title: Sacred Angkor: Carved Reliefs Of Angkor Wat
author:  Vittorio Roveda 
description: Vittorio Roveda has had a multi-faceted career. He gained his first doctorate in geology and stratigraphy in the 1950s, but switched interests in the 1980s to studying Asian art history. He obtained his second doctorate on the carved reliefs of Angkor Wat in 2000. Since then he has written various papers on Khmer art and spent several months every year in Cambodia.
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  The Codex of Victory
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  PART ONE
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  #
  
  
  The codex of victory
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Ved Vyasa, a lean old man of medium height and dark complexion, sat under a
  giant sacred fig tree. Clad in a white dhoti (loincloth), he had a white cloth
  wrapped around his torso. He had a thick white moustache and a long beard that
  fell down to his navel. The hairs on his head were also white and tied up on
  the crown of his head to form a large bun. He sat on a raised platform built
  around the trunk of the sacred fig. The tree stood in the middle of the
  courtyard of his hermitage. Its branches with numerous leaves formed a canopy
  over the hermitage. It kept the sun out during summer. In winter, the braches
  were pruned to allow the warm sunlight. The courtyard is surrounded by huts on
  three sides. The huts with thatched roofs were made of sun dried mud bricks
  and were plastered in clay. The doors of all huts opened into the courtyard.
  The hermitage, located on the