"Angkor is the name of the ancient city where the group of temples were built, Angkor Wat is the name of a greatest temple in Angkor."
- The History Of The Angkor Wat Temples
- Who Built Them?
- A Bit Of Info About The Temples!
- Angkor Wat
- Ta Prohm
- The Bayon
- Preah Khan
- Neak Pean
- Beng Mealea
- Angkor Thom
- Banteay Kdei
- Prek Toal Bird Sanctuary
- Many More...
- The History Of The Angkor Wat Temples
Angkor translates to mean 'Capital City' or 'Holy City'. The
ruins of this holy city are the remnants of the Angkorian capitals and
represent the pinnacle of the ancient Khmer architecture, art and civilization.
The Angkor Wat temples were built between 800AD to 1300AD.
During this time over 27 kings ruled this large territory, about 400 Square
kilometers (250 square miles) in north western Cambodia. The temples are
thought to have been abandoned around the 15th century. They were built by the
Khmer Empire which was one of the greatest powers in South-East Asia. The
'Khmer' refers to the dominant ethnic group in modern and ancient Cambodia. It
is estimated that at its height of rule the population contained more than one
million people. The temples are not only impressive because of the beauty. It
is also amazing to marvel at the vast waterworks and military defenses that
were put in place. They were quite advanced for their time.
2. Who Built Them?
Many Khmer kings built the amazing temples, defense walls
and reservoirs. The Angkor period began with the rule of King Jayavarman II who
was responsible for a vast number of the monuments and temples. He built many
temples for himself, his mother and father. King Indravarman I was responsible
for building the 650 hectares of reservoirs. This was a massive irrigation
system that provides water to most of the Angkor Wat areas. It was because of
this reservoir that Angkor Watt could sustain and support its large population.
Suryavarman II was responsible for the construction of the most famous
temple, Angkor Wat temple. It was constructed in the late 12th to early
13th century. This temple is the pride of the Cambodian people, as it
stands on their national flag.
3. A Bit Of Info About The Temples!
Here is a bit of a
summary about some of the major temples that are a must to see when you go to
Siem Reap. However, please note there are heaps more and this is just a quick
summary. Angkor Wat, in its
beauty and state of preservation, is unrivaled. Its mightiness and magnificence
bespeak a pomp luxury surpassing that a pharaoh or a Shah Jahan, an
impressiveness greater than that of the pyramids an artistic distinctiveness as
fine as that of the Taj Mahal.
4. Angkor Wat
Location:
six kilometers (four miles) north of Siem Reap
Date: early 12th century (between 1113 and 1150) with later additions
Style: Angkor
Wat Reign: Suryavarman II
Visit: several hrs. (More than one visit recommended)
Highlights
The
world largest religious monument A completely realized microcosm of the Hindu
universe, Culminating in the five peaks of Mount Meru Architectural masterpiece
in fine proportions and rich in detail; The apogee of classical Khmer construction
some 600 m of narrative bas relief and nearly 2,000 Apsaras. For
once , the modern name of a temple is completely justified. Angkor Wat the city
which became a Pagoda was not only the grandest and most sublime of all the
Khmer temples, but also a city in its own right. It was built during the reign
of Suryavarman II ,in the first half of The 12th century, both as the capital
and the state temple dedicated to Vishnu.
Plan
The
outer limits of Angkor Wat are set by its broad moat,faced in laterite and
sandstone. Including this , the total area is almost 200 hectares-a retangle of
1.5 km E-W by 1.3km N-S, the largest temple at Angkor. Two causeways at W and E cross the 190m-wide moat to outer enclosure, bounded
by a laterite wall of 1025m by 802m. Because of Angkor Wat's unusual
orientation, the W gopura of this outer enclosure is by far the largest of
four. Within the 82 hectares of the outer enclosure, the temple itself stands in the
middle on a terrace measuring 332+258, nearly 9 hectares. The remaining 9/10
thus of the area was taken up with the city, including the royal palace,
although of course no trace remains of these Buildings, presumably constructed
in light materials. Following
tradition, the palace would have been to the north of actual temple. The temple
proper combines two major features of Khmer architecture: a Pyramid and
concentric galleries. Pyramid which in most cases were created by mean of
stepped terraces date back to the 8 century Ak Yum and the better known 9th
century Bakong, and were the Khmer method of symbolizing the center of the
Hindu universe, Mount Meru, in the form of a temple mountain. Galleries,
however, evolved later, around beginning of the 11th century; they were natural
succession to a growing number of annex buildings surrounding the Sanctuary.
Angkor Wat is, to put it as simply as possible, a Pyramid of three levels, each
one enclosed by a well -developed gallery with four gopuras and corner towers.
The summit is crowned with five towers in a quincunx.
Date:
Late 12th to 13th century
Style: Bayon
Reign: Jayavarman VII, enlarged by Indravarman II
Visit: at least 1 hr
Style: Bayon
Reign: Jayavarman VII, enlarged by Indravarman II
Visit: at least 1 hr
Highlights
One
of the major temples of Jayavarman VII -in fact, a temple-monastery-Ta Prohm
features a set of concentric galleries with corner towers and gopuras, but with
many other additional buildings and enclosures. The complex city of its lay out
is increased by its partly collapsed state, with trees interlaced among the
ruins. According to its steel, which until recently was In situ, the principle
divinities of Ta Prohm were installed 1186 to transfer merit the king's mother
the principle deity, prajnaparamita, the (perfection of wisdom) was carved in
her likeness (similarly, the Principe deity of Preah Khan, Lokesvara, was
carved in the likeness of - The king's father). This was only five years after
Jayavarman's accession, making it clear that much of the building work took
place throughout and after his reign.
Ta
prohm's original name was Rajavihara the royal monastery). In the initial plan
for Ta Prohm, 260 divinities were called for; many more were added later, this
was the temple chosen by the Ecol Francaise d'extreme- Oreint to be left in its
"Natural state" as an example of how most of Angkor looked on its
discovery in the 19th Century. This was an inspired decision, and involved a
significant amount of work to prevent further collapse and enough clearing of
vegetation to allow entry. It has been maintained in this Condition of apparent
neglect. : Partly overgrown and gently declining. The trees that have grown
intertwined among the ruins are especially responsible for Ta Prohm's
atmosphere, and have prompted more writers to descriptive excess than any
others.
Feature of Angkor
There
are two species: the larger is the silk cotton tree (Ceiba pentadra)
distinguished by its thick, pale brown roots with a knobby texture, the smaller
is the strangler fig (ficus gibbosa), with a greater mass of thinner, smother
grey roots. In both cases, the plant takes hold in a crevice somewhere in the
superstructure of a building, usually where a bird had deposited the seed, and
extends roots downwards to the soil. In doing this, the root work their way
between the nonstories, so that as they grow thicker, they gradually wedge open
the blocks.
eventually
the tree becomes a support for the building, but when it dies, or is felled by
a storm, the loosened blocks collapse. in this way, the trees are agents of
destruction. in the itineraries below, we point out some of the prominent trees
but remember that they are temporary feature.
Plan
Because
of the jumble of closely-spaced buildings and galleries at the heart of Ta
Prohm, most published plan omit to show the outer enclosures. This helps to
give a false sense of the scale in particular of the great size the urban area
beyond the temple Proper, now forested, apart from some occasionally farmed
area in the east, this outer area was in its day a fully inhabited city. Beyond
it, 3,140 villages and 79,365 lay people helped to maintain the whole
enterprise. The outer wall measures 1 km E-W and 650 m N-S, certainly big
enough to accommodate the 12,640 people mentioned in the temple's inscription.
Within, another wall 250 m + 220 m marks the fourth enclosure (numbered as
usual with Khmer temples, from the center outwards). Similar proportion is
repeated at Preah Khan and Banteay kdei, which build at about the same time.
6. The Bayon
Date:
Late 12th to late 13th century, construction probably starting about 1200
Style: Bayon
Reign: Jayavarman VII to Jayavarman VIII
Visit: 2 hrs
Style: Bayon
Reign: Jayavarman VII to Jayavarman VIII
Visit: 2 hrs
Highlights
This,
the State Temple of Jayavarman VII and his immediate successors, is one of the
most enigmatic and powerful religious constructions in the world. The temple is
extremely complex both in terms of its structure and meaning, having passed
through different religious phases from Pantheon of the Gods, Hindu worship and
Buddhism. It uses, uniquely, a mass of face-towers to create a stone mountain
of ascending peaks. There is some dispute about the number of towers.
