4-3-12-- Part II--- Angkor Thom
From Angkor Wat we traveled a short north to Angkor Thom, which literally meant "the Great City". Built at the peak of Angkor era during the reign of King Jayavarman VII (AD 1181-1219), Angkor Thom was the last and most enduring capital city of the Khmer empire. Covering an area of 9 sq km, it houses other distinguished monuments namely Bayon, Baphuon, Phimeanakas, Terrace of Elephants and Terrace of Leper King.
Centred on Bayon, the capital city Angkor Thom was enclosed by a jayagiri (square wall) 8m high and 3km in length at each side encircled by a 100m-wide jayasindhu (moat). The architectural layout was yet another expression of Mt Meru surrounded by ocean. There are city gates at each of the cardinal points, formed by a 23metre high tower which possessed the faces of then devaraja ie. god king Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara as representation of guardian of the empire's cardinal points. The south gate remained the busiest and most frequented by visitors, as it lied on the main road from Angkor Wat to Angkor Thom.
South Gate Angkor Thom
That was from where we came. To enter the gate, we crossed a causeway spanning the 100m wide moat. The causeway was flanked by a surreal representation of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, 54 Asuras (demons) against 54 Devatas (godly defenders) engaged in an epic tug of war. The "rope" they were holding on to was the body of the Serpent King "Vasuki".
Only issue was the statues were in a sorry state of "conservation work in progress". On both sides the Asuras and Devatas were decapitated or amputated, even the balustrade that formed Vasuki's body wasn't spared. That fact certainly hyped up the ancient atmosphere corroded by merciless time. Soon enough, the faces on the south gate tower pulverized us, rendered us in awe of the Khmer architecture that knew no parallel.
BAYON
Traveling upwards from the south gate we arrived at the center of the capital city, where the capital temple Bayon stood in its splendor. Built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII, it remained the most unique Mahayana Buddhist shrines ever constructed and was the highlight of Angkor Thom.
Bayon's most distinctive feature was the multitude of serene and massive stone faces on the gothic towers which protruded out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak. Out of the original 49 such towers only 37 remain, decorated with 216 coldly smiling faces of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara aka Lokesvara, 4 faces per tower each facing a cardinal direction. Some scholars even argued the face had an uncanny resemblance to King Jayavarman VII himself.
First, we explored the bottom terrace and the temple peripheries, only to notice the collapsed stony piled-ups that were beyond rebuilding. These ruins were bound to happen given that Bayon had aged over 800 years old. The current main conservatory body of Angkor temples, the "Japanese Government Team for the Safeguarding of Angkor" (the JSA), were carrying out magnanimous feat of restoring the Bayon's faces to their original glory.
Then we ascended the temple. The interior a little dark and narrow for the claustrophobic, but necessary to emerge at the upper terrace. Along the way we passed through galleries with bas reliefs of various themes, featuring mythological, historical to mundane daily activities. Of course, the friendly Apsaras and Devatas were at nearly every corner, so striking you could almost imagine them dancing.
At the upper terrace, one can come into close proximity with the faces. You can poke it, caress it, pinch it, even kiss it, just don't expect to get any reaction other than a stony poker face. Something peculiar was that not all faces had exactly the same expression, as some were more "moody" than the others, but majority were letting warm fuzzy smiles. If privacy was what the monks wanted well they ain't getting any, because these faces' visual field virtually had no blind spots.
After feeling a tad too self-conscious at the upper terrace, we descended back to the east entrance, where there were piles of rocks on both sides of the causeway. Obviously Bayon would have appeared more awesome during its heydays. Much could have been preserved or restored if the country weren't constantly ravaged by neighboring invasion and civil unrest.
Northwest from Bayon, Baphuon was a three-tiered temple mountain which existed as the state temple before Angkor Thom. It was built in the mid-11th century by Udayadityavarman II, dedicated to the hindu god Shiva. At its olden time it was described as the Tower of Bronze, a truly astonishing spectacle, with more than ten chambers at its base. One thing peculiar about Baphuon was the absence of its central tower. Apparently in the late 15th century when Baphuon was converted to a Buddhist temple, the 8metre tower was demolished to make way for a 9 metre tall by 70 metre long statue of a reclining Buddha at the retaining wall of the temple's 2nd level.
Otherwise temple adjoined the southern enclosure of the royal palace, measuring 120m east-west by 100m north-south at its base and stood 34 meters tall without its tower. The temple was built on land filled with sand, and due to its immense size the site was unstable throughout its history. By the 20th century, much of the temple had largely collapsed, and restoration efforts had since proven problematic.
