Everyone else had a tour guide. I just had a driver – a lovely man, but ancient Cambodian civilisation wasn’t his strong point. Nor was English, unfortunately, and my Cambodian is, shall we say, limited. I’d arrived at the first temple (Pre Rup) on the “Grand Tour” – it was amazing, but I had no idea what I was looking at…
An hour later, I was back at Angkor Thom – a guide was available for the “small tour” today, so another slight change of plan.
Today was information overload – this post may be a bit dry, I’m afraid, but I found it really interesting. I’m not going to even try to reproduce everything here – I haven’t the time to properly research it and create a coherent essay on the subject, so I won’t embarrass myself by trying. This is what I believe to be correct, but don’t take my word for any of it! Anyway, here are some of the highlights.
Introduction
Cambodian history has three main periods:
- Pre-Angkorian (C1 – C8)
- Animists – they believed non-human entities “possess a spiritual essence”
- Agricultural way of life
- Angkorian (C9 – C13)
- 802 AD: King J2 founded the Khmer Empire – he was a Buddhist
- Most (all?) of the 4,000 temples were built during this period
- Some kings were Hindu (favouring either Shiva or Vishnu, two of the three main Hindu gods)
- 1181 AD: Last “great” king, King J7, came to power and, although a Buddhist, united the people through acceptance of both Hinduism and Buddhism
- Post-Angkorian (C14 – C20)
- C15: Thais captured the Cambodian capital, Angkor. Afterwards, it was abandoned and a new capital founded at Phnom Phen
- C16 – C18: temples were left to ruin
- C19: French “restoration”
“Khmer” is a two-syllable word with varied pronunciation but the accent always on the last syllable: either “Ka” (as in “caravan”) and “my”; or “Ke” (as in “cake”) and “mare”.
At this point, I was distracted by the elephants:
Angkor Thom (AT)
The original city was built in 987 by King J1. In 1181, King J7 came to power when the Chinese came to support them against the Chams (who had invaded in 1178). He established it as the last capital city of the Khmer empire, changed the name to Angkor Thom (Khmer for “Great City”), and built hospitals, universities and rest houses. An estimated 11,000 high-rankers lived within the city walls, with about one million commoners living outside but coming inside for festivals, celebrations and sporting events. King J7 was well-liked as he lived “like the people”.
Angkor Thom has five entrances:
- North: for craftsmen/artists
- East: two entrances – one for the deceased who go out to be cremated, and one for “victory” (the military would return through this gate)
- South: where we were
- West: for “death”, for instance prisoners who were executed went out by this gate. Constructions in Cambodia don’t face west – it’s only for “death” gates. The significant exception is Angkor Wat (see later).
Every entrance has the same decoration. The gatehouses have a big smiling face on each side, facing the four cardinal points and representing the four “supreme states of mind”: compassion, sympathy, charity and equinamity; and along the balustrades leading to the main city there 54 (one for each of the provinces at the time) demons on one side and 54 gods on the other, all holding a snake (like a tug-of-war, representing the struggle between good and evil).
Although Buddhist, King J7 encouraged tolerance and unity, and his temples embrace both Hinduism and Buddhism. At the centre of the city is King J7’s state temple, the Bayon.
Bas-reliefs depict stories, such as the victory party (to which the Chinese were invited, of course!):
Apparently, this spot in the temple is a popular place to take a photo:
And here, because the temple is short so you can (almost) get it all in:
When the Thais invaded in C15, they destroyed most of the Buddhist icons, the sight of which i actually found a little upsetting:
Some other photos from Bayon now follow, to try to give a sense of the place. A courtyard:
A gallery (like cloisters, and I like cloisters):
The view:
And apparently, this is the remains of a reclining Buddha – the hollow below the curvature of stone (about horizontal middle) is his eye:
I think this is the rear view, as we headed off to the king’s residence:
… where he had two swimming pools built for his staff. The ladies’ measures 92 x 35m (he had lots of lady servants) and the mens’ just 30 x 25m (you can just make it out in the background):
And on to the Grand Stand, where the king would watch sports and entertainments, much like the “Royal stand” today:
Elephants were carved around the platform, giving it the name “Terrasse de Elephants”:
Ta Phrom
Second of the main temples is Ta Phrom, also known as the “Jungle Temple” and, of course, “Tomb Raider”. You can immediately see why they used this for the film: it’s relatively untouched and atmospheric.
For film buffs, here’s one of the kapok trees, also known as the “Angelina Jolie” tree (before you get excited, that’s not her in the picture, I’m afraid):
And here’s a clear example of the changing religions – see how the original Buddhist carving in a lotus position (with horizontal legs) has been re-carved as a Hindu (with higher knees and a pointy beard):
Some more photos to give a sense of the place:
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat (“Temple city”) is the largest religious monument in the world (shhh – don’t tell Dubai, please?). It was originally founded as a Hindu temple (early C12), by King S2 as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. This is one reason given for it being the only west-facing temple – because west was associated with death.
Khmer temple architecture has a “temple mountain”, designed to present the sacred Mount Meru, to please the gods and win their approval so that, upon death, the king becomes a god. Galleries were added later – here’s a plan:
Extensive bas-reliefs adorn the gallery walls:
Here’s a courtyard within the gallery, outside the main tower:
… which had spectacular views:
… although the steps were very steep – eek!
At this point I get a little confused. I’m sure my guide explained that this was the “centre of the Hindu universe”, so the centre of the site. But surely that’d be the central tower…? Anyway, he seemed keen that I have photos:
It really is magnificent:
Sunset
Another item on the “tourist tick-list” is watching the sunset from Phnom Bakheng, a temple on atop a hill about 1.5km from Angkor Wat. So I strode up the hill… to join a queue of about a thousand people waiting for one of the 300 passes. And then there was a mass exodus – the show was over. But I decided to go up anyway…. and caught the impressive rainstorm coming over the horizon. See, I told you you make your own luck 😉
Dinner
Thai and Cambodian food is excellent: spicy, but in a flavourful way rather than just pure heat, fresh and delicious. But I was stir-fried out… I really fancied a steak. I started with minestrone soup (it was delicious) – it was obviously made by someone who had got a receipe, but not actually seen minestrone soup! I especially liked their version of the garlic bread:
And then it hit me: not only had they never been to Italy, but they never would. Cambodia is poor, really poor. Even the “middle class” is poor by our standards. None of the Cambodians I’ve spoken had ever left Cambodia, and most hadn’t travelled much within it either, and the odds are stacked against them (I understand that political corruption is rife). Yet they display generosity, kindness and smiles! Westerners descend upon Siem Reap in droves. And they welcome us. A cynic may say they’re just after our dollars, but I think this is both ignorant and arrogant – they are justifiably proud of their country, and seem to genuinely want us to see it and enjoy ourselves. And they go out of their way to help (for instance, when the hotel was unable to help with a guide at such short notice, the tuk-tuk driver called round his contacts to find someone for me). Yes, the constant hassling is tiring, but they’re only trying to survive…