There
were originally 49 towers even though Paul Mus thought there should be 54.
Today only 37 are standing. Most are carved with four faces on each cardinal
point but sometimes there are only three or even just two. The central tower
has many more. Readers are invited to write in when they have counted them all.
Whatever the final number the overall effect is quite overwhelming.
Plan
The
Bayon has gone through several architectural changes, with additions that are
responsible for the complexity and crowding at its centre. This is because the
city of Angkor Thom was so well fortified that later kings found it simpler to
re-model the Bayon rather than remove it and build their own new State Temple
which would have had to have been in the same place at the centre of the city.
Its plan is distinctive and has many peculiarities.
The
temple itself is composed of two galleried enclosures, which are almost square,
but also on three levels, because of the rebuilding described below. The
approach, which is probably later, is a broad, two-tiered terrace, 72m long and
guarded by lions, leading to the eastern gopura of the outer enclosure, which
measures 156m x 141m. This is the first, at ground level and is surrounded by a
gallery with corner pavilions and gopuras. Within this, the inner enclosure is
80m x 70m, and is slightly offset, in common with most Khmer temples, away from
the entrance. Between the 3rd and 2nd enclosure, can be clearly seen traces of
16 large chapels where Buddhist and local divinities were housed. They were
demolished by Jayavarman VIII.
The
confusion of the Bayon begins inside the inner enclosure, where additional
construction has made a complex arrangement of galleries and towers on the
second level. Within the almost-square surround of galleries, another set of
redented galleries in each corner enclose a cross shape. It is generally agreed
that the original gallery was cross-shaped, and that the corners that make it
now rectangular were added later.
Almost
filling the cross-shaped gallery walls is the 3rd level – the upper terrace,
also later – and in the centre of this rises the central massif, which is, very
unusually, round. 25m in diameter, it reaches a height of 43m above
ground-level, and is connected to a series of small chambers to the east. In
fact, it was originally cruciform in plan, but later radiating chapels filled
in the ‘circle’.
Dominating
the whole arrangement of galleries and terraces are the face-towers, some over
the gopuras, others over the corner angles, yet others free-standing on the
upper terrace. As mentioned above the numbers of faces are in dispute. Equally,
the actual numbers of towers do not have any symbolic significance as many were
added later. Their different individual heights combined with the different
levels of the temple create the impression of a forest of towers rising towards
the centre.
7. Preah Khan
Date:
Late 12th century (1191)
Style: Bayon
Reign: Jayavarman VII, alterations by Jayavarman VIII
Visit: At least 1hr
Style: Bayon
Reign: Jayavarman VII, alterations by Jayavarman VIII
Visit: At least 1hr
Highlights
One
of Jayavarman VII’s largest projects, Preah Khan was much more than a temple:
with over 1,000 teachers it appears also to have been a Buddhist university, as
well as a considerable city. As at Ta Prohm, the foundation stele was
discovered in situ, and it gives a considerable amount of information about the
temple, its foundation and its maintenance.
It
was probably the site of the previous palace of Yasovarman II and
Tribhuvanadityavarman, while references to a ‘lake of blood’ indicate that
Preah Khan was built on the site of a major battle in the recapture of Angkor
from the Chams, and the Cham king died here. Just as Ta Prohm was dedicated to
the king’s mother as Prajñaparamita, so Preah Khan, five years later in 1191,
was dedicated to the king’s father, Dharanindravarman. In his likeness, a
statue of the bodhisattva Lokesvara, Jayavarmesvara, was consecrated in this
year. In other shrines in the city there were 430 secondary deities.
Plan
8. Neak Pean
Date:
Late 12th century
Style: Bayon
Reign: Jayavarman VII
Visit: 30 to 45 minutes
Style: Bayon
Reign: Jayavarman VII
Visit: 30 to 45 minutes
Highlights
This
unusual small monument (pronounced ‘Neak Pouan’), a cruciform arrangement of
ponds with a sanctuary tower on a circular island in the middle, is pure
symbolism. Set in the middle of the Jayatataka baray on what was formerly an
island, it may represent the sacred Himalayan lake of Anavatapta. This lake was
famous for its miraculous healing properties and as the source of four great
rivers issuing through the mouths of a lion, an elephant, a horse and an ox.
However, this Buddhist symbolism only came later, during a period of
rebuilding, and it was originally a royal Hindu site; the stele of Preah Khan
gives its name as Rajyasri – ‘the Fortune of the Kingdom.
In
the 13th century, Zhou Daguan gave a description that is precise about the
temple’s location, but different in a number of other respects: “The Northern
Lake lies one and a quarter miles to the north of the Walled City. At its
centre stands a square tower of gold with several dozen stone rooms. If you are
looking for gold lions, bronze elephants, bronze oxen, bronze horses, here is
where you will find them.”
Plan
Like
West Baray and East Baray, each with their Mebon, the baray of Preah Khan was
also designed with an island temple in its middle. Although the Jayatataka is
now dry, the island was a substantial 300m square. At its centre is the main
pond, 70m square, with four smaller ponds, each 25m square, joined to it at the
cardinal points. In the centre of the main pond, a tiny circular island 14m in
diameter supports a sanctuary tower. Surrounding these restored parts were
another eight ponds, now dry.
Visit
The
path reaches Neak Pean from the N. Walk around the edges of the small northern
pond to the main pond. The circular island in the middle is encircled at its
base by two naga serpents, their heads on its E side and their tails entwined
on the W. They seem to represent the naga kings Nanda and Upananda, linked in
Hindu mythology with Lake Anavatapta, and give the monument its modern name,
which means “entwined serpents”. The top of the circular steps that form the
temple’s platform is ringed by lotus leaves. Another set, inverted, forms the
base of the tower.
The
sanctuary opens to the E, with blind doors on the other three sides. Originally
the temple was cruciform with doors on all four sides. Later the doors were
closed and elephants were placed at the corners making the temple round. A
standing Lokesvara is carved on each of the blind doors. Above the one facing
you on the N side, whose head was recently stolen, the pediment shows the
‘Great Departure’. On the E pediment is the cutting of Siddartha’s hair, on the
W pediment the Buddha in meditation under the bodhi tree, while that on the S
is unrecognizable. The tower itself is ogival and topped with a lotus bud.
Just
to the E of the island, the statue of a flying horse rises from the water.
Clinging to its tail and its flanks is a group of men. Although unfinished, the
horse is clearly Balaha, one of the forms taken by the compassionate
Bodhisattva Lokesvara, and in this instance he is helping seafaring merchants
escape from an island inhabited by an ogress. Balaha also appears in the hidden
part of the Terrace of the Elephants in Angkor Thom. Stone images were found on
the other three sides of the island: a statue of Vishnu to the West, some
lingas to the North, and an unrecognizable image to the South.
Four
small chapels link the main pond with the smaller ones; only their vaulted
roofs appear above the level of the terrace surrounding the pond, and these are
decorated with pediments and half-pediments. Enter from the side of each small
pond. Inside, at the end, is a sculpted fountainhead. It seems that water would
emerge when visitors poured water from the main pond into the small receptacle
in the steps above. This then passes through a conduit to emerge from the
mouth. That in the eastern chapel, in the form of a man’s face, is the best
carved; the others are a lion in the southern chapel, a horse in the W, and an
elephant in the N. Apart from the replacement of an ox with a man, these
correspond with the legend of Lake Anavatapta. The Buddha on the E pediment of
the N chapel has been transformed into a linga, during the reign of King
Jayavarman VIII.
Date:
Possibly 11th to 12th centuries
Style: Bapuon
Reign: Udayadityavarman II
Visit: 1 ½ hrs
Style: Bapuon
Reign: Udayadityavarman II
Visit: 1 ½ hrs
Highlights
Location:
50 km northeast of Siem Reap The Siem Reap river (Stung Siem Reap in Khmer),
which flows through the main Angkor group and the town of Siem Reap to drain
into the Tonle Sap, rises in the western part of the Kulen Mountains north of
Banteay Srei. One of its tributaries, the Stung Kbal Spean, flows into it from
an outlying hill, the Phnom Kbal Spean. In these upper reaches, it tumbles down
the steep hillside, cutting through sandstone strata, and here, just above a
fine waterfall, images of the gods have been carved directly into the river bed
along a 150-metre stretch that was discovered only in 1968 by Jean Boulbet.
