Apsaras are celestial nymphs, beautiful and artistically talented (particularly in dance). They are the ideal female beauty. When visiting the temple of Angkor Wat, you will see hundreds of carefully sculpted Apsaras carved into the stone walls. It's not until you stand before one that you appreciate the skills of those forgotten masters, and the beauty of their subjects (real or imagined).

Although the portraits are similar, no two are the same (insomuch as no two women are the same). They even posess unique hair styles.




It is interesting to note that most of the Apsaras are topless and, um, well endowed. When the Thai culture spread into Cambodia, they took up the Apsara dance routines and costumes for themselves. The formal Thai dancers you see today originated in Angkor.

Although the Khmer Rouge did their best to wipe out the traditional dance (through the ingenious method of killing all the dancers (along with a large percentage of the population)), it has managed to survive. Should you be lucky enough to find a venu with talented performers, go out of your way to take in the spectacal.

Yeah and the original Thai dancers were also topless. If they had kept that up I might be more interested in Thai dance for sure.
That is sort of what is funny about this new social order campaign and nudity. The Thai people never had a problem with nudity and in fact in the Thai villages in old Siam the women wore very little and were always topless. It was not until Rama 5 brought in Euro culture that suddenly nudity was bad and bodies to be covered up. Thus if the true Thai traditional values were followed the go gos should all be allowed to be nude without problem. Shame in exposing your body is not a Buddhist teaching but a distinctly Christian one. At least the friggin fundamentalist Christians. OH YEAH -- also a Muslim teaching of course--- enter Khun Purachai and now Pracha both Muslim ministers !!