chiefs was created according to the period and the evidence left on the walls of the temples. In particular, the decorations, hairstyles and weapons worn by each chief and their clothing were arranged according to the period in which they lived.

For example, in the Baphuon period hair was styled upwards, while in the Angkor period hair was styled backwards.

“Although this is the achievement of modern Khmer children, these works are supported by historical documents, so they are not far from our history,” she added.