April 17-18
Hi All,
Ah……Angkor, the City and all the Temples……Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm. We have had many Wow’s on this trip……War Remnant Museum in Saigon, Tunnels and the Killing Fields all gruesome historical war Wow’s, the opulent Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Oudong Temple…….but the temples at Angkor are just stunning. It reminded us of how we felt when we went to the Mayan ruins in Tikal…..it was massive, a marvel/we-are-not-worthy emotion at all the logistical and construction engineering solutions, and a history that is not taught in USA….in fact, it probably was Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider that put this place on the map for many Americans.
“Angkor was the capital city of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. Angkor was a megacity supporting at least 0.1% of the global population during 1010-1220. The city houses the magnificent Angkor Wat, one of Cambodia’s popular tourist attractions. (We were told 1.3million people in 1150 AD….London had 18,000 people at that time)
The word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit nagara meaning “city”. The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a “universal monarch” and “god-king”, and lasted until the late 14th century, first falling under Ayutthayan suzerainty in 1351. A Khmer rebellion against Siamese authority resulted in the 1431 sacking of Angkor by Ayutthaya, causing its population to migrate south to Longvek.
The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmland north of the Great Lake (Tonlé Sap) and south of the Kulen Hills, near modern-day Siem Reap city (13°24′N, 103°51′E), in Siem Reap Province. The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the Angkor Wat, said to be the world’s largest single religious monument. Many of the temples at Angkor have been restored, and together, they comprise the most significant site of Khmer architecture. Visitors approach two million annually, and the entire expanse, including Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom is collectively protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The popularity of the site among tourists presents multiple challenges to the preservation of the ruins.
In 2007, an international team of researchers using satellite photographs and other modern techniques concluded that Angkor had been the largest pre-industrial city in the world, with an elaborate infrastructure system connecting an urban sprawl of at least 1,000 square kilometres (390 sq mi) to the well-known temples at its core. Angkor is considered to be a “hydraulic city” because it had a complicated water management network, which was used for systematically stabilizing, storing, and dispersing water throughout the area. This network is believed to have been used for irrigation in order to offset the unpredictable monsoon season and to also support the increasing population. Although the size of its population remains a topic of research and debate, newly identified agricultural systems in the Angkor area may have supported up to one million people.”
We can attest to the popularity…….OMG……we were told 15-20k rooms in Siem Reap and we think that many tourists were there with us…..you will see in the pictures as it was hard to take a picture w/o someone in it….ugh!!!! And it was HOT,HOT, HOT……SAY HOT to the tenth power……yikes!!!!!
On the first day we left the ship in PrekK’Dam where we had tied to the river bank for the evening. Normally the ship can cruise on up the Tonle Sap river and then cross Cambodia’s Great Lake, the Tonle Sap Lake…..but this is the end of dry season and the river and lake were too shallow. So, we had a 5 hour bus ride in the most comfortable bus I have been on…..seats like first class on a plane…..bring it on baby!!!! Sean, our guide filled the trip with lot’s of Cambodian stories about life…..we also had 2 stops…..one a local market where Sean ate several of the tarantulas, crickets et al…..but not for us…..not do well in our tummies he said!!
That afternoon we went to our first temple…..Angkor Thom: “At the heart of Angkor Thom is the 12th-century Bayon, the mesmerising if slightly mind-bending state temple of Jayavarman VII. It epitomises the creative genius and inflated ego of Cambodia’s most celebrated king. Its 54 Gothic towers are decorated with 216 gargantuan smiling faces of Avalokiteshvara, and it is adorned with 1.2km of extraordinary bas-reliefs incorporating more than 11,000 figures. The famous carvings on the outer wall of the first level show vivid scenes of everyday life in 12th-century Cambodia, while the bas-reliefs on the second level do not have the epic proportions of those on the first level and tend to be fragmented.”
Wow, wow, wow….those reliefs were incredible…..we took a gazillion pictures which you will see in the gallery……so detailed and carved exquisitely in sandstone…..and, how can all that last almost 1000 years????
This was the last day of the New Year celebration……hmmmm, thought you said it lasted 3 days and this is now the 6th day….well, city folk and country folk are on different schedules….oh……hmmmm….I think Cambodians just likes to party….Sean says you are finally getting us:))))) Anyway, the traffic in/out of Angkor Thom was horrendous and we did not get back to the hotel until almost 7pm…..supposed to be back by 5:30….our dinner reservations were for 7….not going to happen……so we bagged it…..had a cold beer and some soup/appies in the bar and called it a night…..why, you party poopers……..because we had to get up at 4:30am the next day to make sunrise at Angkor Wat……hmmmm!!!!!
