Seated Buddhas under the Naga

The Khmer Buddha is seated on the body of a 7 headed naga or serpent that looms above him. His face is typical of Khmer Buddha in that it has a small, flat nose. The cream/white of the sandstone contrasts perfectly with the black of the base.

Udana II.1 – Muccalinda Sutta

I have heard that on one occasion, when the Blessed One was newly Awakened — staying at Uruvela by the banks of the Nerañjara River in the shade of the Muccalinda tree — he sat for seven days in one session, sensitive to the bliss of release. Now at that time a great, out-of-season storm-cloud rose up, with seven days of rainy weather, cold winds, and intense darkness. Then Muccalinda the naga king, leaving his realm and encircling the Blessed One’s body seven times with his coils, stood with his great hood spread over the Blessed One, thinking: “Don’t let the Blessed One be disturbed by cold. Don’t let the Blessed One be disturbed by heat. Don’t let the Blessed One be disturbed by the touch of flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, and creeping things.” Then at the end of the seven days the Blessed One emerged from that concentration. Muccalinda the naga king, realizing that the sky had cleared and the storm clouds had left, and unraveled his coils from the body of the Blessed One, changed his appearance and, assuming the form of a youth, stood in front of the Blessed One with hands before his heart in homage.

Then, on realizing the significance of that, the Blessed One on that occasion exclaimed:

Blissful is solitude for one who’s content,
who has heard the Dhamma, who sees.
Blissful is non-affliction with regard for the world,
restraint for living beings.
Blissful is dispassion with regard for the world,
the overcoming of sensuality.
But the subduing of the conceit “I am” –
That is truly the ultimate bliss.