Siem Reap

So Many Temples

Khmer temples litter the landscape around Siem Reap - beautiful stone-built temples, with carvings of battles, ancient Brahmanical myth and dancing Apsaras (bare breasted girls wearing beautiful skirts, jewellery and fantastic hairstyles). Millions of tourists come to visit these temples every year and Siem Reap caters for them all. There are those who fly in and stay in five star hotels and are driven to the temples in air conditioned cars. There are those who arrive by bus and hire tuktuks to visit the temples and there are those who arrive on bicycles with tents on the back. Siem Reap has something for everybody: wide tree-lined streets, riverside hotels with beautiful gardens and markets selling street food. It even has a street called Pub Street.

The ancient Khmer Kings of Cambodia, or Fu Nan, as the Chinese called it, were called King of the Mountain. Mountains were sacred to them, so when Indian civilization arrived in the region the Khmer kings incorporated mountain worship into their new Brahminical and Buddhist religions. The best examples of this can be seen at Wat Phu (Champassak) and at Motan Mountain in Ba Phnom district, where Khmer kings erected linga as symbols of Shiva. Linga symbolised the sun for the ancient Khmers, while the yoni (female genitalia) symbolised the earth. Their ancient myth spoke of the union of the sun with the earth, out of which the universe was created.

Brahmanism was an ancient Indian religion, based on the Vedas (ancient Sanscrit texts). The Vedas were revealed to a Rishi (a Hindu ascetic or hermit) , who then had to write them down as fast as they were dictated to him (by the gods).
The three gods central to Brahmanism are:
Brahma, the god of creation
Vishnu, the god of preservation
Shiva, the god of dissolution and the god of the mountain

Shiva, who rides on the bull, Nandi, is represented by a lingum, a trident, footprints, the third eye, the sound OM, the crescent moon and a snake-shaped necklace.

King Jayavarman II was the founder of the Angkor monarchy. During his reign Angkor civilization flourished. He built numerous temples and shrines on Phnom Kulen, to house stone and precious metal linga.

King Indravarman had his throne in Roluos, but he abandoned the city and founded a new capital at Yasodharapura (Angkor). At the centre of the city there is a hill called Bakheng. This was the nearest thing to a mountain so the king built a temple there with one hundred and nine towers. This temple is now crumbling away. Parts of it can still be visited but other parts have been cordoned off.

King Jayavarman IV moved the capital from Angkor to Kohker and built temples there.
The next king, Rajendravarman, started off in Kohker, but then decided to move back to Angkor, where he built the East Mebon temple in 952 and the temple of Pre Rup in 961.

Then along came king Jayavarman V (968-1000) and Suryavarman I (1002-1050).
Suryavarman I built Wat Phu in 1006 and Preah Viheer from 1005-1050.

Suryavarman II conquered every nation around him, extending his empire from the east coast of present day Vietnam to the border with Burma in the west, to present day Malaysia in the south and half way up present day Laos in the North. When he had finished beating up his neighbours, he built the most perfect temple at Angkor Wat, dedicated to Vishnu.

Angkor Wat
According to George Coedes, Angkor Wat is a replica of the universe in stone and represents an earthly model of the cosmic world. The main tower rises from the centre of the monument and symbolises the mythical mount Meru, at the centre of the universe. It's five towers correspond to the five peaks of Mount Meru; the outer gallery represents the mountains at the edge of the world and the surrounding moat represents the oceans beyond.

The long stone walls are carved with bas reliefs, arranged for viewing from left to right, in the same manner as the religious ceremonies are carried out for tombs in Hinduism. In the West gallery in the third enclosure the bas reliefs represent Indian myths from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata (battles) and other ancient Vedic texts. The west and east part of the south gallery have bas reliefs depicting the historical procession of Suryavarman II and Heaven and Hell. In the east gallery you should be able to see the famous churning of the oceans of milk, but unfortunately this was being restored when I was there.

Angkor Wat is a vast labyrinth with steep steps leading up to the various levels. It is difficult to imagine what the whole temple is like when you are in it. Really you need to be above it, which is why they have a hot air balloon to take people up above it (at a price).  I spent several hours in the company of a young Polish girl, who had just finished her degree in Sanskrit languages at Edinburgh university. She pointed out all the different gods, fighting in the battles depicted in the bas reliefs.

Then my tuktuk driver took me to Angkor Thom, another ancient Khmer city, with the most beautiful stone gate at the entrance. This was the gate that I had come all this way to see.

The Bayon temple in Angkor Thom is smaller than Angkor Wat and not as well preserved. But the bas reliefs on the walls are magnificent. They depict battles with the neighbouring Cham, who are represented as small, weedy little soldiers, whereas the Khmer soldiers are big, strong, brave men, beating the poor Cham to a pulp.

Like Angkor Wat, the Bayon temple has exquisitely carved door lintels, peaked towers and labyrinthine passageways and steep steps.

My tuktuk driver left me at the entrance to the Bayon temple and told me to make my way through the wood, where I would see other temples in various states of decay. Wandering through the wood, past magnificent ancient trees whose Latin binomials had been printed on labels, helpfully attached to them, I came to a bucolic scene: cows grazing in a pasture in front of a ruined temple. The cows were not impressed with me trying to capture them up close on camera and made as if to head butt me, so I left them in peace, searching for something to eat in this dried out piece of land.

We drove to a couple more small temples, then my camera ran out of battery.
Back in Siem Reap a band of legless Cambodian musicians were performing in Pub Street, a girl was sitting with her legs in a fish tank, the street was teeming with people, the bars packed.