The 1st effort begun in 1960 was interrupted by the Khmer Rouge reign, during which records of the positions of stones were lost. A second attempt started in 1995 by French-led archeologists, which left them one of the hardest archaeological jigsaw puzzle to labor on. Temple assess were restricted until April 2011, after 51 years, when the archaeologists finished the restoration work.
King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia and Prime Minister Francois Fillon of France were among those who first toured the restored temple during its inauguration ceremony on July 3, 2011.
PHIMEANAKAS
We walked further north to arrive at our 3rd temple, Phimeanakas (in Khmer = Celestial temple). A three-tier pyramid Hindu temple, it was built at the end of the 10th century by King Rajendravarman (941-968). Described as the "Tower of Gold" by Zhou Da Guan, a Chinese ambassador who visited Angkor in 1300s, the temple was originally crowned with a golden pinnacle.
In the olden days, this area was where the Royal Palace was located, and Phimeanakas was the temple where the king worshiped the gods. The temple and the Royal Palace were enclosed by a 5m high wall, within which there were also 2 ponds used for ritual washings.
A steep stairs lined the pyramid, climbing it one would reach the top terrace containing its galleries.
Elephant Terrace
The Terrace of the Elephants was placed in front of the Royal Palace and Phimeanakas enclosure, or rather, east to it. The 350m long terrace was used as the royal reception pavilion during the reign of Jayavarman VII, to view his victorious returning army. As you guessed it, the terrace was named for the carvings of elephants on its eastern face.
Elephant terrace was connected to the Victory Way from the east, and the Royal Palace to the west.
Even with what its name suggested, there were alternating life size carvings of Garudas and Singas (lions), 2 Hindu mythological creatures, holding up their hands as if sustaining the terrace. Carvings of victorious Khmer armies with horses and chariots were also not to be missed.
Victory Way , Prasat Suor Prat
My pictures weren't all that professionally taken, but a little imagination could bring you some enlightenment. Here goes... The Victory Way, which ran parallel to the east road in Angkor Thom, connects the Victory Gate (the city's 5th gate--500m north of the east gate) to the Victory Square, also known as the Elephant Terrace.
Prasat Suor Prat (Khmer = towers of the tight-rope dancers) was a series of 12 towers spanned north to south lining the eastern side of royal square in Angkor Thom.The towers were located right in front the Elephants Terrace and Terrace of the Leper King. If the name was anything to go by, these 12 towers were linked with high wire stretched in between them for acrobatic performances. A more reliable source in Zhou Daguan described that the towers were used for "celestial judgement" to settle disputes among Angkorian people.
Terrace of the Leper King
The Terrace of the Leper King, just north of the Terrace of Elephants, is a 7 meter high U shaped platform, thought to be a royal crematorium. Its name was derived from the naked and sexless statue on the top of the terrace, believed to be the Hindu god Yama, god of the underworld. The statue was called the "Leper King" because of age and discolouration causing that blotchiness identifiable with leprosy.
The terrace was unique in that it contained an alley. Just like the exterior wall, the alley was filled with abundant intricately carved bas reliefs from top to bottom, lined closely to one another. Carved deep into the stones, these Nagas, Garudas, Devatas & Apsaras resembled more of statues instead of bas reliefs.
In the following centuries after the reign of Jayavarman VII (AD 1181-1219), Angkor Thom remained the capital of a kingdom in decline until it was abandoned some time prior to 1609. At the city’s height, it may have supported a population of one million people in the surrounding region. After multiple attacks by fierce neighbors, Angkor itself became uninhabited and an abandoned civilization.
PHNOM BAKHENG
To complete our Small Tour Circuit for the day (more of the Grand Tour Circuit tomorrow), where better to make our last stop than at Phnom Bakheng, a temple mountain famous to view Cambodian sunset. Here's an interesting map to reminisce where we had been so far. We started our 1st temple exploration at Angkor Wat, then headed north and spent the 2nd half of the day at Angkor Thom.
Phnom Bakheng was situated on a mountain, northwest to Angkor Wat. In order to get there, the Tuk-tuk stopped us at the base of the mountain, we then had to hike the mountain trail on a dirt road. Tired to begin with, imagine we had been on foot the whole day, I thought to myself what was the fuss all about with this temple that we needed to hike a mountain.