Among these are groups of many stubby lingas arranged in rows, and these gave
it its Sanskrit name, Sahasralinga, ‘River of a Thousand Lingas’.
The
fields of lingas are indeed striking, but of greater sculptural interest are
the several carvings of Vishnu Reclining in the stream bed. The other two
members of the Hindu trinity, Shiva and Brahma, are also represented. Whether
the carvings are dry or submerged depends on the water level and so the season,
and they are probably at their most evocative at the end of the rainy season,
when the fast-flowing water courses around but does not completely submerge the
majority. Ever since the first Khmer ruler, Jayavarman II, proclaimed himself
emperor ot the world in 802, these hills have been regarded as having deep
historical and religious significance.
Fortunately,
there are several inscriptions carved into the rock, and these date everything
to the reign of Udayadityavarman II. With the exception of the one that refers
to ‘a thousand lingas’, authored by an elder minister of Suryavarman I in 1054,
these inscriptions, carved by hermits, do not refer directly to the sculptures.
However, they are of the same period, clearly Bapuon style in 1059 King
Udayadityavarman came here to consecrate a golden linga.
Plan
The
rock-cut sculptures, some washed by rapids, others submerged in natural pools,
and yet others on the rock faces above the water-line, cover a 150m stretch of
the river between a natural stone bridge and a waterfall. There are four
principal groups, in each case taking advantage of the natural features, which
include outcrops, pools and vertical faces.
9. Beng Mealea
Date:
Middle of the 12th century, with later additions
Style: Angkor Wat
Reign: Suryavarman II
Visit: 45mins – 1 ½ hrs
Style: Angkor Wat
Reign: Suryavarman II
Visit: 45mins – 1 ½ hrs
Highlights
Though
unrestored, and in a fairly ruinous state, the large temple of Beng Mealea
(‘Lotus Pond’) some 40 km due east of Angkor on the ancient royal way to the
‘great Preah Khan’ of Kompong Svay (another 60 km further on), is one of the
major monuments of the classical period, in the style of Angkor Wat and roughly
contemporary with it. Whoever built it must have been a figure of some
importance, but he remains unknown, as no inscriptions have been found here,
and no other that mentions it. Its position was strategic, where the royal way
to Koh Ker in the NE forks from the road E to the ‘great Preah Khan’, and also
at the head of a canal that leads directly to the Great Lake, down which
sandstone blocks from the nearby quarries could have been floated on their way
to Angkor.
Its
chaotic state, with collapsed galleries and towers (the central sanctuary is
virtually a pit, with no superstructure whatsoever) may be due to a variety of
causes. The most important is simply the wear and tear of eight and a half
centuries in a tropical climate, with the spread of vegetation, including the
silk-cotton tree and strangler fig, going to work on some ambitious vaulting
which was being tried out here and at Angkor Wat for the first time. It is not
known whether there was any iconoclasm, a possibility whenever there is
evidence of different faiths practiced, as here. Happily, there is no evidence
of recent looting. There is a considerable disorder, but very romantic for all
that.
Many
of the early French scholars thought highly of this temple for both its
architecture and its decoration. Coedès made a special study of its carving, and
Groslier considered it to be a prototype, with a “harmony, powerful sober”. Its
history is completely unknown, and it can be dated only by its style, which is
of the mid-12th century. Beng Mealea was built of blue sandstone from local
quarries, and while there are no narrative bas-relief panels as at Angkor Wat,
there is a fair amount of decoration on walls and pilasters, all of a high
standard, as well as apsaras, lintels and a few pediments. The religious
history is also unknown, with carvings showing legends of Vishnu, Shiva and the
Buddha.
Plan
The
temple marked the centre of a town, surrounded by a moat 1025m by 875m, and 45m
wide. Four paved avenues lead via cruciform terraces to the entrances at the
cardinal points, and it is oriented to the E. Directly to the E of the complex
is a large baray, with a small island containing a shrine in its centre, as
usual.
In
plan, Beng Mealea reminds one of Angkor Wat, though all at ground level with no
temple mountain. There are three concentric enclosures, each one set back
slightly to the west, with the central shrine at the intersection of the axes
(and so the intersection of the town’s avenues as well). These enclosures are
tied together with ‘cruciform cloisters’, just as at Angkor Wat, and in the NE
and SE corners of the enclosures are shrines of the kind known wrongly as
‘libraries’. Also as at Angkor Wat, Beng Mealea has some impressive stone
vaulting, and half-vaults that work as a king of buttressing.
In
plan, Beng Mealea reminds one of Angkor Wat, though all at ground level with no
temple mountain. There are three concentric enclosures, each one set back
slightly to the west, with the central shrine at the intersection of the axes
(and so the intersection of the town’s avenues as well). These enclosures are
tied together with ‘cruciform cloisters’, just as at Angkor Wat, and in the NE
and SE corners of the enclosures are shrines of the kind known wrongly as
‘libraries’. Also as at Angkor Wat, Beng Mealea has some impressive stone
vaulting, and half-vaults that work as a king of buttressing.
The
name means 'Great City'. It was the last capital of the Angkorian rule. The
temple shows the materialization of Buddhist cosmology. It still represents the
Cambodian people and their life today. There are many temples and sites within
the walls of Angkor Thom including the Bayon, Terrace of Elephants, Terrace of
the Leper King and Prasat Suor Prat. Angkor Thom is enclosed by five decorative
entrances. Each of the gates is crowned with four giant faces.
11. Prek Toal Bird Sanctuary
Prek
Toal is one of three biospheres on Tonle Sap Lake, and the establishment of the
bird sanctuary makes Prek Toal the most worthwhile and straightforward to
visit. It is an ornithologist’s fantasy, with a significant number of rare
breeds gathered in one small area, including the huge lesser and greater
adjutant storks, the milky stork and the spot-billed pelican. Even the
uninitiated will be impressed, as these birds have a huge wingspan and build
enormous nests.
Visitors
during the dry season (December to May) will find the concentration of birds
like something out of a Hitchcock film. As water starts to dry up elsewhere,
the birds congregate here. Serious twitchers know that the best time to see
birds is early morning or late afternoon and this means an early start or an
overnight at Prek Toal’s environment office, where there are basic beds for
US$7. For real enthusiasts, it may be best to head out of Siem Reap after
lunch, to get to the sanctuary at around 4pm for an afternoon viewing. Stay
overnight and view the birds in the morning before returning to town.
12. Banteay Kdei
I
just loved this temple as it is a temple that co-exists with the surrounding
jungle. The jungle is intertwined with the temple. It was built in the last
12th century. It is another Buddhist temple. It functioned as a Buddhist
monastery under Jayavarman VII. Unfortunately it's not in good condition as the
sandstone used to make this temple was not the same quality and workmanship as
the other temples.
There
is another bird sanctuary, Ang Trapeng Thmor Reserve (admission US$10), just
across the border in the Phnom Srok region of Banteay Meanchey Province, about
100km from Siem Reap. It’s one of only two places in the world where it is
possible to see the extremely rare sarus crane, as depicted on bas-reliefs at
Bayon. These grey-feathered birds have immensely long leg and striking red
heads. The reserve is based around a reservoir created by forced labour during
the Khmer Rouge regime, and facilities are very basic, but it is an incredibly
beautiful place. Bring your own binoculars, however, as none are available. To
reach here, follow the road to Sisophon for about 72km before turning north at
Prey Mon. It’s 22km to the site, passing through some famous silk-weaving
villages. The Sam Veasna Centre arranges birding trips out here, which is
probably the easiest way to undertake the trip. It also arranges specialist
birding trips to remote parts of northwestern Cambodia.
This
famous floating village is now extremely popular with visitors wanting a break
from the temples, and is an easy excursion to arrange with temple guide.
