Editing Khmer architecture (section)

===Linga===
[[File:Linga Musée Guimet 2597.jpg|thumb|left|This segmented '''linga''' from 10th century Angkor has a square base, an octagonal middle, and a round tip.]]
The [[linga]] is a phallic post or cylinder symbolic of the god [[Shiva]] and of creative power.<ref>Glaize, ''Monuments of the Angkor Group'', p. 16.</ref> As a religious symbol, the function of the linga is primarily that of worship and ritual, and only secondarily that of decoration. In the [[Khmer empire]], certain lingas were erected as symbols of the king himself, and were housed in royal temples in order to express the king's consubstantiality with Siva.<ref>Coedès, ''Pour mieux comprendre Angkor'', p. 60.</ref> The lingas that survive from the Angkorean period are generally made of polished stone.

The lingas of the Angkorian period are of several different types.
* Some lingas are implanted in a flat square base called a [[yoni]], symbolic of the womb.
* On the surface of some lingas is engraved the face of Siva. Such lingas are called [[mukhalinga]]s.
* Some lingas are segmented into three parts: a square base symbolic of [[Brahma]], an octagonal middle section symbolic of [[Vishnu]], and a round tip symbolic of [[Shiva]].