The Pailin Park Statues
Cambodia Town
Lowell, Massachusetts
The welcome sign to Cambodia Town is set on an open lotus flower with lions on each side.
While lion statues are found throughout the Khmer Empire era (c. 802–1431), these lions are in the style of those from the earlier Funan Kingdom (c. 550 - 627) as found in Sambor Prei Kuk, an archaeological site located in Kampong Thom Province.
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The 12-foot-high statue in the center of the park is a replica of the central tower at Bayon, a treasured temple in the Angkor region of Cambodia. Bayon was the temple of the revered King Jayavarman VII (c. 1122–1218), who ruled the Khmer Empire in the 12th and 13th centuries. He was the first king devoted to Buddhism, as only one prior Khmer Empire king had been a Buddhist.
The statue is carved from a piece of sandstone from the Phnom Tbeng Meanchey mountain in Cambodia, a sacred mountain in the country’s Preah Vihear province, using stone similar to the stone used at Angkor Wat. It is the city of Lowell’s first Cambodian statue.
The four faces on the statue represent the Brahma-viharas (Brahma-like, god-like or divine abodes) or the "sublime attitudes" in Buddhism. These are -
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Loving or Loving-kindness (metta): The most fundamental emotion, which is the wish for true happiness
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Compassion (karuna): The emotion that goodwill feels when it encounters suffering
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Empathetic joy (mudita): The emotion that goodwill feels when it encounters happiness
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Equanimity (upekkha): The emotion that acts as a check on the other three
These four attitudes are said to be sublime because they are the right or ideal way of conduct towards living beings. They provide the answers to all situations that arise from social contacts. The Brahma-viharas are incompatible with a hateful state of mind, and they are associated with Brahma, the ruler of the higher heavens in traditional Buddhism.
The seated monument on both sides of the park depicts the Churning of the Ocean of Milk. This is a story of the devas (gods) and asuras (demons) who fight to obtain the mystical powers of Amrita, a Sanskrit word that means “immortality,” which is a central concept in Indian religions often referred to in ancient texts as an elixir. The Churning of the Ocean of Milk is one of the central events in the ever-continuing struggle between the devas and the asuras.
In some versions of the story, the devas and the asuras hope to recover the amrita from the depths of the cosmic ocean. The asuras held the head of the nāga (half-human, half-cobra) Vasuki, who was used for a churning rope, and the devas held his tail.
This is a detail from the portrayal of the story of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk showing Vishnu, gods, and demons from a bas relief at Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Vasuki is the Snake of Shiva in Hindu texts. Mucilinda is the king of Nāgas in Buddhist texts, who protected the Gautama Buddha from the elements after his enlightenment.
In the back of these monuments are statues of King Jayavarman VII and Queen Indradevi (fl. 1181) venerated leaders during the Khmer Empire.