Breathtaking: Angkor Wat

“If our people can build Angkor Wat they can do anything.” Dennis Bloodworth, Observer, 1/20/80

The car came to a stop a mile or so down a country lane.  “Stay on the path—there are still a lot of land mines in the wooded areas.”

“Yes, the artist from whom I bought a watercolor at the craft market last night gave the same caution. He lost both his parents—and an arm—to a land mine when they were trying to clear some land for farming.”

“Yes, there are many such people in Cambodia. Later you will hear a band whose members are all missing a limb or more because of the mines left from the civil war.”

So, here were Beth, our soft-spoken guide Dey, and I strolling down a dirt lane in the midst of Cambodia early in the morning.  Shaded by thick foliage, the lane seemed in the middle of nowhere. The only other signs of life were a squawking bird and a young woman on a bicycle, clearly on her way to work some 4 miles away in Siem Reap.  The sun was in front of us, but never in our eyes, and the temperature surprisingly mild.

After about 15 minutes of this magical peace, we were confronted by a partially crumbling structure hugged by a kapok tree growing around it.  It was the north gate to Ta Prohm, the often-photographed 12^th century temple used in the movie Lara Croft, Tomb Raider.  But the gate gave more than a hint of the temple to come.  With carvings of the face of the king responsible for its building on each of its four sides, it seemed from one perspective to be welcoming, from another to be fierce and forbidding, and from the other two perspectives wise or worrying.

We moved on to the temple itself, and had our first encounter of the day with other people—another small group also exploring this temple.

Beyond Ta Prohm, we proceeded to several other early temples built by the same king, Jayavarman VII (or J-7 as we came to know him).  J-7 was a bit eclectic in his religious beliefs, embracing a mix of Hinduism and Buddhism.  The many intricate decorations on his structures reflected this mix.

Two kings later, however, a different perspective took hold, as Jayavarman VII (J-8) was fiercely Hindu and ordered all the Buddhist images to be removed or obliterated.  This was often done roughly, with a face obliterated here, and a figure re-carved there.  They did not get all the Buddhist figures, though, and thus one “game” to play here is to find the hidden Buddhist figures that survive today.

In their time, most if not all of these structures were bedecked with gold and gems, designed to catch and reflect light in just the right way. None of this survives today, as looters over the years removed and sold these valuable items.

By the time we finished exploring these temples, the midday heat was setting in, and so our car magically re-appeared and took us back to our hotel for the local equivalent of a siesta.

We were barely revived when Dey returned at 2:30 to take us back out for more exploration.  This time, we were bound for Angkor Thom, a substantial structure in the sprawling complex that is the Angkor Wat Archaeological Park.  Another of J-7’s building projects, this actually was the king’s own city.  Unlike other structures in the park, the sculptures and bas reliefs in and on this temple portrayed not religion but the everyday life of the people. At its center was Bayon, a temple of breathtaking complexity and ingenuity.

While the temple may have shown regular people, they were not part of the city—its inhabitants were limited to the king, his wife, his 1,000 concubines, his advisors and officers, and his teacher.  Yes, educators were honored and revered in this culture, where every temple includes at least one library.

Unfortunately, the city was abandoned sometime in the 1600s, with the jungle growing up around it and the water that fed the foundation of these structures gone dry.  By the time it was re-discovered, it was in bad shape.  There have been many efforts to restore it, some well-intended but doing more harm than good, and now the effort has been embraced in earnest and is quite active.

Our day of exploring temples ended with a ride on a dragon boat on Angkor Thom’s moat as we watched the sun set and enjoyed a cold beverage.

Next day started with our guide picking us up at 5:00 am.  Leading us through the darkness by flashlight, he invited us to sit on a stone wall.  Initially our only company was a yellow dog and a few headlights on the road behind us, but gradually the number of headlights grew, vendors started setting up tents a ways behind us, and people started joining us on the wall.

We could see people with flashlights streaming across the causeway into the temple, but Dey just said “wait.”  As the first bits of light came into the sky, the picture started painting itself. We were sitting on a wall surrounding a moat, across which we could start to see the spires of the infamous Angkor Wat.  The light slowly became brighter, and the temple showed itself as something at once mystical and solid.  And, eventually, a bright orb appeared between two of the spires.  The sun had risen.

Like so many ancient structures around the world, Angkor Wat was built based on astronomy.  At the equinoxes and solstices, the sun rises just behind the four main doors of the temple.  At the spring equinox, it rises exactly above the middle spire.  Because we were there two days before the equinox, it rose just to the right of the spire, and to the left of the next spire.

Awe-inspiring.

Following that orb, we then crossed the moat to explore Angkor Wat for ourselves. We then saw why so may people had streamed into the complex.  In front of the temple was a pond, and the sun and the temple were reflected in the pond.  But rather than have us stand for an hour in a crowd, Dey found us a comfortable seat where we could see the rise, but got us in in time to see the reflection.  Perfect!

Angkor Wat itself is in much better shape than its neighbor, Angkor Thom, primarily because it was never really abandoned—people continued to live there through the centuries.  Also, its moat never dried up, and the moat is an important part of the architecture that holds the structures in place.

Nevertheless, Angkor Wat has seen its share of human damage.  Like the other temples, it has been looted of gold, jewels, and some of the carvings.  It came under U.S. bombing during the Vietnam War, and sustained some damage from the bombs. During the Khmer Rouge period, it was used as a prison, and as a site for some fighting, so bullet holes can be found in it.  And well-intended early efforts at restoration did more damage than good.  But today it is in surprisingly good shape, with well-funded efforts of restoration showing success.

The temple itself is rife with intricate carvings, bas reliefs, structures inside of structures, and such details as windows that are arrayed so as to show the shadow of the spires in their frames. 

It is almost beyond description—all I can say is go there and see it for yourself.

Angkor Wat is pictured on the Cambodian flag. That is how important it is to this nation, one of the poorest on earth. The average wage of a Cambodian worker is about $4-5 a day, or barely more than $1,000 per year. The life we saw in Sihanoukville, our port city, reflected this poverty, with ramshackle buildings and trash everywhere.  We flew from there to the city of Siem Reap, which is all of 3 miles from Angkor Wat, and saw in the contrast of the cities what a difference the presence of such a treasure makes to the people of the area. 

A UNESCO World Heritage site, and second only to Marrakech on Trip Advisor’s list of top 25 destinations in the world, Siem Reap seems to have benefited from the tourist trade, and its people seem to be prospering.  While there were no high rises or other modernity, the city proper is clean, its structures solid, and a vibrant life of the people can be seen and felt.

I see that I’ve written way more than I intended, and yet I’ve barely scratched the surface.  If you do nothing else in Asia, come to Siem Reap and the Angkor Wat Archaeological Park.

Next up: Vietnam