Straight from the guide book… or at least pretty close! (for all you history buffs out there!)
Temples of Angkor
Where to begin with Angkor? There is no greater
concentration of architectural riche anywhere on earth. Choose from the world’s largest religious
building, Angkor Wat, one of the world’s weirdest, the Bayon; or the riotous
jungle of Ta Prohm. All are global icons
and have helped put Cambodia on the map as the temple capital of Asia. Today, the temples are a point of pilgrimage
for all Khmers, and no traveller to the region will want to miss their
extravagant beauty.
Beyond the big three are dozens more temples, each of which
would be the start were it located anywhere else in the region. Banteay Srei, the art gallery of Angkor;
Preah Khan, the ultimate fusion temple uniting Buddhism and Hinduism; or Beng Mealea,
the Titanic of temples suffocating under the jungle. The most vexing part of a visit to Angkor is
working out what to see, as there are simply so many spectacular sites.
The hundreds of temples surviving today are but the sacred
skeleton of the vast political, religious and social centre of the ancient
Khmer empire. Agnkor was a city hat, at
the zenith, boasted a population of one million when London was a small town of
50,000. The houses, public buildings and
palaces of Angkor were constructed of wood – now long decayed – because the
right to dwell in structures of brick or stone was reserved for the gods.
Angkor is one of the most impressive ancient sites on earth,
with the epic proportions of the Great Wall of China, the detail and intricacy of
the Taj Mahal and the symbolism and symmetry of the Egyptian pyramids all
rolled into one.
DAY 1:
Angkor Thom
It is hard to imagine any building bigger or more beautiful
than Ankgor Wat, but in Angkor Thom the sum of the parts add up to a greater
whole. IT is the gates that grab you
firs, flanked by a monumental representation of the Churning of the Ocean of
Milk, 54 dmons and 54 gods engaged in an epic tug of war on the causeway. Each
gate tower above the visitor, the magnanimous faces of the Bodhisattva
Avalokiteshvara staring out over the kingdom.
Imagine being a peasant in the 13th century approaching the
forbidding capital for the first time. It would have been an awe-inspiring yet
unsettling experience to entre such a gate way and come face to face with the
divine power of the god-kings.
The last great capital of the Khmer empire, Angkor Thom took
monumental to a whole new level set over 10 sq km. Built in part as a reaction
to the surprise sacking of Angkor by the Chams, Jayavarman VII decided that his
empire would never again be vulnerable at home. Beyond the formidable walls is
a massive moat that would have stopped all but the hardiest invaders in their
tracks.
The Bayon
Right at the heart of Angkor Thom is the Bayon, the
mesmerising if slightly mind-bending state temple of Jayavarman VII. It epitomises the creative genius and
inflated ego of Cambodia’s legendary king. Its 54 gothic towers are famously
decorated with 216 enormous, coldly smiling faces of Avalokiteshvara that bear
more than a passing resemblance to the great king himself. These huge visages
glare down from every angle, exuding power and control with a hing of humanity
– precisely the blend required to hold sway over such a vast empire, ensuring
that disparate and far-flung populations yielded o the monarch’s magnanimous
will.
The Bayon is decorated with 1.2km of extraordinary
bas-reliefs incorporating more than 11,000 figures. The famous carvings on the
outer wall of the first level vividly depict everyday life in 12th
century Cambodia.
Banteay Srei
Considered by many to be the jewel in the crown of Angkorian
art, Banteay Srei is cut from stone of a pinkish hue and includes some of the
finest stone caring anywhere on earth.
Begin in AD967, it is one of the few temples around Angkor not to be
commissioned by a king, but by a Brahmnan, perhaps a tutor of Jayavarman V.
Banteay Srei means ‘Citadel of the Women’ and it is said
that it must have been built by women, as the elaborate carvings are to fine
for the hand of a man.
Day 2:
Angkor Wat
The traveller’s first glimpse of Angkor Wat, the ultimate
expression of Khmer genius, is simply staggering and is matched by only a few
select spots on earth such as Machu Picchu or Petra.
Angkor is, quite literally, heaven on earth. Angkor is the earthly representation of Mt.
Meru, the Mt Olympis of the Hindu faith and the abode of ancient gods. Angkor is the perfect fusion of creative
ambition and spiritual devotion. The
Cambodian ‘god kings’ of old each strove a better their ancestors in size,
scale and symmetry, culminating in the world’s largest religious building,
Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat is the heart and soul of Cambodia. It is the
Khmers’ national symbol, the epicentre of their civilisation and a source of
fierce national pride. Unlike the other Angkor monuments, it was never
abandoned to the elements and has been in virtually continuous use since it was
built. Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat, 190m wide, which forms a giant
rectangle measuring 1.5km by 1.3km. Stretching around the outside of the
central temple complex is an 800m-long series of bas-reliefs, designed to be
viewed in an anticlockwise direction. Rising 31m above the third level is the
central tower, which gives the whole ensemble its sublime unity.
Angkor Wat was built by Sryavarman, who unified Cambodia and
extended Khmer influence across much of mainland Southeast Asia. He also set himself apart religiously from
earlier kings by his devotion to the Hindu deity Vishnu, to whom he consecrated
the temple, built around the same time as European Gothic heavyweights such as
Westminster Abbey and Chartres.
The sandstone blocks from which Angkor Wat was built were
quarried more than 50km away and floated down the Stung Siem Reap on rafts. The
logistics of such an operation are mind-blowing.
The upper level of Angkor Wat is once again open to modern
pilgrims, but visits are strictly timed to 20 minutes.
Ta Prohm
The ultimate Indiana Jones fantasy, Ta Prohm is cloaked in
dappled shadows, its crumbling towers and walls locked in the slow muscular
embrace of vast tree-root systems. If Angkor Wat, the Bayon and other temples
are testimony to the genius of the ancient Khmers, Ta Prohm reminds us equally
of the awesome fecundity and power of the jungle. There is a poetic cycle to this venerable
ruin, with humanity first conquering nature to rapidly create, and nature once
again conquering humanity to slowly destroy.
Built from 1186 and originally known as Rajavihara
(Monastery of the King) Ta Prohm was a Buddhist temple dedicated to the mother
of Jayavarman VII. Ta Prohm is a temple
of towers, enclosed courtyards and narrow corridors. Ancient trees tower overhead, their leaves
filtering the sunlight and casting a greenish pall over the whole scene. It is the closest most of us will get to experience
the excitement of the explorers of old.
These temples are also featured in the 2001 film Tomb
Raider, starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft.
The Cambodian shoot opened at Phnom Bakheng with Lara looking through
binos for the mysterious temple. The
baddies were already trying to break in through the East Gate of Angkor Thom by
pulling down a giant polystyrene celestial nymph. Reunited with her custom Land
Rover, Lara made a few laps around the Bayon before discovering a back way into
the temple from Ta Prohm, where she plucked a sprig of jasmine and fell through
into… Pinewood Studies. After battling a
living statue and dodging Daniel Craig by diving off the waterfall at Phnom
Kulen, she emerged in a floating market in front of Angkor Wat. She came ashore
here before borrowing a mobile phone from a local monk and venturing into the
Gallery of a Thousand Buddhas, where she was healed by the abbot.
