Художественное оформление "Кала" в Чампе (Решения по привлечению посетителей к объектам древнего искусства Вьетнама)

The face of Kala is often associated with the image of the sea monster Makara, a half-snake-half-dragon sea monster that is the mount of the ocean ruler Varuna and of the river goddess Ganges Ganga, the Shiva’s wife. This decorative motif is called Kala-Makara. The image of Kala-Makara represents a skeptical conception of the universe. In Champa art, the image of Kala-Makara appeared very vividly on a famous altar, the Temple of Goddess Apsara Tra Kieu in the 11^th century.

The image of Kala-Makara decorated on the altar is represented by a symmetrical layout with one Kala face in the middle and two Makara heads on either side representing the balance of the universe. There are also many decorative Kala images popular on architectural parts of the temples and towers of many Champa relics. For example, in My Son A1 tower, there are also many images of Kala-Makara appearing in the decoration of the foot of the tower, which is arranged into an arch of 

the temple door, in which there are images of gods standing with their hands clasped to pay respects. Southeast Asian art historians have also pointed out the close artistic relations of the Kala-Makara image between Champa art and Javanese art in Indonesia in the art period from the 10^th century onwards.

Highlights on the theme of Kala decoration also appeared on the My Son G1 temple in the middle of the 12^th century. There are more than 50 Kala faces made of terracotta, arranged in a long line around the base of the tower of the temple dedicated to Shiva; this vivid decoration represents the cyclical thought of birth and death in the cosmology of the ancient Champa people. The image of Kala, which is a unique creation of Indian art, symbolizes the philosophy of the impermanence of all things, so it is widely popular in the arts in East Asia and Southeast Asia. In these arts, Kala is represented by very specific shaping techniques depending on the aesthetic qualities of each region.

In particular, the combination of Kala-Makara forms a composite called the “Glorious Face” symbolising the rotation cycle of the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Indian religious philosophy holds that the macroscopic world is the Sun sitting on top of the sacred mountain Meru. The image of Kala-Makara is a characteristic combination of the angry look of an aquatic animal and an imaginary animal - the Makara, of the Sun, and the powerful animal, the Lion. It is called Simha-Mukha - “The face of the lion”, with the lion being related to the Sun. The sun is considered the breath of life and death. Birth and destruction are two inseparable aspects of polytheistic philosophical understanding. Every god has two sides, good and bad, birth and death. In Buddhist thought, death is the basis of the doctrine; where there is birth, it is certain to lead to old age, sickness and death, the god of time (Kala) has certainly appeared and because Kala is too greedy, all existing things cease to appear, and is also the incarnation of Shiva in the manifestation of the god of destruction as the “black face”. In Buddhism, Kala is the king of death Yama; the face of Kala is the face of death.

* Kala decorated on top of Champa tiles