Dương Long Towers: Traces of buddhism in Champa architecture during the Vijaya period

Abstract

This paper re-examines the religious function of the Dương Long towers through an analysis of a fragmented serpent sculpture discovered during the 2006 excavation. Based on formal analysis and iconographic comparison, the study suggests that the serpent motif serving as a pedestal may be associated with the image of the Buddha sheltered by a nāga-a theme widely attested in Southeast Asian Buddhist art, particularly within the Khmer artistic milieu of the 12th - 13th centuries. The sculpture is contextualised within the architectural and sculptural setting of the Dương Long towers, where pronounced Khmer artistic influences are evident, as well as within the broader framework of political and cultural interactions between Champa and the Khmer world in the late 12th to early 13th centuries. The study further compares this artifact with analogous examples in Champa material culture and epigraphic sources in order to elucidate the sustained presence of Buddhism in the Vijaya region. Drawing on archaeological and art-historical evidence, the paper proposes that the Dương Long towers may be understood as a syncretic religious monument, in which Buddhist and Brahmanical elements coexisted within a composite symbolic system, reflecting the processes of religious and artistic transmission and adaptation in the Champa cultural sphere