Visitors arriving by fast boat get a preview, as the floating village is near
Phnom Krom, where the boat docks. It is very scenic in the warm light of early
morning or late afternoon and can be combined with a view of the sunset from
the hilltop temple of Phnom Krom. The downside is that tour groups tend to take
over, and boats end up chugging up and down the channels in convoy. Visitors
should ask tour guide for the floating village and helps to unlock the secrets
of the Tonle Sap. It has displays on flora and fauna of the area, as well as
information on communities living around the lake. The village moves depending
on the season and you will need to rent a boat to get around it properly. On
top of this, the Koreans are charging for the new road and the local police for
security. To get to the floating village from Siem Reap costs US$15 by
taxi. The trip takes at least one hour,traditional wooden boat including driver
$ 10 US per person.
More memorable than Chong Kneas, but harder to reach, is the village of Kompong Phhluk, an other-worldly place built on soaring stilts. Nearby is a flooded forest, inundated every year when the lake rises to take the Mekong’s overflow. As the lake drops, the petrified trees are revealed. Exploring this area by wooden dugout in the wet season is very atmospheric. The village itself is a friendly place, where most of the houses are built on stilts of about 6m or 7m high, almost bamboo skyscrapers. It looks like it’s straight out of a film set.
There are two ways to get to Kompong Phhluk. One is to come via the floating village of Chong Kneas, where a boat (one hour) can be arranged for about US$15 per person round trip, and the other is to come via the small town of Roluos by a combination of road but it depends on the season – sometimes it’s more by road.
One
of the largest communities on the Tonle Sap, Kompong Khleang is almost a
floating town, complete with several large pagodas. Like Kompong Phhluk, most
of the houses here are built on towering stilts to allow for a dramatic change
in water level. Few tourists have visited here, but it is not that difficult to
reach from Siem Reap. It is possible to get here by road via the town of Dam
Dek or by boat from the floating village of Chong Kneas.Traditional wooden boat
including driver $ 15 US per person
Phnom Kulen (
Northeast of Siem Reap, 65km away)
Phnom
Kulen is considered by Khmers to be the most sacred mountain in Cambodia and is
a popular place of pilgrimage during weekends and festivals. It played a
significant role in the history of the Khmer empire, as it was from here in AD
802 that Jayavarman II proclaimed himself a devaraja (god-king) and announced
independence from Java, giving birth to modern-day Cambodia. There is a small
wat at the summit of the mountain, which houses a large reclining Buddha carved
into the sandstone boulder upon which it is built. Nearby is a large waterfall
and above it are smaller bathing areas and a number of carvings in the
riverbed, including numerous lingas. The bad news is that a private businessman
bulldozed a road up here back in 1999 and charges a US$20 toll per foreign
visitor, an ambitious fee compared with what you get for your money at Angkor.
None of the toll goes towards preserving the site.
The
new road winds its way through some spectacular jungle scenery, emerging on the
plateau after a 20km ascent. The road eventually splits: the left fork leads to
the picnic spot, waterfalls and ruins of a 9th-century temple; the right fork
continues over a bridge and some riverbed carvings to the reclining Buddha.
This is the focal point of a pilgrimage here for Khmer people, so it is
important to take off your shoes and any head covering before climbing the
stairs to the sanctuary. The views from the 487m peak are tremendous, as you
can see right across the forested plateau.
The
waterfall is an attractive spot, but could be much more beautiful were it not
for all the litter left here by families picnicking at the weekend. Near the
top of the waterfall is a jungle-clad temple known as Prasat Krau Romeas,
dating from the 9th century.
There
are plenty of other Angkorian sites on Phnom Kulen, including as many as 20
minor temples around the plateau, the most important of which is Prasat Rong
Chen, the first pyramid or temple-mountain to be constructed in the Angkor
area. Most impressive of all are the giant stone animals or guardians of the
mountain, known as Sra Damrei (Elephant Pond). These are very difficult to get
to, with the route passing through mined sections of the mountain (stick to the
path!) and the trail impossible in the wet season. The few people who make it,
however, are rewarded with a life-sized replica of a stone elephant – a full 4m
long and 3m tall – and smaller statues of lions, a frog and a cow. These were
constructed on the southern face of the mountain and from here there are
spectacular views across the plains below. Getting here requires taking a moto
from Wat Preah Ang Thom for about 12km on very rough trails through thick forest
before arriving at a sheer rock face. From here it is a 1km walk to the animals
through the forest. Don’t try to find it on your own; expect to pay the moto
driver about US$20 (with some hard negotiating) and carry plenty of water, as
none is available.
Before
the construction of the private road up Phnom Kulen, visitors had to scale the
mountain and then walk across the top of the plateau to the reclining Buddha.
This route takes more than two hours and is still an option. About 15km east of
the new road, the trail winds its way to a small pagoda called Wat Chou, set
into the cliff face from which a tuk chou (spring) emerges. The water is
considered holy and Khmers like to bottle it to take home with them. This water
source eventually flows into Tonle Sap Lake and is thought to bless the
waterways of Cambodia.
Phnom
Kulen is a huge plateau around 50km from Siem Reap and about 15km from Banteay
Srei. To get here on the new toll road, take the well-signposted right fork
just before Banteay Srei village and go straight ahead at the crossroads. Just
before the road starts to climb the mountain, there is a barrier and it is here
that the US$20 charge is levied. It is only possible to go up before 11am and
only possible to come down after midday, to avoid vehicles meeting on the
narrow road.
To
walk to the site, head east along the base of the mountain from the major
crossroads. After about 15km, there is a wat-style gate on the left and a sandy
trail. Follow this to a small community from where the climb begins. It is
about a 2km climb and then an hour or more in a westerly direction along the
top of the plateau. This route of the pilgrims of old should cost nothing if
you arrive after midday, although it takes considerably longer. Moto drivers
are likely to want about US$15 or more to bring you out here, and rented cars
will hit passengers with a surcharge, more than double the going rate for
Angkor; forget coming by remorque as the hill climb is just too tough.
The
temple complex of Banteay Chhmar (admission US$5) was constructed by Cambodia’s
most prolific builder, Jayavarman VII (r 1181-1220), on the site of a
9th-century temple. There is debate over its origins, with some scholars
suggesting it was built in tribute to Jayavarman VII’s son Indravarman and the
Cambodian generals responsible for defeating the Chams, while others propose it
was intended as a funerary temple for the king’s grandmother.
On the temple’s east side, a huge bas-relief on a party-toppled wall dramatically depicts naval warfare between the Khmers (on the left) and the Chams (on the right), with the dead – some being devoured by crocodiles – at the bottom. Further south (to the left) are scenes of land warfare with infantry and elephants. There are more martial bas-reliefs along the exterior of the temple’s south walls.
The once-grand entry gallery is now a jumble of fallen sandstone blocks, though elsewhere a few intersecting galleries have withstood the ravages of time, as have some almost-hidden 12th-century inscriptions. All the remaining apsaras (nymphs) have been decapitated by looters.
Banteay Chhmar was deservedly renowned for its intricate carvings, including scenes of daily life in the Angkorian period similar to those at Bayon. Unique to Banteay Chhmar was a sequence of eight multi-armed Avalokiteshvaras on the outside of the southern section of the temple’s western ramparts, but six of these were hacked out and trucked into Thailand in a brazen act of looting in 1998. Still, the two that remain – one with 22 arms, the other with 32 – are spectacular.
There are as many as a dozen smaller temples in the vicinity of Banteay Chhmar, all in a ruinous state. These include Prasat Mebon, Prasat Yeay Choun, Prasat Pranang Ta Sok and Prasat Chiem Trey. At the headquarters of the Banteay Chhmar Protected Landscape (017 971225), 2km towards Sisiphon from town, it may be possible to hire a guide (non-English speaking) for a nature walk.
Through Agir Pour le Cambodge, you can participate in traditional activities such as honey collecting and the hunting of frogs and rice-field crabs (US$10 for a group). It may also be possible to visit local silk weavers. A ride out to Banteay Top costs US$5 by ox-cart or US$6 by koyun (tractor). Renting a bicycle costs US$1.50 a day.
Banteay Top (Fortress of the Army), set among rice paddies southeast of Banteay Chhmar, may only be a small temple but there’s something special about the atmosphere here.
Constructed around the same time as Banteay Chhmar, it may be a tribute to the army of Jayavarman VII, which confirmed Khmer dominance over the region by conclusively defeating the Chams. One of the damaged towers looks decidedly precarious, like a bony finger pointing skyward. The turn-off from NH69, marked by a stone plinth with gold inscription, is 9km south of Banteay Chhmar.
