Ta Som, like all the other temples built by Jayavarman the Seventh is a Buddhist one. But Jaya the Seventh was super p.c. and wanted to make sure that the Hindus didn't feel left out, so he made a real attempt to combine elements of both religions in his temples, including Ta Som. This is a superfine example of a Hindu Garuda (mythical man bird) holding up a Buddha. But where's Buddha you say? Well the next king was Hindu and not nearly as enlightened as his predecessor and he had all the Buddhist images in these temples removed or defaced. So between missing Buddhas, missing heads sold to antiquities collectors and Western museums and finally bullets and bombings from various modern wars and skirmishes, there's a lot of gaping holes in the Angkor temples. But that's okay, because we have our IMAGINATIONS! And I'm going to imagine that the Buddha statue here was hot pink and encrusted in five carat diamonds because I think that's what Jaya the Seventh would have wanted.