Angkor – Cambodia’s Ancient Temple City
The mysterious Hindu/Buddhist ancient Khmer Kingdom of Angkor Cambodia, a period spanning from the 9th to the 15th century. A complex of imposing Temples and monuments bearing testament to a former mighty and wealthy Empire.
Nothing can prepare the visitor for the pure splendor and awe at the encounter with one of the most fascinating remnants of once a great culture and kingdom. It was at the crack of dawn, bathing in the first rays of sunlight that I made my acquaintance with the Queen Temple – the renown Angkor Wat, the most revered national symbol of Cambodia. Under the King Suryavarman II, who ruled from 1113 to 1150 A.C., the Angkor Wat Temple was built. It was dedicated to the Hindu God Vishnu – The God of ‘Preservation’. At the time the ancient Temple City of Angkor was considered to be the largest, pre-industrial, urban centre in the world.
Entering the Temple complex, one is amazed by the plethora of extensive decoration. Bas reliefs and carvings of a series of large-scale scenes from Hindu epics, famous battles, historic scenes, heavens, and much more remain to demonstrate the high architectural technique and artistic and aesthetics talent of the Kingdom. What is especially striking are the thousands of beautiful depicted and carved apsaras (nymphs) and devata (deities) many of which were carved as decorative motifs on the pillars and walls.
‘’ The cause of the Angkor empire’s demise in the early 15th century long remained a mystery. But researchers have now shown that intense monsoon rains that followed a prolonged drought in the region caused widespread damage to the city’s infrastructure, leading to its collapse.’’
While Angkor Temples were known to the locals for a long time and shown to Europeans in the past centuries they remained embedded in the lush forests and jungles until the end of the 19th century, when European and lastly French archaeologists under the direction of the École française d’Extrême-Orient, cleared away the forest, repaired foundations, and installed drains to protect the buildings from water damage.
It is said that soldiers going to battle were promised to be surrounded with apsaras (nymphs) for eternity in their afterlife. What a motivation!
There are numerous impressive Temples in the main complex as well as some located in the outer area, with equally mesmerizing style and architecture. Some of which, in order to visit, we had to avoid still active dangerous land mines, relicts from a gruesome and unimaginable fairly recent past this beautiful land and its innocent people had to endure, that I wish not to write about in this post.
Bayan Temple
Book writers, movie producers found inspiration in the jungle embedded temples for their films, including the Lara Croft series.
Bayan Temple
Instead, I will share my impressions of my beloved Temple from the Angkor Complex – The Bayon Temple. Encountering the multitude of serene and smiling faces on the Temple towers is nothing short of breath taking. It is one of the most striking expressions and styles of the Khmer Architecture and in some contrast to the majestic Angkor Wat. The Bayon Temple is said to have been dedicated to Brahma – Hindu’s high God of Creation and Knowledge. Our guide believed it to have been dedicated to the ‘God of Compassion’, that I found very moving.
I remained gazing at these serene, stone carve faces for a time I could not recall. Maybe it was a mix of emotions for this land extraordinary yet more recently very sad past that my heart chose the God of Compassion as the Temples deity, for Compassion is the greatest quality and treasure one human being can share with another.