For
almost a decade this was the ultimate Khmer Rouge stronghold: home to Pol Pot,
Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ta Mok, among the most notorious leaders of
Democratic Kampuchea. Anlong Veng fell to government forces in April 1998 at
the same time as Pol Pot died mysteriously nearby. Soon after, Prime Minister
Hun Sen ordered that NH67 be bulldozed through the jungle to ensure that the
population didn’t have second thoughts about ending the war.
Today
Anlong Veng is a poor, dusty town with little going for it except the nearby
Choam-Choam Srawngam border crossing, which takes you to a pretty isolated part
of Thailand. The average visitor will find little to see or do here, but for
those with a keen interest in contemporary Cambodian history its Khmer Rouge
sites are an important – if troubling and enigmatic – part of the picture.
Orientation & Information
Anlong
Veng’s focal point is the Dove of Peace Monument – a gift of Hun Sen – in the
middle of a roundabout. From here, roads lead north to the Choam border
crossing, east to Sa Em and Prasat Preah Vihear, and south to Siem Reap (along
NH67). There’s nowhere to access the internet. Acleda Bank, the only bank in
town, handles travelers cheques.
Sights & Activities
Most
of Anlong Veng’s sights are connected with the terrible Khmer Rouge years.
PILE OF RUBBLE
An
Angkorian temple used to stand in the southeast corner of the yard behind Hun
Sen Anlong Veng Primary School – formerly Ta Mok Primary School – but it was
turned into a jumble of laterite and sandstone blocks by Ta Mok and his army in
their search for ancient statues to sell to the Thais. The school is 600m east
of the roundabout.TA MOK’S HOUSE & GRAVE
To
get to Ta Mok’s house, head north from the Dove of Peace Roundabout for about
2km, turn right and continue 200m past the Tourism Information hut, whose
posters promote local curiosities such as ‘Ta Mok’s mango field’. The admission
price includes a tour with a knowledgeable English-speaking guide.
From the turnoff to Ta Mok’s house, driving a further 7km north takes you to Tumnup Leu, where a right turn and 400m brings you to Ta Mok’s grave. Situated next to a very modest pagoda and the concrete foundations of Ta Mok’s sawmill, it is protected from the elements by a blue roof. The tomb has no name or inscription of any sort but this doesn’t seem to bother the locals who stop by to light incense sticks – and, in a bizarre new local tradition, hope his ghost grants them a winning lottery number.
Along the Thai Frontier
Further
north, atop the escarpment of the Dangkrek Mountains, are a number of other key
Khmer Rouge sites, each marked with a light blue Ministry of Tourism sigh. For
years the world wondered where Pol Pot and his cronies were hiding out – the
answer was right here, close enough to Thailand that they could flee across the
border if government forces drew nigh.
About
2km before the frontier, where the road splits to go around a house-sized
boulder, look out for a group of statues – hewn entirely from the surrounding
rock by the Khmer Rouge – depicting a woman carrying bundles of bamboo sticks
on her head and two uniformed Khmer Rouge soldiers, since decapitated by
government forces. Now a macabre place of popular pilgrimage, local people come
here to leave offerings of fruit and incense to honour the souls of dead Khmer
Rouge soldiers.
At
the pass (a few hundred metres before the frontier), turn right (east) next to
a new, cream-coloured, three-storey building and then, after 50m, hang a left.
In front of you, under a rusted corrugated iron roof and surrounded by rows of
partly buried glass bottles, is the cremation site of Pol Pot, who was hastily
burned in 1998 on a pile of old tyres and rubbish – a fitting end, some say,
given the suffering he inflicted on millions of Cambodians.
Bizarre
as it may sound, Pol Pot is remembered with affection by some locals, and people
sometimes stop by to light incense. According to neighbours, every last bone
fragment has been snatched from the ashes by visitors in search of good luck
charms – Pol Pot, too, is said to give out winning lottery numbers.
In
1997 Pol Pot ordered that former Khmer Rouge defence minister Son Sen – who was
trying to reach a settlement with the government – and his family be murdered
and their bodies run over by trucks. This incident led to Pol Pot’s overthrow
and arrest by Ta Mok, followed by his Khmer Rouge show trial (held near the
cremation site) and his mysterious death, ostensibly because of a heart attack.
A
few hundred metres north, next to a ramshackle smugglers’ market, is the old
Choam-Choam Srawngam border crossing. A bit to the west, right on the nicely
paved main road, the Thais have built a spiffy new crossing, but the Cambodians
say it’s on Cambodian territory – yet another Thai land grab. So for now, with
no end to the dispute in sight, the old facilities will have to do.
From
the smuggler’s market, a dirt road heads east between minefields, parallel to
the escarpment. After about 4km you come to the overgrown brick walls and
cement floor of another Ta Mok residence, shaded by mango, jackfruit and
tamarind trees. Nearby is the cement shell of the Khmer Rouge’s radio station
and Peuy Ta Mok (Ta Mok’s Cliff), where domestic tourists come to enjoy
spectacular views of Cambodia’s northern plains. Some stay at the six-room
Khnong Phnom Dankrek Guesthouse (012 444067; r 30,000r), from which a path leads
a few hundred metres east, through the Cliffside jungle, to a waterfall (dry
except in the west season). In late 2007, this area was being de-mined by the
Halo Trust.
From
here the road continues northeast past minefields, slash-and-burn homesteads and
some army bases where soldiers wearing bits and pieces of uniforms sometimes
demand that tourists pay bribes. A half-hour moto ride takes you to Khieu
Samphan’s house, buried in the jungle on the bank of a stream, from where it’s
a few hundred metres along an overgrown road to Pol Pot’s house. Both are
marked by signs. Surrounded by a cinderblock wall, the jungle hideout of
Brother Number One was comprehensively looted, though you can still see a low
brick building whose courtyard hides an underground bunker. Many of the
courtyard’s tiles have been carted off, revealing the frozen-in-cement
footprints of the trusted Khmer Rouge cadres who built the place.
Sleeping
Bot
Huddon Guesthouse (Bot Uddom; 011 500507; r US$5-15; Owned by the family of the
deputy governor, this establishment – 300m east of the roundabout – has 12
spacious, well-kept rooms with massive hardwood beds.
23
Tola Guesthouse (012 975104; r US$6-15) Built alongside the owners’ family
residence, this new place sports hallways tiled in Delft blue and 27 rooms with
light-yellow walls.
Monorom
Guesthouse (012 603339; r US$7-15) Anlong Veng’s finest hostelry, with 20 big,
modern rooms; some of the air-con rooms have hot water. Pay when you check in.
Eating
South
of the roundabout there’s a row of food stalls, some with pots you can peer
into, others with blazing braziers barbecuing chicken, fish and eggs on
skewers. There are fruit and veggie stalls (6am-about 6pm) around Sheang Hai Restaurant.
Sheang
Hai Restaurant (012 786878; mains 5000-12,000r; 5:30am-9pm or 10pm) Named after
the Chinese city of Shanghai (the owner’s nick-name), this all-wood, mess
hall-like place serves Chinese and Khmer dishes, including fried rice and tom
yam soup.
Monorom
Restaurant (mains 8500r; 6am-9pm) Next to the Monorom Guesthouse, this brightly
lit place is the town’s fanciest eatery. If you order a beer, you get hot oily
peanuts you can try to eat with chop sticks.
Koh Ker (Northeast of Siem Reap, 127km)
Abandoned
to the forests of the north, Koh Ker (admission US$10), capital of the
Angkorian empire from AD 928 to AD 944, was long one of Cambodia’s most remote
and inaccessible temple complexes. However, this has now changed thanks to
recent de-mining and the opening of a new toll road from Dam Dek (via Beng
Mealea) that puts Koh Ker (pronounced kah-kei) within day-trip distance of Siem
Reap. But to really appreciate the temples – the area has 42 major structures
in an area that measures 9km by 4km – it’s necessary to spend the night.
Several
of the most impressive pieces in the National Museum in Phnom Penh come from
Koh Ker, including the huge garuda (mythical half-man, half-bird creature) that
greets visitors in the entrance hall and a unique carving depicting a pair or
wrestling monkey-kings.
