I awoke at around 4:30 in a panic, threw on some clothes, woke up my husband, and sprinted to the Dontrei Villa gate. When I opened the door, there was our faithful tuk-tuk driver, asleep in his vehicle, waiting for us. And it’s a good thing he was too, because, having missed our rendezvous, we had no clear idea where to go or what to do. Furthermore, having paid him the night before for the ride from the airport to our lodge, we were completely out of cash.
Our driver knew the Angkor Wat protocol, though. He drove us at top speed to the Angkor tourist center, at some distance from the site, but where there was an ATM machine and government personnel selling the entry tickets you need to enter the complex. Who knew!? He knew.
Armed with the means of admission, our driver then hurtled us through the darkness to the entrance to the largest temple in the park, Angkor Wat, pictured above. I called our guide’s cell and amazingly enough, we found him and our group just as the sun came up over the temple.
We spent a total of two and a half days at Angkor Archaeological Park, and we barely scratched the surface. I will have more to say about the temple art and architecture in subsequent posts, but for now, I want to describe the scale of the site and a little of its ancient and contemporary history, as well as share some photos of the temples we saw that first day: Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, and the Bayon.
The
park is much, much more than Angkor Wat, which is the name associated with the largest
and most well-known of the temples there, but which name actually means “temple city” in the
Khmer language. "Angkor
Wat" is just one of many Hindu-Buddhist temples located within the temple city that once comprised the ancient
Khmer capital of Angkor, founded in the early 12th century. Here are a few images of the approach to the Angkor Wat temple and the exterior of the temple itself.
Angkor Wat was commissioned by the Khmer king Suryavarman II (ruled 1113–c. 1150) in the early 12th
century in Yaśodharapura
(present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire. The construction of the
temple commenced in 1122 CE and was completed in 1150 CE. …The temple was
dedicated to Hindu god Vishnu and the original religious motifs were
derived from Hinduism. It was built as the king's state temple
in the capital city. While there are no foundation stela
or any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple's name that have been
found, its original name is unknown and it may have been known as Vrah Viṣṇuloka after the presiding deity.
The work on the temple ceased after the king's death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration
unfinished.
In 1177, approximately 27
years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer.
Thereafter, the Khmer empire was restored by Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital at Angkor Thom and the Bayon
as the state temple, situated to the north [of Angkor Wat temple, but
within the temple city]. The temple was dedicated
to Buddhism as the king's wife Indratevi was a devout Mahayana Buddhist who encouraged him to convert.
Angkor Wat was therefore also gradually converted into a Buddhist site with
many Hindu sculptures replaced by Buddhist art.
The French discovered Angkor Wat in 1860 and decided to add it to their colonial property portfolio, as they had done with Vietnam. Again from Wiki:
France adopted Cambodia as a protectorate on 11 August 1863 partly due to the
artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments in the Angkor region
and invaded Siam
[today, Thailand]. This quickly led to Cambodia reclaiming lands in the
northwestern corner of the country including Siem Reap, Battambang, and Sisophon which were under Siamese rule from 1795
to 1907….Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has
controlled Angkor Wat since then.
The ravages of war and time took a tremendous toll on Angkor Wat and in the 20th c., restoration projects were begun to clear the vegetation overgrowth that was swallowing the architecture and infrastructure. These photos of Ta Prohm, where Lara Croft, Tomb Raider was filmed, show how Nature is consuming the site. For more on the temple, I recommend Wiki Ta Prohm.
Fortunately, the vegetation hasn't destroyed the temple ante room or the bas relief sculptures at Ta Prohm.
Restoration work was interrupted by
the Cambodian Civil War
when the Khmer Rouge took control of the country during
the 1970s and 1980s. Work on Angkor was abandoned during the Khmer Rouge era
and the Conservation d'Angkor was disbanded in 1975. Camping Khmer Rouge forces
used whatever wood remained in the building structures for firewood, and a
shoot-out between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces caused a few bullet holes
in bas reliefs. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, far more damage was done to
the reliefs by art thieves working out
of Thailand who lopped off many sculpture and other structures, including
earlier reconstructions. As with most other ancient temples in Cambodia, Angkor
Wat also faced extensive damage and deterioration by a combination of plant
overgrowth, fungi, ground movements, war damage, and theft though the war
damage to Angkor Wat's temples was limited compared to the rest of Cambodia's
temple ruins.
Enter UNESCO to the rescue, which made Angkor Wat a World Heritage Site in 1993. But the listing did not solve the human complexities of the site. Cambodia, despite its fast rate of growth, is one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia, and as the UNESCO website notes, there are “more than 100,000 inhabitants distributed over 112 historic settlements scattered over the site, who constantly try to expand their dwelling areas.”