Angkor Wat: “Angkor Wat – built by Suryavarman II (r 1112–52) – is the earthly representation of Mt Meru, the Mt Olympus of the Hindu faith and the abode of ancient gods. The Cambodian god-kings of old each strove to better their ancestors’ structures in size, scale and symmetry, culminating in what is believed to be the world’s largest religious building. The temple is the heart and soul of Cambodia and a source of fierce national pride. Unlike the other Angkor monuments, it was never abandoned to the elements and has been in virtually continuous use since it was built. Symbolically, west is the direction of death, which once led a large number of scholars to conclude that Angkor Wat must have existed primarily as a tomb. This idea was supported by the fact that the magnificent bas-reliefs of the temple were designed to be viewed in an anticlockwise direction, a practice that has precedents in ancient Hindu funerary rites. Vishnu, however, is also frequently associated with the west, and it is now commonly accepted that Angkor Wat most likely served both as a temple and as a mausoleum for Suryavarman II.
Angkor Wat is famous for having more than 3000 beguiling apsaras (heavenly nymphs) carved into its walls. Each of them is unique, and there are 37 different hairstyles for budding stylists to check out. Many of these exquisite apsaras were damaged during efforts to clean the temples with chemicals during the 1980s, but they are being restored by the teams with the German Apsara Conservation Project. Bat urine and droppings also degrade the restored carvings over time. Visitors to Angkor Wat are struck by its imposing grandeur and, at close quarters, its fascinating decorative flourishes. Stretching around the outside of the central temple complex is an 800m-long series of intricate and astonishing bas-reliefs – carvings depicting historical events and stories from mythology.
Eleanor Mannikka explains in her book Angkor Wat: Time, Space and Kingship that the spatial dimensions of Angkor Wat parallel the lengths of the four ages (Yuga) of classical Hindu thought. Thus the visitor to Angkor Wat who walks the causeway to the main entrance and through the courtyards to the final main tower, which once contained a statue of Vishnu, is metaphorically travelling back to the first age of the creation of the universe.
Like the other temple-mountains of Angkor, Angkor Wat also replicates the spatial universe in miniature. The central tower is Mt Meru, with its surrounding smaller peaks, bounded in turn by continents (the lower courtyards) and the oceans (the moat). The seven-headed naga (mythical serpent) becomes a symbolic rainbow bridge for man to reach the abode of the gods. While Suryavarman II may have planned Angkor Wat as his funerary temple or mausoleum, he was never buried there as he died in battle during a failed expedition to subdue the Dai Viet (Vietnamese).”……they said it was about 2 years from being finished…..but then the documentary said the ashes were brought back and the gold statue of the King eyes opened….hmmm….and that was a BBC documentary!!!!”
Another good article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat
OK…..so we are in for the sunrise……it will be cooler and less crowded……but, when we get there I realize we are facing the sunrise…..uh, Sean, this is no good for the pictures looking right into the sun…..no, the money shot is taking pictures of the temple AND the reflection in the water….very beautiful and means good luck in Cambodia…..oh ok……I showed him one of my pictures and he is jumping up and down saying you have the perfect picture…you will have much good luck…ok, thanks,…..I think….I still look at the pictures and sigh, but the temple is all dark…..you know nothing John YB:(((( But, APT did serve champagne and coffee so my good luck was starting.
After that we toured the temple and I think my mouth was open the whole time….just absolutely stunning!!!! How can this be built on water and still be standing……the answer lies in the surrounding moat and canal system that keeps the water table level….so you have water, sand, sandstone, then rocks all perfectly balanced….well, that is what they said….it has caused some head scratching for a few nights….what a beautiful solution to building such a monstrous stone complex in the middle of a swamp….absolutely brilliant!!!! The whole complex is 402 acres, the largest tower is 700 feet….whoa…..just imagine building something that tall 900 years ago….such an engineering feet……and it all was built in 37 years….yikes…..cathedrals in Europe at that time took centuries!!!! “The height of Angkor Wat from the ground to the top of the central tower is greater than it might appear: 213 meters (699 feet), achieved with three rectangular or square levels (1-3) Each one is progressively smaller and higher than the one below starting from the outer limits of the temple.”
Can you imagine the logistics……and the amount of labor…..they said there were no slaves….people worked on their farms for 6 months then on the temple for 6 months doing their civic duty….whoa!!!! And how do you feed over 1 million manually working people….just an incredible feat!!!!
And the Reliefs…..so vivid…..we both fell in love with the Apsaras (dancers) reliefs……the dancers were so life like and graceful….and that was 900 years ago!!!!
It was back to the hotel by 9ish…..a big breakfast and then a break……I’ll stop the blog here and start up on Ta Phrom and Siem Reap in the next blog!!
Hope all is well!!
John
touring Siem Reap
PS: Lots and lots of pictures on the website: https://www.mysticmoonvoyages.com/photo-gallery/nggallery/main-album/Siem-Reap
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