UCLA

The Middle Period of Khmer history (15th to 19th century) was an age of transformation at Angkor, where heavy royal reinvestment of the formerly Hindu site with Theravada Buddhism’s iconography and religious practices led to an era of reconstruction and pilgrimage to the site of Angkor Wat. Many of the Buddha statues collected and venerated in Preah Pean, on the second floor, and in Bakan at Angkor Wat have since been relocated to alternate storage or display. These include both stone and wooden statues, many of which still retain remnants of their decorative lacquered surfaces. It is evident that many of these statues have undergone historic instances of repair and relacquering during their veneration, as well as iconographic modification.Current knowledge about the materials used in the historic restorations of these states is mainly derived from limited epigraphic evidence during the period combined with Cambodian lacquer traditions and international lacquer research. Given the variation in lacquer types and origins, material additives, fillers and bulking agents, and pigments across regions, this project aimed to augment the understanding of traditional Cambodian lacquer use by identifying the components of lacquer layers used on these statues. The first stage of the project involved a visual survey of the collection aided by handheld digital microscopy and ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence in situ, followed by the compositional analysis of samples taken from three stone and three wooden statues using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF), cross-sectional microscopy, and pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). The primary binding agent for the analyzed layers was found to be thitsi lacquer, with layers of shellac and pine resin also present in a few samples. Drying oil was the most frequent additive to the lacquer mixtures, while carbohydrate and proteinaceous additives were not present. Cinnabar (HgS, mercury sulfide) and carbon black were identified as primary colorants for red and black, respectively, but the possibility of iron oxides (hematite or magnetite) could not be ruled out. Compositional analysis was followed by the exploration of a potential treatment method for lacquered objects using modified fused deposition modeling 3D printers. An open-source design for paste extruders was fabricated and used to replace the standard extruders on commercially available 3D printers, allowing for the printing of non-standard, viscous mixtures.