Posted under Cambodia
With only two weeks allotted for all of Vietnam and Cambodia, we carved out three precious nights to spend in Siem Reap, touring the Temples of Angkor. The ten-hour bus ride from Ho Chi Minh City through the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh and on to Siem Reap provided our only opportunity to see more of Cambodia and we spent the majority of our time engrossed in the flat, green landscape. Years of civil war, genocide, oppression, and unspeakable violence have devastated Cambodia’s economy.
Many homes along the roadside were made of woven leaves and bamboo poles while others were built more solidly of wood or stone; almost all of the were built upon stilts, creating a shaded living area underneath, used for storage, lounging and cooking. The homes separated the main road from a vast expanse of glistening rice fields. Chickens ran wild in the villages. Giant gray water buffaloes grazed the fields and soaked in pools of water collected in the trough-shaped paddies. The youngest children ran around stark naked and many older children had no shoes. Animal-powered carts and bicycles were the most common modes of transportation outside the city. The poverty and the landscape bore a striking resemblance to certain parts of Africa, particularly Mozambique. The distant expressions on the faces of the men and women indicated that survival in Cambodia is a daily struggle.
We arrived in Siem Reap after dark, disembarking in a dim, dirt parking lot. Beyond the exit gate, we faced a hoard of tuk tuk drivers, aggressively soliciting the $1 fare (US dollars are the most common currency, although the Cambodian riel is generally used for small change) to any of the local hotels, each of their faces streaked with desperation. During our next three days, we would encounter this same desperation, revealed in the eyes and voices of the Cambodian people trying to rebuild their lives after years of civil war that destroyed farmland and displaced rural villagers. Our tuk tuk driver, Pisith, had been sent from our hotel and his handwritten sign bearing our names was like a lighthouse in the storm. Upon reaching our hotel, the Dead Fish Tower, we finalized plans with our local guide, Sadith, for a full day tour of the famous Temples of Angkor the next day and also retained Pisith to drive us around.
Like Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia began as series of coastal ports along the trading route from the Bay of Bengal to southern China. As the importance of Cambodia’s port of call declined in the 6th century, the population migrated to the nearby Mekong and Tonlé Sap rivers, where the majority of Cambodians remain today. During the next three hundred years, Cambodia was a clash of competing kingdoms. In 802, Jayavarman II declared himself devaraja (god-king), rejecting Javanese claims to southern Cambodia, and eventually became the first monarch to rule over what we consider present day Cambodia. This was the beginning of the Angkorian empire.
The empire expanded and contracted with subsequent monarchs until the ascension of Suryavarman II in 1112. Suryavarman unified the kingdom, expanded the Angkorian sphere of influence, and established links with China, but he will forever be remembered as the king who commissioned the majestic funerary temple of Angkor Wat in his devotion to the Hindu deity Vishnu. In 1181, after a sudden collapse of the empire at the hands of the rival Champa, Jayavarman VII reclaimed the throne as king of Angkor and began an unparalleled building spree, constructing massive monuments during his reign. Many of the Temples of Angkor were constructed by Jayavarman VII. Scholars hypothesize that Javayarman’s aggressive building scheme depleted local sandstone quarries, overworked city infrastructure, exhausted the inhabitants, and eventually caused the final collapse of the great Angkorian empire in the 15th century.
Over the next several centuries, the Temples of Angkor were plundered, battled upon, and neglected such that many were nearly consumed by the encroaching jungle when they were finally “rediscovered”. In recent decades, their historical significance and potential tourist revenue has been realized and nations, such as France and Japan, have invested heavily in the restoration and preservation of the temples. Siem Reap has exploded with upscale tourist amenities and Cambodians have flocked to the city in hopes of finding work in the war-ravaged nation’s only thriving industry, with over two million tourists coming through each year.
