Banteay Srei or Banteay Srey is a 10th-century Cambodian sanctuary committed to the Hindu god Shiva. Situated in the territory of Angkor in Cambodia.
Banteay Srei or Banteay Srey (Khmer: ប្រាសាទបន្ទាយស្រី) is a 10th-century Cambodian sanctuary devoted to the Hindu god Shiva. Situated in the zone of Angkor in Cambodia. It lies close to the slope of Phnom Dei, 25 km (16 mi) north-east of the fundamental gathering of sanctuaries that once fit in with the medieval capitals of Yasodharapura and Angkor Thom. Banteay Srei is constructed to a great extent of red sandstone, a medium that fits the extensive beautiful divider carvings which are still recognizable today. The structures themselves are small in scale, strangely so when measured by the measures of Angkorian development. These components have made the sanctuary to a great degree famous with vacationers, and have prompted its as a rule generally applauded as a "valuable diamond",or the "jewel of Khmer art.
Bantãy Srĕi was liable to further extension and revamping work in the eleventh century. Sooner or later it went under the control of the ruler and had its unique devotion changed; the engraving K 194 from Phnoṃ Sandak, dated Monday, the 14th or 28 July 1119 A.D. records (line B 13) the sanctuary being given to the cleric Divākarapaṇḍita and being rededicated to Śiva. It stayed being used at any rate until the fourteenth century as per the last known engraving K 569, dated Thursday, 8 August 1303 A.D.
The sanctuary was rediscovered just in 1914, and was the subject of a praised instance of workmanship robbery when André Malraux stole four devatas in 1923 (he was soon captured and the figures returned). The occurrence empowered enthusiasm for the site, which was passed the accompanying year, and in the 1930s Banteay Srei was restored through the first critical utilization of anastylosis at Angkor whereby a demolished building or landmark is restored utilizing the first structural components to the best degree conceivable. Until the revelation of the establishment stela in 1936, it had been expected that the amazing beautification showed a later date than was truth be told the case. To keep the site from water harm, the joint Cambodian-Swiss Banteay Srei Conservation Project introduced a waste framework somewhere around 2000 and 2003. Measures were additionally taken to anticipate harm to the sanctuaries dividers from adjacent trees. Sadly, the sanctuary has been assaulted by appropriating and vandalism. At the point when toward the end of the 20th century powers uprooted some unique statues and supplanted them with solid copies, bandits took to assaulting the imitations. A statue of Shiva and his shakti Uma, evacuated to the National Museum in Phnom Penh for care, was struck in the historical center itself.
