Angkor's Wat and Thom

At the pinnacle of their civilization, 8th to 13th centuries, the Kmers built magnificent walled cities for their capitals around Siem Reap. These cities were typically square with entrances in the four cardinal directions, surrounded my a large moat an have a grand temple in the center representing Mount Meru, home of the gods in Hindu mythology. Angkor Wat is the most extensively restored of these. All that remains of Angkor Wat is the temple at the center and, of course, the moat. The temple itself covers 9 hectares, 10% of the total area of the enclosed city. The outer edges of the temple are galleries with intricately detailed, carved in stone, stories of Hindu mythology and Khmer military victory, 600meters in total length, by 2 meters in height. The temple complex is unbelievably big. I have never seen anything on such a large and minute scale. No square inch is left unadorned.

It really makes you wonder how a civilization that was so great and powerful that they could make buildings that will be evidenced forever could just fade away. Some could argue that my own is fast headed for the same obscurity.

On arriving, hordes of children with the same high pitched nasal plaintive voice, in surprisingly good English, flock to you trying to sell you guide books, water and postcards, yes I bought them all. After spending hours soaking in the majesty of this place, and trying to get photos without tourists in my way, I had my driver take me to Angkor Thom, which means great city. This is an aptly named, massive city, covering 9 square kilometers. Of course, these are the modern names of these sites, their original names usually referenced the founder.

As you enter from the south gate you are greeted by a long causeway flanked on one side by a row of gods and on the other side a row of demons. Both are holding a seven headed snake called a naga. The story this is alluding to is when the gods and demons teamed up together to churn the sea by wrapping a naga around a mountain supported by Vishnu in a thousand year tug of war to create the elixir of immortality. Bayon, the central temple of Angkor Thom, being a representation of that mountain. At the end of the causeway is the gate with the image of the king facing all directions. This stone image of the king is particular to the Bayon style.

Interestingly enough, Angkor Thom was originally built by the first Buddhist Khmer king, who’s decedents immediately converted back to Hinduism on his death. The central temple was rededicated to Vishnu and future constructions, like the causeway had Hindu themes. There were originally images of the seated Buddha everywhere which were then shaved down to lingas, which represent Shiva, and eventually when the country became Buddhist, those were carved out to allow place for Buddha statues to rest. Another interesting difference between Bayon and the other Khmer temple is that the stone friezes here depict ordinary life. The are people playing chess and cooking and generally living. Another clear bayon style is the image of the founding king’s face found everywhere. He considered himself the bodhisattva of compassion but his image was later used to represent Shiva.

After a full day of sightseeing I went back to the hotel to take off my soggy shirt and have a shower. Internet is hard to come by in this neck of the woods, so I lugged my laptop to the nearest i-net cafe, about 2 miles down the road, near the only traffic light in town. This town is super shady, there's nothing here but hotels and people harass the fuck out of you asking if you need a ride. I was pretty worried walking down this way with my laptop. Oh, and the street are unlit and there's no side walk. I stopped by the local casino on the road and won $20. I figured it's not a good idea to win or lose big in a third world casino. The internet cafe was closing own by the time I got to it, but the opened back up for me. They occupied themselves catching crickets in bottle to eat later. I was only there for 20 minutes so my bill came out to 12 cents. The smallest I had was a dollar so I now owe him and will have to make the trek again tomorrow night to pay him back.