Apsaras

According to Hindu and Buddhist mythologies, the apsaras were celestial beings who lived in both air and water. The closest Western representation of such a being is probably the nymph. Apsaras were first described in the ancient Sanskritic texts from India. These beings would descend from their heavenly abodes from time to time to entertain mere mortals with their dances. Such colorful legends were brought by Indian traders to the Indochinese region along with Hinduism and Buddhism, where they were readily subsumed by the animist Khmers into their preexisting pantheon of divinities and demigods. Sandstone carvings of Apsaras abound in bas reliefs throughout the various Angkorian temples. Cambodian classical dancers imitate the delicate body movements of the Apsaras through sinuous contortions of their arms, hands and feet. In one of the temples, two dancers were spotted taking an afternoon break from the midafternoon heat. However, even the noble Apsaras did not escape the inexorable ensnarement into mass tourist souvenirs, where their embodiment as carved teakwood panels ensures that one is as likely to find a modern day wooden Apsara in a suburb of Seattle as in the sandstone corridors of Angkor Wat. For a celestial nymph, that's quite a transition from deified status.