This was a Hindu Temple dedicated to the god Shiva, built at the end of the 9th century, during the reign of King Yasovarman (889-910). It was built in a pyramid form of six tiers out of the mountain rock itself. Constructed more than two centuries before Angkor Wat, Phnom Bakheng was once the principal temple of Angkor regime, the architectural centerpiece of a new capital Yasodharapura.
Reaching the ground level of the temple, we queued with the mass of visitors waiting to reach the top most terrace. Conservation work could be seen at different corners of Phnom Bakheng. The original steep steps was barred from entry and replaced with metal railing stairs to prevent further collapse. Up at the peak, multitudes from all over the world gathered at this one place for one purpose only, to catch the Cambodian sunset from the best site possible. So large are the number of visitors it received per day that Phnom Bakheng was one of the most threatened monuments of Angkor.
From a fine vantage point we saw Angkor Wat and Tonle Sap lake basking under the evening sun. What a fine monument Angkor Wat was even for modern day standard. To imagine such grand scale monument solely built by manual labor without the dependence on modern technology made it an even surreal and mystical sight to behold.
I shall call it a day here. Don't think I've ever walked, and climbed so many steps in a day. Gonna go try out some more Cambodian food now. Tomorrow! More adventure at the Grand Tour Circuit.
The causeway to South gate lined by the forces of Light & Darkness
From Angkor Wat we traveled a short north to Angkor Thom, which literally meant "the Great City". Built at the peak of Angkor era during the reign of King Jayavarman VII (AD 1181-1219), Angkor Thom was the last and most enduring capital city of the Khmer empire. Covering an area of 9 sq km, it houses other distinguished monuments namely Bayon, Baphuon, Phimeanakas, Terrace of Elephants and Terrace of Leper King.
Centred on Bayon, the capital city Angkor Thom was enclosed by a jayagiri (square wall) 8m high and 3km in length at each side encircled by a 100m-wide jayasindhu (moat). The architectural layout was yet another expression of Mt Meru surrounded by ocean. There are city gates at each of the cardinal points, formed by a 23metre high tower which possessed the faces of then devaraja ie. god king Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara as representation of guardian of the empire's cardinal points. The south gate remained the busiest and most frequented by visitors, as it lied on the main road from Angkor Wat to Angkor Thom.
Judging by the headless torso and missing limbs, the battle outcome was pretty even.
South Gate Angkor Thom
Creepy cool this "celestial being" with 4 faces.
That was from where we came. To enter the gate, we crossed a causeway spanning the 100m wide moat. The causeway was flanked by a surreal representation of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, 54 Asuras (demons) against 54 Devatas (godly defenders) engaged in an epic tug of war. The "rope" they were holding on to was the body of the Serpent King "Vasuki".
Only issue was the statues were in a sorry state of "conservation work in progress". On both sides the Asuras and Devatas were decapitated or amputated, even the balustrade that formed Vasuki's body wasn't spared. That fact certainly hyped up the ancient atmosphere corroded by merciless time. Soon enough, the faces on the south gate tower pulverized us, rendered us in awe of the Khmer architecture that knew no parallel.
Lower left inset is the Map of Angkor Thom
BAYON
It was like something you've never seen elsewhere.
So many heads popping out, could be scenes from a nightmare.
Traveling upwards from the south gate we arrived at the center of the capital city, where the capital temple Bayon stood in its splendor. Built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII, it remained the most unique Mahayana Buddhist shrines ever constructed and was the highlight of Angkor Thom.
Bayon's most distinctive feature was the multitude of serene and massive stone faces on the gothic towers which protruded out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak. Out of the original 49 such towers only 37 remain, decorated with 216 coldly smiling faces of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara aka Lokesvara, 4 faces per tower each facing a cardinal direction. Some scholars even argued the face had an uncanny resemblance to King Jayavarman VII himself.
Wonder if this place was creepy at night.
Like Angkor Wat, Bayon too had its library.
A Buddhist temple this place used to be.
First, we explored the bottom terrace and the temple peripheries, only to notice the collapsed stony piled-ups that were beyond rebuilding. These ruins were bound to happen given that Bayon had aged over 800 years old. The current main conservatory body of Angkor temples, the "Japanese Government Team for the Safeguarding of Angkor" (the JSA), were carrying out magnanimous feat of restoring the Bayon's faces to their original glory.
Bas relief in the gallery, preserved until present day.
Everyday was no make up day in Bayon.
Devatas were beautifully carved at various corners of the temple.
