The image of the Buddha in royal attire, with both hands raised in abhayamudra (gesture offering reassurance and protection), appeared in late Khmer art around the mid-12th century. This unusual iconographic convention derived from Mon representations of the Buddha of the Dvaravati period (7th-10th centuries). The richly ornamental figure-type finds its immediate precursor in the lintel reliefs of Pimai, a 12th -century provincial Khmer centre in eastern Thailand. Crowned Buddhas of this type are associated with both Angkor and the Buddhist art of Lopburi.