Most visitors start at Prasat Krahom (Rel Temple), the second-largest structure at Koh Ker, wich is named for the red bricks from which it is constructed. Sadly, none of the carved lions for which this temple was once known remain though there's still plenty to see- stone archways and galleries lean hither and thither and impressive stone carvings grace lintels, doorposts and slender window columns. A naga-flanked causeway and series of sanctuaries, libraries and gates lead past trees and vegetation-covered ponds. Just west of Prasat Krahom, at the far end of a half-fallen colonnade, are the remains of an impressive statue of Nandin. The principal monument at Koh Ker is Prasat Thom (Prasat Kompeng), 55m-wide, 40m-high sandstone-faced pyramid with seven tier that's just west of Prasat Krahom. This striking structure, which looks like it could almonst be a Mayan site somewhere on the Yucatan Peninsula offers some spectacular views across the forest from its summit. Look out for thegiant garuda under the collapsed chamber at the top of the vertigo-inducing stairs. Some 40 inscriptions, dating from 932 to 1010, have been found at Prasat Thom. South of this central group is a 1185m baray (reservoir) known as the Rahal. It is fed by Stung Sen, which supplied water to irrigate the land in this arid area.
Some of the largest Shiva linga (phallic symbols) in Cambodia can still be seen in four temples about 1km northeast of Prasat Thom. The largest is in Prasat Thneng, and Prasat Leung (Prasat Balang) is similarly well endowed.
Other interesting temples: Prasat Bram (Prasat Pram), the first you come to after passing the toll booths (it’ll be on your left), which is named in honour of its five towers, two of which are smothered by strangler figs; Prasat Neang Khmau (Prasat Nean Khmau), a bit further north and on your right, with some fine lintels decorating its otherwise bland exterior; and Prasat Chen (Prasat Chhin), about halfway from the toll booths to Prasat Krahom, where the statue of the wrestling monkeys was discovered.
Koh Ker is one of the least-studied temple areas from the Angkorian period. Louis Delaporte visited in 1880 during his extensive investigations into Angkorian temples. It was surveyed in 1921 by the great Henri Parmentier for an article in the Bulletin de l’École d’Extrême Orient, but no restoration work was ever undertaken here. Archaeological surveys were carried out by Cambodian teams in the 1950s and 1960s, but all records vanished during the destruction of the 1970s, helping to preserve this complex as something of an enigma.
Prasat Preah Vihear (North of Siem Reap, about 200km)
The
most dramatically situated of all the Angkorian monuments, 800m-long Prasat
Preah Vihear (elevation 730m; admission 10,000r) perches high atop the
south-facing cliff face of the Dangkrek Mountains. The views are breathtaking:
lowland Cambodia 550m below, stretching as far as the eye can see, with the
holy mountain of Phnom Kulen looming in the distance.
Prasat
Preah Vihear, an important place of pilgrimage during the Angkorian period, was
built by a succession of seven Khmer monarchs, beginning with Yasovarman I (r
889-910) and ending with Suryavarman II (r 1112-1152), builder of Angkor Wat.
Like other temple-mountains from this period, it was designed to represent Mt
Meru and was dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva.
Start
a visit at the monumental stairway, if possible from the bottom (near the
market and the crossing from Thailand). As you walk south, you come to four
cruciform gopuras (sanctuaries), decorated with a profusion of exquisite carvings
and separated by esplanades up to 350m long. At the entrance to the Gopura of
the Third Level, look for an early rendition of the Churning of the Ocean of
Milk, a theme later depicted awesomely at Angkor Wat. The Central Sanctuary and
its associated structures and galleries, in a remarkably good state of repair,
are right at the edge of the cliff, which affords stupendous views of
Cambodia’s northern plains – this is a fantastic spot for a picnic.
For
more on the carvings of Prasat Preah Vihear and the temple’s history, look out
for market vendors selling Preah Vihear by Vittorio Roveda, a readable souvenir
book accompanied by some attractive photographs.
Classic Khmer Ritual Life
With
their many thousands of Hindu devotional structures, from the state temples of
Angkor down to the smallest village shrines, and with its huge Mahayana
Buddhist complexes and attendant monks, Cambodia’s cities and countryside must
have been bustling with religious activity. It is true that Theravada Buddhism
had become strong by the time of Zhou’s visit, but the other two religious
traditions continued to play important roles.
Brahmanic
Hinduism had been all-pervasive during most of the Classic period, until
temporarily (and only partially) eclipsed by Jayavarman VII’s Mahayanism.
Hinduism is not a congregational religion such as Buddhism or Christianity, but
is centred on individual devotion and worship of a god or goddess in a ritual
that was always under the care of Brahmin priest. The temple or shrine was
there to provide a house in which the deity could take up temporary residence;
there he (or she) would have a place to eat, to be bathed, and even to sleep.
If everything was well conducted, the god would then come to life in his/her
own stone, wood or metal image.
Devotion
was a two-way, supernatural contract. To the god the devotee gave offerings of
flowers, incense, fruit, clarified butter, coconut juice and the like; in
return, the devotee received back from the deity the now-blessed offering
(prasad), along with the spiritual well-being (darshan) that resulted from eye
contact with the now-live image. In this sense, each of the thousands of
Classic Cambodian sculptures of the gods to be seen in museums, in collections,
and in the Angkor conservation facility had once resided in a darkened shrine
or sanctum at the centre of a temple establishment, and had been worshipped
according to established Brahmanic practice.
We
may be sure that for the wealthy, and for the ruler and members of the royal
family, temple rituals were splendid affairs, with orchestral music, large
troupes of temple dancers and temple elephants in procession. But even the king
had to prostrate himself humbly before the gods, as Bayon relief scenes of
Jayavarman VII worshipping at shrines of the gods Vishnu and Shiva prove. One
can now understand why Cambodian artists and architects placed sandstone
lintels elaborately carved with garlands and vegetation over temple doors –
portals that were guarded by divine youths (dvarapalas) and lovely maidens
(devatas): it was to make a beautiful home in which a deity might be happy to
reside.
As
with Hindu devotion, offerings, accompanied by chanted verses, were made to the
images, and usually consisted of flowers, incense, and sometimes a ritual
scarf. In Mahayanist practice, the offerings were quite elaborate, with seven
different oblations, each in its own bowl. Mahayana Buddhists, who included
Jayavarman VII, paid special homage to images of Avalokiteshvara, the
Bodhisattva of infinite compassion and mercy; in this branch of Buddhism,
images were imbued with the spirit and power of the being they represented, but
for the more austere Theravadists, they were merely reminders of Buddha’s life
and message. Regardless, all images had to be consecrated before they could
fulfil their function, whether in a temple like the Bayon or in a pagoda.
Buddhism
in Southeast Asia has, and probably had in Classic times, its own annual cycle
of festivals, set by full moons; how this was integrated into the festival
season described by Zhou is unknown.
Warfare and the Military
There
seems never to have been a time in Cambodia’s history when Khmers were not
fighting each other, or waging war on foreign enemies. For the Classic Khmer
period, while Zhou Daguan and the inscribed monuments have little to say on the
subject, there is abundant pictorial information on armaments, order of battle
and actual warfare in the reliefs of Angkor Wat, the Bayon and Banteay Chhmar.
Even the Buddha’s message of peace and his prohibition on the taking of life
did not deter Jayavarman VII from glorifying what seems to have been his great
and bloody defeat of the Cham invaders in gruesome detail.
The
ordinary Khmer soldiers as well as officers might carry a lance; or a bow, with
the arrows being held in a quiver; or sabers of different length; or various
sizes of knives and daggers; or a kind of halberd known as a phka’k. The latter
was basically an iron axe mounted on a long handle curved at one end. At Angkor
Wat, the phka’k is held in the hands of high-ranking warriors mounted on
elephants or horses; it was still in use in the twentieth century for hunting
and work in the forest. Crossbows were known, but are extremely rare in the
reliefs.
For
personal defence, there were two kinds of shields: round ones ornamented with
vegetal or flower motifs, and long ones ornamented on the top border. The
latter could be grouped together to form a kind of rampart. Both were probably
of wood and hide, with metal plaques. Although most warriors wore only a kind
of short-sleeved jacket (sometimes resembling the quilted cotton ‘armour’ in
use in Mesoamerica), many were protected by a cylindrical cuirass, often with
one or two knives lashed over it for close combat.
