pidan (a temple-hanging consisting of a large rectangular panel of handwoven silk decorated with Buddhist themes)

silk cloth, consisting of uneven twill groundweave patterned with resist-dyed weft thread (a technique known as hol in Cambodia, as ikat elsewhere)

L 9ft. 8in.   W 2ft. 10 ½ in. (detail only shown)

Cambodia

age uncertain, perhaps mid 20^th century

condition: very  good

provenance:  collected in Cambodia by Jack Daulton

Inv. no. 14

Subject matter: The Three Worlds (the Buddhist cosmology), highly stylized and abstracted

Central field consists of four repeats of the same pattern: two face-to-face animals, perhaps tigers, below two temples or pavilions.  More specifically:

Lower level or register: white and gold elephants below a pair of large,       face-to-face tigers (?), each pair separated by what appears to be a highly stylized tree of life

Middle level or register: pairs of gold-and-red stupas (?), again each pair separated by what appear to be stylized trees of life

Upper level or register: large double-tiered temples or pavilions        surmounted by a nak (also known as a naga, or mythical serpent) finial      and flanked by crocodile or nak banners.  (A nak or naga is a mythical serpent in Khmer mythology that can move between earth and heaven      and is thus a traditional motif identifying the upper world, the sacred realm or heavens, in the cosmic iconography of Cambodia.)

Reference:

Gillian Green, Traditional Textiles of Cambodia: Cultural Threads and Material Heritage (Chicago: Buppha Press, 2003), pp. 242-255.