Day 3: Angkor, Cambodia

I will try as hard as I Can to keep this not ridiculously long, since I saw about 10 temples today during out 12 hour tour... :)

So if you have never heard of Angkor (pronounced anchor) Wat Archaeological Part before, you should google image it to understand the magnificence of this compound. Here's some back history. The Kingdom of Cambodia, as its officially title insinuates, has been run by kings its whole life. There are three periods known by Cambodians; Pre-Angkorian which is pre 9th century, Angkor Period (9-15th century) and Post Angkor (15c to present). The ethnicity of the Cambodia's have always been the Khmer (kuh-mer) people, which they are still called today. They call their country Cambodge, as this is a French colony and many of the names/pronunciations have been influenced by French. The Angkorian period was a period of peace (even though there were a few wars in there) and the "best" kings are considered to come from here. There are two types of stone used during this building that all (but one) the temple were built from, gathered from a quarry over 70km away. The base of the places were built with limestone, and this was awesome being porous so the water didn't sit in the temple and ruin things, it drained through. The outer stone was sandstone, which was like a veneer layer, as this was very soft and easy to carve. In the beginning, the people practices animism, then Hinduism came and they were Hindu's. During the Angkorian period, they decided to become Buddhists, which 95% of the population practices, even though its still a bit influenced by Hindus.

The paragraph titles are the names of the things we saw during our tour + history.  

Angkor Thom: 
In the early 10th century, Angkor Thom was built. Angkor means capital (kind of) and Thom means big. Angkor Thom was the capital during the beginning of the Angkorian period. In the 10th century, they built a moat around the capital and a small dirt wall. In the 12th century, they decided to make a stone wall where the dirt one was. It encloses a space of 12km. There are 5 entrances, 1 in all directions and 2 to the east. The east is a very important direction for both religious (Hindu/Buddhism), for many reasons, (Buddhism) like the run rises in the east, so its a new beginning. The Hindu's believe there is an invisible mountain the middle of the universe that has 7 levels where all the gods live, and the mountain's entrance is to its east, hence the two east entrances because its important. Each of the gates has sculptures on the sides leading up to it. Don't quote me on the name, but its a Buddhist story called the battle of the milk sea. One of their main gods was reincarnated to a snake and there was a fight between good and evil on the invisible mountain which is found i the middle of the milk sea in the middle of the universe. There is a famous depiction of the snake being tugged (think tug of war) with the good and bad on either sides, with the back puller the gods of good/evil. This is a really popular story, as its depicted in many of the temples. Either side of the road leading up to the gate is either side of the snake being pulled into two.The capital was eventually relocated to its current city of Phnom Penh during a 4 year war with the Siem people. The complex was then abandoned and pretty much not used of after.

Angkor Wat (the famous one)
Wat means temple in Sanskrit, so this is the capital temple, built in the 12th century for a place of worship for the kings, located outside the angkor thom walls. Its surrounded by its own moat, which is pretty awesome because any of the temples sit in their own water, as the porous limestone lets the water run though, but not out from under the temples. But Angkor Wat has a moat so the water goes there, and its been continuously used even after the relocation of the capital, so its the most intact temple in he complex, and also the biggest. Its area encloses an area of 4km and the temple itself is 1km (when i say this, i mean km^2). The temple was built during the Hindu period, and was then used for Buddhist worship when they changed religions in Cambodia. There is 1 gate surrounding the complex, which sits on 4 levels with 3 of them being levels of the buildings. Every single square inch of this place (not including the floor, but including the ceiling) is completely covered in etchings and drawings. Its beautiful! Every little nook and entrance and column is covered in pictures of Hindu Gods, lotuses, bas reliefs (stories), etc. The 1st floor has the bas reliefs on it. They include many of the stories we saw at Prambanan in Indonesia, the famous Hindu ones, also including the battle of the milk sea. Since its a UNESCO, there are many different countries working of recovering the workings, and the US is renovating the milk sea story here. Monks pray at the 3rd story, as there's a monastery next to it. Our tour guide made a point to mention they are not forced monks like the Thais, as he said every male in Thailand has to take a monk-ship in his life.