Then we ascended the temple. The interior a little dark and narrow for the claustrophobic, but necessary to emerge at the upper terrace. Along the way we passed through galleries with bas reliefs of various themes, featuring mythological, historical to mundane daily activities. Of course, the friendly Apsaras and Devatas were at nearly every corner, so striking you could almost imagine them dancing.
Attempting the Apsara pose, much to the disapproval of the frowning faces.
Gallery carved out of walls
I see you, you see me..
At the upper terrace, one can come into close proximity with the faces. You can poke it, caress it, pinch it, even kiss it, just don't expect to get any reaction other than a stony poker face. Something peculiar was that not all faces had exactly the same expression, as some were more "moody" than the others, but majority were letting warm fuzzy smiles. If privacy was what the monks wanted well they ain't getting any, because these faces' visual field virtually had no blind spots.
Shrine set up within the temple dark walls.
I just didn't know how things could go back to the way it was before.
Dancing Apsaras, the party never ended at Angkor.
After feeling a tad too self-conscious at the upper terrace, we descended back to the east entrance, where there were piles of rocks on both sides of the causeway. Obviously Bayon would have appeared more awesome during its heydays. Much could have been preserved or restored if the country weren't constantly ravaged by neighboring invasion and civil unrest.
Using the panoramic feature on my new camera again.
I love this Korean model with her beautiful umbrella.
Angkor Thom was not the first Khmer capital on the site, however. Yasodharapura,
dating from three centuries earlier, was centred slightly further
northwest, and Angkor Thom overlapped parts of it. The most notable
earlier temples within the city were the former state temple of Baphuon and Phimeanakas,
which was incorporated into the Royal Palace. Any geographical distinctions between Angkor Thom and Yashodharapura.
BAPHUON
The temple that lost its tower.
Northwest from Bayon, Baphuon was a three-tiered temple mountain which existed as the state temple before Angkor Thom. It was built in the mid-11th century by Udayadityavarman II, dedicated to the hindu god Shiva. At its olden time it was described as the Tower of Bronze, a truly astonishing spectacle, with more than ten chambers at its base. One thing peculiar about Baphuon was the absence of its central tower. Apparently in the late 15th century when Baphuon was converted to a Buddhist temple, the 8metre tower was demolished to make way for a 9 metre tall by 70 metre long statue of a reclining Buddha at the retaining wall of the temple's 2nd level.
A 3-tier temple. Me resting on the 2nd tier.
The long causeway leading to the temple's entrance.
Otherwise temple adjoined the southern enclosure of the royal palace, measuring 120m east-west by 100m north-south at its base and stood 34 meters tall without its tower. The temple was built on land filled with sand, and due to its immense size the site was unstable throughout its history. By the 20th century, much of the temple had largely collapsed, and restoration efforts had since proven problematic.
The 1st effort begun in 1960 was interrupted by the Khmer Rouge reign, during which records of the positions of stones were lost. A second attempt started in 1995 by French-led archeologists, which left them one of the hardest archaeological jigsaw puzzle to labor on. Temple assess were restricted until April 2011, after 51 years, when the archaeologists finished the restoration work.
King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia and Prime Minister Francois Fillon of France were among those who first toured the restored temple during its inauguration ceremony on July 3, 2011.
Restoration work by French archaeologist.
View from the peak overlooking east and the temple's causeway.
PHIMEANAKAS
Another temple that lost its tower.
We walked further north to arrive at our 3rd temple, Phimeanakas (in Khmer = Celestial temple). A three-tier pyramid Hindu temple, it was built at the end of the 10th century by King Rajendravarman (941-968). Described as the "Tower of Gold" by Zhou Da Guan, a Chinese ambassador who visited Angkor in 1300s, the temple was originally crowned with a golden pinnacle.
In the olden days, this area was where the Royal Palace was located, and Phimeanakas was the temple where the king worshiped the gods. The temple and the Royal Palace were enclosed by a 5m high wall, within which there were also 2 ponds used for ritual washings.
A steep stairs lined the pyramid, climbing it one would reach the top terrace containing its galleries.
The temple at the Royal Palace
Who said the pilgrimage to heaven was easy..
Head east to the Victory Terrace..
Elephant Terrace
Mufasa & Simba traveled far to the land of Khmer.
The Terrace of the Elephants was placed in front of the Royal Palace and Phimeanakas enclosure, or rather, east to it. The 350m long terrace was used as the royal reception pavilion during the reign of Jayavarman VII, to view his victorious returning army. As you guessed it, the terrace was named for the carvings of elephants on its eastern face.
Sunbathing at the Elephant Terrace.
Victory march on the elephants.
