The Churning of the Sea of Milk

Once, gods ruled the universe from Mount Meru, surrounded by the cosmic oceans. One day Indra, king of the gods, angered the wandering sage Durvasa when his elephant threw to the ground Durvasa's gift of a fragrant and auspicious garland. Durvasa cursed the gods, saying that they should be without strength, energy, or fortune thereafter. In the mighty battles which followed, the gods fell and demons gained control of the universe.

The gods, wishing to find diplomatic measures with the demons, sought the council of Lord Vishnu. He proposed an alliance be formed to recover the nectar of immortality that had been lost long ago in the milky oceans. Churning the oceans of milk to recover the nectar would require all the strength of gods and demons for a thousand years, but at the end, Vishnu said, he could arrange it so the nectar came to the gods alone. They could recover their power and defeat the demons.

The great naga Vasuki, king of the serpents, agreed to serve as a great rope, wrapping himself around Mount Mandara. Indra and the other gods seized his head, while the demons held his tale and for a thousand years they pulled, spinning Mount Mandara to churn the sea.

As the thousand years approached, Mount Mandara began sinking into the sea. Vishnu, in his second incarnation as the giant tortoise Kurma, swam beneath the mountain, holding it up so the churning could continue for another thousand years.

In this panel the gods occupy the middle position, with churning sea-life below (often being cut to ribbons), and the apsaras, or heaveny celestial dancers, above. In this Khmer addition to the Hindu myth, the dancers were created from the churning of the sea, and promised a joyful existence for the faithful in future incarnations. In later centuries, court dances were elaborated and taught based on the hand-positions of these and other carvings of the apsaras. Indeed, we suspect these courtly dances eventually influenced popular dance and were the basis for a very striking music-video we watched on our bus to Battambang--but that's a story for another time.

When the nectar of immortality surfaces, of course, not all goes according to plan, and the epic continues through several more twists and turns before the gods finally prevail. But the relevance for us lay in recognizing this iconic scene as we saw it represented again and again throughout Cambodia.

Here, for example, is the same scene in miniature above one of the doors.

And here, the great stone gods guard the entrance to the wat Angkor Thom, gripping the head of the naga.

Meanwhile, the demons pull the naga's tail on the opposite side of the street.