Cambodia 2007, Angkor Thom

2007-1-11


I did not do enough home work before taking this trip, and therefore, was not prepared on what and where to see some important points in the temples. This had the advantage that what I saw was a complete surprise to me. Some tourists were having a guide book on their hands, and read as they walked. It was like they were in an orienteering trip. I compensated my ignorant about the place and Hindu story by taking a lot of photos, and then found the explanation in the books at home. It prolonged the fun of taking the trip, and it was like the regurgitation process. Korean has probably made large contributions in the restorations and the maintenance of temples in Angkor. Their languages appear in many of the notice boards, and many businesses in Sean Reap also have Korean signs.

Catching fish in the early morning in the moat

There was a nice straight road leading to Angkor Park which contained many of the sites built in ancient Angkor time. The driver said that the cost of the land along that road was cheap before, but now, it was very expensive. The road had fancy lighting. They sold different passes for one, two, and three days visits. And we bought one for 3 days at the cost of $40. The ticket booth was modern with all the latest technologies. Photo was taken and printed on the pass. Later I was told that only a small portion, probably 5-10%, of the revenues was used for the restorations. Most of them were taken up by the management which was controlled by the Vietnamese. Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978 and installed a puppet government. I didn’t know how much control they still had on this country. And I didn’t know what role the UNESCO was playing now.

Tutut in Seam Reap

Tutut was the favorite means of inexpensive transport by tourists. It was a cart towed by a motorbike on a hitch. There was no brake in the cart, and it was dangerous when going down a steep slope. When the bike brakes suddenly, the cart’s momentum will push the bike and caused accidents. When we were in town, a driver was drawn and a foreign tourist was injured in this kind of accident over a bridge.

The south gopura of Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom was the capital city founded by the famous king Jayavarman VII at about late 12th century. It was a square in 3 km on each side and was enclosed by a moat and 8 m high laterite wall. It was the first site we visited in Angkor, and it was unforgettable after seeing the 23 m height South Gopura (gate with tower) with triple towers. A mystery smiling face was carved on each of the four sides of the towers. The same face appeared in all towers in the temple. And it was believed to be the face of the founder of the city. At the base of the gopura, there were carvings of three headed elephants plucking lotus leaves. There was a wide moat surrounding the city. The causeway crossing the moat was lined on each side by a stone balustrade depicting many giants pulling a seven headed serpent. The giants on the left hand side (west) were the kindly looking gods, and on the other side were the fiercely looking auras (demon). I found that the side view of the serpent head resembles the head on the tower at the gate, and faces of some of the auras were not all fearful; one was smiling and the other was like a clown.

The Bayon temple inside Angkor Thom

The central tower

The damages in the central tower

Inside the city, tall trees line on both sides of the straight road. The driver told us that these tall trees were found only in Angkor, and not in other part of the country. There were many temples in Angkor Thom, and today, we would visit Bayon Temple, the central state temple of the king. Soon we arrived at a large parking lot with stores and restaurants in front of the temple, and saw the most enigmatic and powerful religious construction in the world. There was no moat and wall near the temple delineating its boundary. The temple was composed of two concentric square enclosures built on terraces on three different elevations. The first and the second level terraces were surrounded by gopura and galleries on all four sides. The gallery on the first level was 156x141 m and on the second was 80x70 m, and both of them were 4.5 m high. The third level sat the large, 25 m in diameter, very steep main tower 43 m height above the ground. The main tower had the shape of a bamboo shoot. The top of the main tower were partly ruined, and the rocks in the remaining bottom part were not piling up straight. Any significant tremour or blow might easily topple it down. There were extended lintel and post structure around the base and the halfway to the top of the main tower, I was not sure if they were used to support the wall of the tower like the flying buttress in the architecture of Gothic churches in Europe..

The same smiling faces were watching everywhere

The main feature of the temple was its 37 large faced towers carved with the similar smiling face on all its four sides, and many of them had the quality of the smile of Mona Lisa The guide book said that a few towers might have more or less faces. Some of the towers had a practical application of being a shrine. The Borobudur was large in its size, but it had nothing to capture the breath of the visitors. In this temple, I was completely overwhelmed by the complexity of the structures, and the numerous faces watching me wherever I was. Many of these large faces were only higher than our head. I kept on thinking of the extensive scaffolding made of bamboo to do the construction and the carving later. My first encounter of this large bamboo scaffolding was in Dhaka. They used it to construct over ten stories office building near my office. I also couldn’t figure out the ingenuity of these people for carrying out these complex constructions probably without the use of papers or drawings.

The arch and roof were mostly corbelled, but there were many simple post and lintel structures. The remain of the curve roof with skirt were not many in the temple. And the narrow skirt of the roof was supported by closely space rows of columns. The lintel and and pediment with beautiful bras-reliefs were also not much remained.

Bras-reliefs of dewata

Bras-reliefs of dancing apsara

There were many beautiful bras-relief in the galleries and on other facades of the temple. Many of them were ladies wearing fancy and towering head dress like that worn in Thai dance, bare breasts with jewelries hanging from the neck to the waist, wearing low skirt exposing the belly button. The skirt was made of heavy materials and hanging straight down without revealing the shape of the legs. It seemed the skirt was held by a wide band of jewelry belt. They were all in standing position and was alone, and many of them were raising one hand up. They were referred to as the dewata.There were also many bra-reliefs depicting gracefully dancing apsara. They were all smiling and wearing heavy head dress and jewelries. Te carving didn't reveal if they were wearing any long skirt, but they had the similar wide jewelry waist belt, and they tucked in bands of wide ribbons at the top of the belt. The ribbon flew as they danced to enhance their gracefulness. The only written story of the life in ancient Angkor Wat was from a Chinese Zhou Daquan who lived there from 1296 to 12797. He mentioned that the queen and ladies were filled with lust. I didn't know if this was a reflection of his own experience or his imagination after seeing too many of these beautiful apsaras. 

Musicians in procession

The bras-relief in the outer galleries depicted in detail and lively the processions and the fighting in battle fields and court life; and in the inner galleries depicted stories taken from Hindu mythology. There were a few panel of foliage in bas-reliefs, and one looked like the statue of Buddha. One reliefs depicted the procession of army lead by a leader riding on an elephant, and he was followed by a group of musicians. And another group of musicians were among other soldiers on the lower panel of the reliefs.I didn't know the distinction between the two groups of soldiers: one were almost naked and carrying spears and the other were not and carrying narrow and small shields.

One was depicting a group of elders with a leader at the middle kneeling. It seemed they were discussing something serious. On the lower panel, there were some apsara dancing to entertain them. There were also princes accompanied by their maidens kneeling in a boats under a canopy. A section of the bas-reliefs had colour, but the colour didn't enhance its artistic appearance.

Panels of Bas-reliefs with colour

Bras-reliefs depicting war

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