One of the bas reliefs shows 3 levels in carvings, representing the 3 levels, heaven, earth, and hell. There are 36 Hindu punishments received in hell for different things and they are shown in the bas reliefs. Here are the ones I remember. Adulterers, both the male and female, have to climb a thorn tree and get impaled with the thorns as they do it. Women who have abortions are brought to hell and hot stones are put in their belly. Men who cheat other men have a long stick stuck inside of them.... Quite interesting depictions. 

The main entrance here is to the west, not east, for many reasons as well. IT was first built to be a mausoleum they think, since facing the west represents the sun going down and all its insinuations, like the end of life, etc. Also, if it faced the east, it would put its back facing the Angkor Thom capital, which would have just been rude. Its east gate is also very close to the stream that was used to help carry the rocks from the quarry to build, so its the only temple with a west entrance. 

From 1177-1181, the Angkorians fought with the Cham (pronounced jam). Cham is a country (region I guess) that Vietnam has since taken over, which is why nobody has heard of it in the US. Anyway, they waged war for 4 years which the temple was being completed, so some places are not complete and were finished later in life by the Buddhist monks in the 16th century (who also pained parts of the Temple red but that has since wore off). Fortunately, there is only one civil war scar (Cambodia vs Khmer rouge, the people who did the genocide from 1975-1979) which was 1 bullet hole.

There are these chambers, which are the the "foyers" into the temple from the outside. If you stand near the walls, you can pound on your chest (make a loud deep noise basically) and it echos! Called the echo chamber, the story behind it is if you are angry and want to get it out, come here and beat your chest and get your anger out and it echos. They had this is another temple also. 

When we left breakfast, we passed this place again and saw people taking wedding photos. Our guide said he was recently married and got some shots in front of the temple too, its  Siem Reap thing and apparently the rest of Cambodia is jealous. Wouldn't blame them lol Also when we left, our guide showed up this offering. It was a skinned chicken, and you offer the skin which still has its feathers on. The offering is made for the gods to help sickly family members.

Prehn Khan (pray kan)
So the king who built the Angkor Thom also built a large majority of the stuff inside, including this temple. is name was Javavarman VII (I will call him VII because its just easier for me) and is mega famous. Varman (look in his name) is a common title the kings add to their names, as in Sanskrit it means king of gods (or god of kings, but you get the idea). This temple he built for his father, and was used as a university to mainly royals during its time period. VII was the Cambodian who fought back (before he was king) to the Cham people when they started the war and took over. He was made king after that. This temple was built in 1191 on one of the main battlefields during the war. The overall design scheme is a large cross hallways which you could see all the way to the other end from each cross side. In the middle there is a stupa (Buddhist grave stone like thing), but there was originally a bronze statue. More on that later. The doorways are purposely quite small, to force people to bow when they enter. Right now its still being renovated, so its pretty collapsed in.

During the change from Hinduism to Buddhism, all the temple (minus Angkor Wat) was changed. All the wall sculptured of Buddha was removed, leaving an outline of a sitting Buddha where the sharp objects were used to carve out the statue. There are etchings on columns of a cross legged Buddha that were etched over to show an oddly sitting Hindi god and Buddha was giving a beard. You can still see the original Buddha sitting behind it. There are lots of Garuda (Bhrama's bird vehicle in Hinduism, hes like the "head"god) and Naga (the snake) combinations here. Naga is represented in both religions, but now its seen as a Buddhist figure, so these are a show of the coming together of religions.

Another thing here are lingas, which are like pillars with 3 different shaped pieces (think circle pillar with a hexagonal part and a square part) that represents the 3 "head" gods of Hinduism. The pillar is set in a stone block and water is poured on top of it. There is a small drainage canal carved in to the rock that sticks out which is supposed to represent the female organ, and makes the water become holy when it pours out the other side. 