Far
more sophisticated armament is to be seen on the Bayon and at Banteay Chhmar,
especially among the infantry. This includes a ballista, mounted either on
elephant back or on a wheeled vehicle that could be rolled onto the field of
battle; it consisted of two opposed bows, worked by two men, and shot arrows
with tremendous force. Michel Jacq-Hergoualc’h, the leading authority on Khmer
warfare, believes it may be of Chinese origin. Shield ‘ramparts’ mounted on
wheels are another innovation of Jayavarman VII’s reign.
A
combat unit consisted of foot soldiers, three to four mounted cavalrymen, and
one war elephant. Elephants were reserved for the king and for his highest
officers; these stood on roofless, decorated howdahs, with a mahout placed in
front to direct the elephant, and wielded various kinds of weapons – the
lance-and-shield, the phka’k , or the bow-and-arrow. Cavalry horses were ridden
without saddle or stirrups, and during combat the mounted knights often stood
on their steeds’ backs. In the great procession depicted at Angkor Wat, the
riders (and some infantrymen) were distinguished by headgear in the shape of
eagle or deer heads. War chariots were very similar to naga-decorated carts,
but were roofless, and drawn by pairs of horses.
Some
sections of the Khmer army consisted of foreign mercenaries, such as the
colorful Siamese (Thai) unit depicted in the South Gallery relief of Angkor
Wat, with their beaded, wig-like headgear and beaded jackets and skirts; these
were led by a Thai general mounted on an elephant. Even traditional enemies
like the Cham (recognizable from their flower-like headdress) or the Vietnamese
could be recruited into the military service of the Angkor state.
The
Khmer army on the march must have been an impressive sight – and sound. It was
accompanied by military music produced by a huge gong struck by a dwarfish
person, long trumpets, bronze castanets, and blasts from conch shells. The ark
of Sacred Fire, under the care of Brahmin priest, was carried along into
battle, and there were parasols, banners and battle standards. The latter
consisted of a staff mounted with the small bronze figure of one of the monkey
generals from the Ramayana, or of Vishnu mounted on Garuda, or of Garuda by
himself. Supplies and food for the army were brought in covered wagons drawn by
bullocks, and even on pack elephants, while pigs were driven along the route of
March. There were many camp-followers, perhaps the wives and children of the
soldiers. Women of far higher rank traveled with the army in palanquins,
rickshaws and sedan chairs.
Great
naval battles with the Cham appear on the Bayon and at Banteay Chhmar, both
sides employing essentially identical ships embellished with garudas on the
prow and nagas on the stern. Each vessel had 20 to 42 rowers plus a steersman,
and must have been enormous. These bloody engagements on the waters of the
Great Lake included the use of grappling hooks.
Zhou
Daguan was unimpressed by Khmer military know-how, denigrating it with the brief
statement, ‘Generally speaking, these people have neither discipline nor
strategy.’
Thought and Culture in Classic Angkor
The Brahmins who brought Indic culture and learning to the royal courts of mainland Southeast Asia during the early centuries of our era continued to play that role throughout the Classic period, and in the royal palaces of Cambodia and Thailand, right into modern times. These intellectuals acted as priests of the temples, teachers, royal chaplains, librarians, astrologers, and in all likelihood architects and calligraphers. It was they who cast the horoscopes for all important events, who interpreted the Vedas and the Hindu laws to the empire’s power brokers, who designed temples in which the great gods could reside, who conducted all ritual, who tended and carried the Sacred Fire, and who kept the calendars.
All
this learning depended upon writing. There are over 1,200 inscriptions known
for the ancient Khmer world, almost all from the Early Kingdoms and Classic
periods. These were incised into polished stone, and most appear on the
doorjambs of temples and on free-standing, four-sided stelae. They are read in
horizontal lines from left to right, and from top to bottom, in a complex
alphabet derived from the Nagari script of India. There are two kinds of
inscriptions. The most prestigious were in Sanskrit, and almost always in the
form of poem; as Claude Jacques comments:
These
inscriptions were placed under the gaze of a particular god and seemingly were
intended to attract that deity’s attention to the person who had had the
sanctuary built in his honor or, more often, who was offering him gifts. Most
of these donors were kings, the poems being composed upon their death. They
were accompanied by a short eulogy (prashasti). Prose texts in Old Khmer
comprised the other kind of inscription, frequently appearing on the same stone
with the Sanskrit one; these had a very different, more prosaic, and far more
informative subject matter. According to Jacques, the overwhelming majority are
inventories listing the temple’s possessions – land, livestock, servants and
furnishings. Some end with an imprecation formula, for example putting a curse
upon any violator of the terms of the grant ‘as long as the moon and the sun
shall last’.
These
texts are generally fixed in time by the intricate calendar system of ancient
Cambodia, itself partly dependent upon astronomical and astrological
considerations. The solar year is given in terms of the Great Era (saka) that
began on the Vernal Equinox of AD 79; thus, one is to add 78 to the saka date
to reach a year in our system. The digits making up the saka numbers may be
spelled out alphabetically, or they may be given by chronograms: for example,
saka 1044 (AD 1122) might be given symbolically by ‘oceans [4], ‘oceans’(again)[4], ‘sky’ [o], ‘moon’ [1]. There were 12 lunar months, each divided
into a 15-day waxing period and a 15-day waning one. The astrologers were deeply
interested in the current position of the moon against the band of stars that
runs along the ecliptic in a kind of lunar zodiac; since the sidereal month is
about 27 days, there were 27 of these ‘lunar mansions’ or nakshatras, each with
an animal name (the moon generally traversing one mansion a day).
Because the
lunar calendar was always running ahead of the solar one, extra lunar months
were occasionally intercalated in a complex system of Indian origin.
By
Zhou Daguan’s day, solar years were also expressed in terms of a 12-year cycle,
each year named for a specific animal, a system that they had borrowed from the
Chinese – perhaps a reflection of Cambodian’s rapidly increasing trade with the
Middle Kingdom.
Like
their counterparts in peninsular India, the Cambodian astrologers were close
observers and calculators of the positions of the five visible planets
(Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) as these moved across the solar
zodiac, which was essentially the same one that is still in use in the Western
world. One more calendrical statement appearing in the inscriptions is
the day
of the seven-day week, each day being linked to one of the planets or to the
sun or to the moon, as it is with us. According to Zhou, the ordinary Khmer had
no family or personal names, but were known by the day of the week on which
they were born.
The
Yugas – the huge cosmic cycle of successive creations and destructions – did
not enter into their calendrical computations, but they certainly played a role
in Cambodian cosmology, as Eleanor Morón Mannikka has shown in her study of the
proportions and measurements of Angkor Wat.
Zhou
Daguan makes no mention of inscriptions, but he does talk about writing on
perishable materials: there are the manuscripts, which probably existed in
quantity in the libraries, state archives and temples of Classic Angkor. Not
one, however, has survived the vicissitudes of time, history and tropical
climate, a tragedy for Khmer scholarship. The religious texts,whether
Brahmanic of Buddhist, were contained in palm-leaf books or sastra; these
consisted of fronds about 50 to 60 cm (20 to 24 in) long, bound together into a
stack by loose cords.Each leaf was incised with a stylus, and the scratched
lines filled with lampblack. In the Angkor Wat reliefs, Brahmin pandita or
gurus accompanying the Sacred Fire carry such books in their hands or on their
shoulders, while at Banteay Chhmar, a pandita reads one accompanied by a Khmer
theorbo It
is likely that all secular books were paper screenfolds. Such accordionlike
manuscripts were being produced in Cambodia until the middle of the twentieth
century. The paper was manufactured from the inner bark of a member of the
mulberry family; it was softened by soaking, then wrung out and finely shredded
to separate the white from the brown fibres (these latter being used to produce
black paper, the kind mentioned by Zhou). After this had been boiled with white
lime and then washed and pounded, the resulting paste was spread onto cloth or
screens and left to dry in sheets. White paper was treated with rice powder
mixed with water and chalk, and black paper with soot or charcoal. The final
stage was to polish the surfaces, and fold the paper into books. Manufactured
paper was imported from China; while there is no mention of its use to make
books, Zhou reports that the natives derived great amusement at seeing the
Chinese use it as toilet paper.