We spent two full days exploring the magnificent Temples of Angkor. Our guide, Sadith, was well worth his fee: not only was he an encyclopedia of temple history and religious symbolism but he also set the itinerary for our first day in the order that would help us avoid the big tour groups; he knew which temples had better light in the morning versus the afternoon and the best spots to take photos in each. The most impressive and noteworthy of the Temples of Angkor were Angkor Wat (the most famous), Ta Prohm, and Bayon in the vast temple complex of Angkor Thom.
Angkor Wat, meaning temple city, is the flagship of the Temples of Angkor. It is thought to be the largest religious structure in the world. It is surrounded by a moat so wide (190 meters) that I thought it was a river at first glance. As we crossed the moat over the sandstone causeway and walked through the richly decorated stone entrance, the remarkable silhouette of Angkor Wat stood majestically in the distance, its domed towers pointing to the sky. As we approached the central structure, large pools on each side of the main walkway caught the temple’s reflection for a dazzling effect.
The temple was decorated with a series of stone-carved bas-reliefs depicting various epic events of the Hindu religion. Just inside the central structure lay the Gallery of a Thousand Buddhas. With the spread of Buddhism in Cambodia, the king brilliantly adapted the temples to accommodate both Buddhists and Hindus so that the followers would not fight over the temples and destroy them. Most of the Buddha statues were stolen during the years of war when the people were starving and the temples lay unprotected. Angkor Wat is also famous for its carvings of apsaras, or celestial dancers. Sadith mentioned that Hindus consider it good luck to rub the breasts of the apsara carvings and pointed out that the breasts on the apsaras were darkened from centuries of oily hands on sandstone. Aaron couldn’t resist; he had to give it a try.
Nearby Ta Prohm was a Buddhist temple dedicated to the mother of Jayavarman VII. It is much less well-preserved than some of the other temples – with piles of rubble from fallen stones – and sits rotting in a greenish pall. The temple was built from large blocks of porous lava rock and sandstone, which are now blackened from acid rain and covered in thin moss. Walking through the corridors, it was fascinating to note that the slanted roof was made constructed by laying the heavy stones in balance with one another; there is no mortar holding them together.
The most striking feature of Ta Prohm is the growth of giant Banyan trees on its exterior. The minerals in the stone feed the massive root systems which spread across the roof and down the walls like octopus tentacles. The trees are supported by the stone structure, which slowly erodes and crumbles under the root growth. The jungle is literally eating Ta Prohm. The temple looks like a scene from a Star Wars movie and was most recently used as a backdrop in the movie Tomb Raider. Sadith told us that most of the temples were in a similar state of Banyan consumption when they were rediscovered by the Europeans. The trees were removed from the others but left on Ta Prohm to show the dominance of nature.
The temple of Bayon, located at the center of Angkor Thom, meaning great city, is unique to all of the temples because of its fifty-four towers, each bearing four faces of Avalokiteshvara. Avalokiteshvara is one of the most celebrated Buddhist deities. “He is the lord endowed with complete illumination, who refrains from entering the blissful state of nirvana to remain here below and save the creatures of the earth.” (www.souledout.org/healing/healingdeities/avolokiteshvara.html)
The temple was also built by Jayavarman VII and the faces are said to closely resemble his own. The faces are said to represent the four tenets of Buddhism: love & kindness, compassion, sympathy, equanimity. Even without an understanding of Buddhism, one cannot escape the powerful, disarming sensation of being watched by so many faces at once. It is easy to imagine the awe and intimidation that Bayon once commanded of the masses.
The Temples of Angkor are on par with the Egyptian Pyramids and the Taj Mahal as man-made wonders of the world. They inspire the same wonder as the Pyramids…how were these massive and majestic structures erected without the use of heavy machinery used in modern construction? The sandstone used to build Angkor Wat was transported from a quarry fifty kilometers away. The laborious effort employed thousands of people, including brilliant architects and artisans. As mentioned earlier, it is thought that the resources exhausted in the ambitious Angkor building spree contributed to the eventual toppling of the empire. Nonetheless, the people of the great Angkorian empire left a prodigious legacy which parallels some of the most incredible artistic and architectural accomplishments in human history.
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