Elephant terrace was connected to the Victory Way from the east, and the Royal Palace to the west.
Even with what its name suggested, there were alternating life size carvings of Garudas and Singas (lions), 2 Hindu mythological creatures, holding up their hands as if sustaining the terrace. Carvings of victorious Khmer armies with horses and chariots were also not to be missed.
Soldiers in horses and chariots.
Garudas were half eagle half man mythological beings.
Victory Way , Prasat Suor Prat
Victory Way.
My pictures weren't all that professionally taken, but a little imagination could bring you some enlightenment. Here goes... The Victory Way, which ran parallel to the east road in Angkor Thom, connects the Victory Gate (the city's 5th gate--500m north of the east gate) to the Victory Square, also known as the Elephant Terrace.
3 of the towers as seen on the Elephant terrace.
Prasat Suor Prat (Khmer = towers of the tight-rope dancers) was a series of 12 towers spanned north to south lining the eastern side of royal square in Angkor Thom.The towers were located right in front the Elephants Terrace and Terrace of the Leper King. If the name was anything to go by, these 12 towers were linked with high wire stretched in between them for acrobatic performances. A more reliable source in Zhou Daguan described that the towers were used for "celestial judgement" to settle disputes among Angkorian people.
Terrace of the Leper King
The exterior wall of the terrace.
The Terrace of the Leper King, just north of the Terrace of Elephants, is a 7 meter high U shaped platform, thought to be a royal crematorium. Its name was derived from the naked and sexless statue on the top of the terrace, believed to be the Hindu god Yama, god of the underworld. The statue was called the "Leper King" because of age and discolouration causing that blotchiness identifiable with leprosy.
The terrace was unique in that it contained an alley. Just like the exterior wall, the alley was filled with abundant intricately carved bas reliefs from top to bottom, lined closely to one another. Carved deep into the stones, these Nagas, Garudas, Devatas & Apsaras resembled more of statues instead of bas reliefs.
No, you're it. You have leprosy.
Inside the alley, the space was equally crowded by the deities.
In the following centuries after the reign of Jayavarman VII (AD 1181-1219), Angkor Thom remained the capital of a kingdom in decline until it was abandoned some time prior to 1609. At the city’s height, it may have supported a population of one million people in the surrounding region. After multiple attacks by fierce neighbors, Angkor itself became uninhabited and an abandoned civilization.
PHNOM BAKHENG
Hiked the mountain to reach the base of Phnom Bakheng.
To complete our Small Tour Circuit for the day (more of the Grand Tour Circuit tomorrow), where better to make our last stop than at Phnom Bakheng, a temple mountain famous to view Cambodian sunset. Here's an interesting map to reminisce where we had been so far. We started our 1st temple exploration at Angkor Wat, then headed north and spent the 2nd half of the day at Angkor Thom.
Dummies map for Siem reap's temple adventure.
The 6-tier grand temple atop the mountain.
Phnom Bakheng shone like gold under the setting sun.
Phnom Bakheng was situated on a mountain, northwest to Angkor Wat. In order to get there, the Tuk-tuk stopped us at the base of the mountain, we then had to hike the mountain trail on a dirt road. Tired to begin with, imagine we had been on foot the whole day, I thought to myself what was the fuss all about with this temple that we needed to hike a mountain.
This was a Hindu Temple dedicated to the god Shiva, built at the end of the 9th century, during the reign of King Yasovarman (889-910). It was built in a pyramid form of six tiers out of the mountain rock itself. Constructed more than two centuries before Angkor Wat, Phnom Bakheng was once the principal temple of Angkor regime, the architectural centerpiece of a new capital Yasodharapura.
One of the tower at the uppermost terrace.
The multitudes...
getting a good Cambodian tan.
Reaching the ground level of the temple, we queued with the mass of visitors waiting to reach the top most terrace. Conservation work could be seen at different corners of Phnom Bakheng. The original steep steps was barred from entry and replaced with metal railing stairs to prevent further collapse. Up at the peak, multitudes from all over the world gathered at this one place for one purpose only, to catch the Cambodian sunset from the best site possible. So large are the number of visitors it received per day that Phnom Bakheng was one of the most threatened monuments of Angkor.
From a fine vantage point we saw Angkor Wat and Tonle Sap lake basking under the evening sun. What a fine monument Angkor Wat was even for modern day standard. To imagine such grand scale monument solely built by manual labor without the dependence on modern technology made it an even surreal and mystical sight to behold.
Angkor Wat from Phnom Bakheng
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