Zhou
describes the chalk pencils that were used to write black pages, and says that
such pages could be easily erased; accordingly, official documents, such as
revenue, corvée manpower and census tallies must have been kept in the
white-paged screenfolds, which were written in black ink, probably with bamboo
and/or metal pens. Assuredly some of these paper books contained astronomical
tables, for Zhou assures us that their astronomers could calculate solar and
lunar eclipses – an impossibility without the accurate accumulation of
observational data over a very long period of time.
How
literate were the Classic Khmer? Surely all the Brahmins of the empire could
read and write, and so could the kings and princes, all of whom had been
instructed by Brahmin teachers (in contrast to contemporary European rulers
such as Charlemagne, who were often illiterate). The vast civil bureaucracy
would have found it in their interest as revenue gatherers and beneficiaries to
be literate, too. Both Mahayanist and Theravada Buddhist monks would by Sangha
rules have to be able to read and recite the sacred texts of their faith. Add
to this list the masters of works, the architects, and the master craftsmen who
worked in stone and metal, and one can conclude that a substantial minority
during Classic times was lettered. Nonetheless, the great majority of Khmer –
the free peasants and the slaves – would have been unable to ‘read’ anything
but the imagery of the reliefs and sculptures.
Angkor: City and State
With
the exception of B.-P. Groslier, with his vision of an immense ‘hydraulic city’
containing almost two million souls, until recently few scholars had devoted
much thought to what kind of city Angkor really was. As Roland Fletcher has
said, ‘Angkor still needs to be reappraised as a place where people actually
lived.’
There
were many cities during pre-modern times in both mainland and insular Southeast
Asia. Following a dichotomy first recognized for medieval France, John Miksic
of the University of Singapore has proposed that they fell into two groups.
Heterogenetic cities were found along coastlines and at the borders of
ecological zones rather than at their centres; they had few public monuments,
and were characterized by entrepreneurship and intensive trade, as well as by
high population densities (pro-colonial Malacca would have been an excellent
example of such a city).
Orthogenetic
cities were located well inland, and were correlated with the production of a
surplus staple crop – that is, rice – which could be commandeered by the
authorities. Stability and ritual were the prevailing order, and there were
impressive monuments of a religious nature. There was no money and little
evidence for large markets and significant trade.‘The permanent population of
the orthogenetic city was composed of nobles, civil, religious and military
bureaucrats, and their staff.’ In contrast with heterogenetic cities, overall
population density was very low. From everything that we know about Angkor, it
would appear to have been orthogenetic. Moving away from our area, so would
have been the monumental Classic Maya cities such as Tikal, Copan and Palenque
in Mesoamerica, with their royal courts and extremely dispersed patterns of
settlement.
A
clue as to what at least part of Angkor might have looked like comes from the
old Siamese capital of Ayutthaya in Thailand, founded in 1351 and destroyed by
the Burmese in 1767. It was a conscious clone of the Khmer capital, Angkor
Thom, and covered about the same area; instead of being bounded by a huge moat,
it was surrounded on all sides by rivers or by connecting canals, and by a
wall. An account of Ayutthaya by a seventeenth-century Dutch traveler states:
The
Streets of the walled Town are many of them large, straight and regular, with
channels running through them, although the most part of small narrow Lanes,
Ditches, and Creeks most confusedly placed; the Citizens have an incredible
number of small boats…which come to their very doors, especially at floods and
high water.
Plans
and watercolour drawings by Europeans show that it was crisscrossed by canals
and streets, with the royal palace in the northwest sector (as in Angkor Thom);
the only densely settled sector lay in the southeast. Comments by an early
eighteenth-century observer are relevant here:
Considering
the bigness of the City, it is not very populous…scarce the sixth part is
inhabited, and that to the South-East only. The rest lies desart [sic] where
the Temples only stand…there are abundance of empty space and large gardens
behind the streets, wherein they let nature work, so that they are full of
Grass, Herbs, Shrubs and Trees, that grow wild…
The
houses of ordinary inhabitants were thatched, single-storey structures of
bamboo and wood, built on piles, while foreign traders lived along the main
north-south avenue in more substantial tile-roofed houses. Ayutthaya, whatever
its Angkor-inspired beginnings, was slowly evolving from an orthogenetic to a
partly heterogenetic city, due to the easy access that Chinese, European and
Arab traders had from its waterways. Let us first consider Angkor Thom; in
recent years its four quadrants have been surveyed in detail by Jacques Gaucher
of the EFEO, using aerial photographs and ground ‘truthing’. The main axes of
Angkor’s capital district were lined with canals, and, again like Ayutthaya,
the Royal Palace was in the northwest quadrant; elsewhere, apart from the
monumental constructions, there were numerous small water tanks, channels, and
house mounds. Based on the results of this survey, Roland Fletcher suggests
that while Angkor Thom could have held as many as 90,000 people (assuming a
density of 100 persons per hectare), the population may have been only a
quarter of that, given the amount of open space (as in Ayutthaya); the palace;
the major temples; and the single-story dwellings.
Turning
now to the city of Angkor as a whole, a survey carried out there from 1992 to
1998 by Christophe Pottier has shown that this landscape was dotted with low
mounds that had once supported hamlets of about five to ten traditional,
single-storey houses. These mounds were associated with hundreds of small,
local shrines and medium-sized, rectangular water tanks, recalling Zhou
Daguan’s statement that ‘every family has a pond – or, at times, several
families own one in common’. Based on ground survey and upon radar imagery and
aerial photography, Fletcher now estimates that the total area of Angkor’s
urban complex is about 1,000 square km (386 square miles), within which the
people were mainly living along linear features – canals and roads that extend
out from central Angkor for about 20 to 30 km (12 to 18 miles) in all
directions, probably less and less densely occupied as one moves towards the
peripheries. Angkor Thom, then, was like a kind of spider sitting in the centre
of a virtual web of settlement, with large open spaces, including even rice
fields, between the ‘threads’. This web extended well north of Preah Khan into
the foothills of Phnom Kulen; the lovely Banteay Srei was probably at its
northern edge.
In
Fletcher’s words, ‘Angkor was therefore a low density, dispersed urban complex
with housing along linear features and scattered across the landscape in
patches and on isolated mounds.’ Groslier’s estimate of 1.9 million persons is
thus an impossibility. The true figure for Angkor at its apogee, during the
reign of Jayavarman VII, was probably a fraction of this, but only a great deal
of future research can give us an idea of the total population.
The
system of government that made Classic Khmer civilization and the city of
Angkor possible was a highly effective and powerful ‘top down’ one, supported
by a command economy and by a massive and all-encompassing, revenue-generating
bureaucracy operating on every level from palace to village. Historian David
Chandler has summarized this kind of government in both Cambodia of the 1860s,
and Cambodia under the rule of Angkor.
In
both cases…government meant a network of status relationships whereby peasants
paid in rice, forest products, or labour to support their officials. The
officials, in turn, paid the king, using some of the rice, forest products, and
peasant labour with which they had been paid. The number of peasants one could
exploit in this way depended on the position one was granted by the throne;
positions themselves were for sale, and this tended to limit the officeholders
to members of the elite with enough money [absent, of course, in Classic times]
or goods on hand to purchase their positions.
In
an influential 1982 essay, Cornell University historian O. W. Wolters proposed
that many of the early polities of Southeast Asia, including the Angkorian one,
were mandalas; this is a technical Sanskrit term meaning ‘a particular and
often unstable situation in a vaguely defined geographical area without fixed
boundaries and where smaller centres tended to look in all directions for
ssecurity.’ A mandala was a ‘circle of kings and brahmins’, in which one king
would lord it over lesser ones, and those kings in vassal or tributary status
would continuously try to repudiate this and build up their own network of
vassals. This would certainly apply to what we know was going on among rival
kings in mainland Southeast Asia prior to AD 802.
But for most of the time
during the next five centuries, in spite of sporadic revolts and foreign
invasion that could have occurred in any empire, the Angkor state – that is,
the king – had complete control over all Khmer territory. This was enforced out
to Cambodia’s frontiers not only by his army and his judicial system, but by
his roving inspectors (the tamrvach) and by periodic census-taking. ‘Supreme
and extensive political dominion’ is how the Oxford English Dictionary defines
‘empire’. The city of Angkor may not have looked like imperial Rome, but the
Classic Khmer Empire over which it ruled lasted as long as the Roman one.