This temple, like many others, was very looted. The bronze statue that was in the middle was taken by the Siem people when they were at was with the Cambodians in the 14th century. Its believed it was destroyed and has never again been found. This temple, mainly in the center of the cross, was covered in small holes on the wall that used to hold rubies, sapphires, and copper pieces, to add reflection to the place for beauty. Many deities that are females also had jeweled belly buttons and eyebrows, which have been looted away. Many heads of statues have been taken off to sell on the black market and its still popular to do that these days also.

We saw a nun (looks like monks meaning shaved head lol) here selling stuff to make offerings. She had no teeth. The guide says nuns (women) don't smoke normally, but they chew this harsh tobacco and that's why she has no teeth. He was also explaining this other stuff they chew, a combination of beetle powder and this white paste that comes from firing a clam shell, that turns red when you chew it, which was why her tongue was dyed red. Gross and creepy.

Bayon (bay yuan)

This temple was built by VII for himself, sitting directly in the middle of the 12km square made by the Angkor Thom walls inside the capital. It is different from the rest, as the bas reliefs represent only true stories about Cambodian life. The majority of the bas relief on the outside represent his conquering of the Cham people. There are walls about the land and sea battles, as the war began when the Cham invaded by sea. The different ethnicity's are seen on the wall, as well as the Chinese soldiers who came to help he Cambodians. There are many depictions of the daily life of the Cambodians, with markets, food, etc. There's a funny one of a women who is holding a turtle to cook, and the turtle bites her husband in the butt and he's screaming, its kind of funny.

The coolest thing about this temple is the faces. There are large round blocks with 4 faces (many gods have an additional four faces on the top of their head). There are a total of 49 blocks + 5 from the gates = 54 blocks. These represent the 54 provinces of Cambodia during his time period. So there are 54*4=216 faces. There is only 1 large smiling face with open eyes, showing the peoples love for their king. WE took lot of fun photos that look like we are kissing the statues!

Ba Poon
This is another large temple that you can't go inside (only around) because its still being renovated. They started renovations when the French occupied it. Then it got bombed during the Vietnam War and the top was blown off. The French and after had documented each stone and was rebuilding it, when the Khmer Rouge took power and destroyed all the documentation and where each stone went and what the temple looked like before. So they are having trouble putting it back together. It looks like a pyramid of squares. One of the lengths of the walls used to be a 17m reclining Buddha, which isn't there anymore, you you can still see the outline.

Royal Palace
There isn't actually one here... well there is but its not around anymore, you can only see the royal temple that only the kings + his family used inside the capital. The royal palace and houses were built of wood, so they have since disintegrated, but they found foundations so they know when exist. The wall surrounding the royal complex was made of stones, however its destroyed and in rubble. People believed since it was a royal wall, it had rubies and gold inside of it so they looted it, but there wasn't any and they found none.

Elephant Terrace
This is a stage-like thing that overlooks the parade grounds during the Angkor time, which has 12Buddhist temples (mini ones) on the back. There are lots of carvings of elephants and structural holdings that are made to look like elephants trunks hold of the walls. Cool.

Ta Prohm
This is the Tomb Raider Temple, as it was featured in the movie and pretty much is what brings tourists to Angkor Wat. It was built by VII for his mother and is pretty much in runs minus the main walls. The thing that is SOOO famous about it are the trees. There are 150+ trees here that look like birch, called Sprung (translated Sanskrit). They are white and have the same texture as birch, and the only leafy parts are right at the top. They can grow on about anything and have crazy roots. So there are trees that began to grow on the tops of the walls and have rooted down and around the walls and rocks of the temple walls. You have to google it or look at my FB pictures to understand just how awesome it is....

We went to a few other minor places, such as Batey Kdai and saw what would be the swimming pool (giant lake) in the complex. We saw the oldest temple in the complex built pre-anything else in the 10th century that was made of bricks. We went to the top of a very high hill which has an active Buddhist temple on top (Angkor period as well) to watch the sunset (it was cloudy) but we could get a 360 panorama of the Tonle Sap Lake, Angkor town, Siem Reap, everything! I'll stop, because this is long. Bit it rock, the tour guides all are park certified and went to school for lots of years and do apprentice ships there so they rocked, it was amazing!