This occupation presents an interesting challenge to the conservation of the largest religious structure in the world. According to our tour guide, the Cambodian government has paid Angkor Wat inhabitants to move to new state-built housing, but they keep returning to reoccupy what they consider to be their ancestral lands, hoping the government will pay them to relocate a second or third time. Corruption is not the exclusive province of the rich.
Still, the Cambodian government and UNESCO managers recognize the cultural capital these inhabitants represent and, in an iteration of “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” have tried to make Angkor Wat a coherent symbol of tangible and intangible Khmer culture, as described on the UNESCO website:
Angkor, in Cambodia’s northern
province of Siem Reap, is one of the most important archaeological sites of
Southeast Asia. It extends over approximately 400 square kilometres and
consists of scores of temples, hydraulic structures (basins, dykes, reservoirs,
canals) as well as communication routes. For several centuries Angkor was the
centre of the Khmer Kingdom. With impressive monuments, several different
ancient urban plans and large water reservoirs, the site is a unique
concentration of features testifying to an exceptional civilization. Temples
such as Angkor Wat, the Bayon, Preah Khan and Ta Prohm, exemplars of Khmer
architecture, are closely linked to their geographical context as well as being
imbued with symbolic significance. The architecture and layout of the
successive capitals bear witness to a high level of social order and ranking
within the Khmer Empire. Angkor is therefore a major site exemplifying
cultural, religious and symbolic values, as well as containing high
architectural, archaeological and artistic significance.
Angkor is one of the largest
archaeological sites in operation in the world. Tourism represents an enormous
economic potential but it can also generate irreparable destructions of the
tangible as well as intangible cultural heritage. Many research projects have
been undertaken, since the international safeguarding program was first
launched in 1993. The scientific objectives of the research (e.g.
anthropological studies on socio-economic conditions) result in a better
knowledge and understanding of the history of the site, and its inhabitants
that constitute a rich exceptional legacy of the intangible heritage.
The purpose is to associate the
“intangible culture” to the enhancement of the monuments in order to sensitize
the local population to the importance and necessity of its protection and
preservation and assist in the development of the site as Angkor is a living heritage
site where Khmer people in general, but especially the local population, are
known to be particularly conservative with respect to ancestral traditions and
where they adhere to a great number of archaic cultural practices that have
disappeared elsewhere. The inhabitants venerate the temple deities and organize
ceremonies and rituals in their honor, involving prayers, traditional music and
dance.
Moreover, the Angkor Archaeological
Park is very rich in medicinal plants, used by the local population for
treatment of diseases. The plants are prepared and then brought to different
temple sites for blessing by the gods. The Preah Khan temple is considered to
have been a university of medicine and the Neak Poan an ancient hospital. These
aspects of intangible heritage are further enriched by the traditional textile
and basket weaving practices and palm sugar production, which all result in
products that are being sold on local markets and to the tourists, thus
contributing to the sustainable development and livelihood of the population
living in and around the World Heritage site.
Developing tourism in a poor country with a unique archaeological treasure is a laudable but fraught objective. We did not travel widely in Cambodia, concentrating on Siem Reap, with an overnight in Phnom Penh. However, we did go by van between those two cities, which allowed us to see quite a bit of the countryside. Despite recent economic growth, Cambodia still struggles with income inequality, and the autocratic government has done little to develop the necessary infrastructure to lift its people out of poverty. Siem Reap is the exception and it is the exception only because of Angkor Wat. Tourism, in other words, is the key to Siem Reap's economic viability, but as tourism becomes mass tourism, it threatens to degrade not only the experience of being in these extraordinary places, it also tends to degrade the places themselves. Per Wiki:
Since the 1990s, Angkor Wat has become
a major tourist destination. In 1993, there were only 7,650 visitors to the
site and by 2004, government figures show that 561,000 foreign visitors had
arrived in Siem Reap province that year, approximately 50% of all foreign
tourists in Cambodia. The number reached over a million in 2007 and over two
million by 2012. Angkor Wat received over two million foreign tourists in 2013
and 2.6 million by 2018.
Suffice it to say, I remember when you could still walk by yourself, all alone, between the columns of the Parthenon in 1967. Will other travelers in years to come remember when you could walk up the steep steps to the top of the Bayon (pictured below)? I will, because I was fortunate to be there in 2024.
.JPG)
The highlight of the Bayon, as Wiki Bayon notes, is
the multitude of serene and smiling stone faces of the Buddha --probably modeled on the face of King Jayavarman VII--on every side of the many towers that jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak.
They are truly remarkable, as is the bridge with figures frozen in a tug of war.
And here I am, doing my best Suzy Wong interpretation. Cheers!
Keep it real!
Marilyn (aka Childless Cat Lady)
Comments
Post a Comment