My Post-Sabbatical Year(s) in Asia (or wherever): 6/10: Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom

I woke up at 4AM, at breakfast at 4:30 (my guest house starts serving at 4AM for all the tourists trying to catch the sunrise), and on my bike heading to the Angkor temples by 4:50AM. There were so many buses, taxis and tuk-tuks n the road, all heading for Angkor Wat. I continued past to the South entrance of Angkor Thom, the ancient royal city. The owner of my guest house is a Swiss man who has lived in Cambodia for 14 years, but before that he was a tour guide in Thailand. He loves giving tourists advice on where to go off the "beaten path." He told me after passing through the South gate, walk your bike on top of the city wall, and ride it around Angkor Thom to the West gate. Trusting him but not understanding, I followed his advice. I imagined the top of the wall like those I'd seen in movies with castles, but I forgot that I am in the jungle. On top of the wall was a dirt path. To my right was the jungle, to my left, a beautiful jungle river (really, it was just the mote, but at sunrise, it could be just about anything you imagine).

Sunrise over Angkor Wat moot

At the West gate, I walked down the path through the jungle then followed the path to Bayon, maybe the second most important site of all the Angkor ruins.

Bayon, located at the center of Angkor Thom, served as Jayavarman's state temple. This Buddhist temple was built in the late 12th century. It represented the pinnacle of his massive building campaign. Bayon is known for the giant faces of Loksvara, Mahayana Buddhism's compassionate Bodhisattva. There are 148 of them staring down at you from the 37 towers. While 2 million people caught the sunrise at Angkor Wat, I was the only person at Bayon. It was definitely one of my favorite places so far.

Bayon

Apsara relief

I don't know, but cool looking

Bas-relief portraying the victory over the Cham

More cool dancing guys

Bayon is famous for all these huge heads looking down at you. some people felt that the scene was a little creepy, but I thought it was really cool.

Bayon is in the exact center of the ancient capitol of Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom was built by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century and early 13th century. It was built as the new royal city after the Cham were driven from Cambodia in 1181. Angkor Thom was the last Capitol of the Angkorian empire. It was ten square kilometers, enclosed by a 12 kilometer long wall and surrounded by a 100 meter wide moat (supposedly filled with crocodiles at one time). One can enter by the five gates, each 20 meters tall. The following sites that I visited - the Terrace of Elephants, the Terrace of the Leper King, and Preah Palilay temple - were all in Angkor Thom.

The Terrace of Elephants was built by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. The terrace is 300 meters long and 2.5 meters tall, carved with elephants and garudas.

The Terrace of the Elephants

Elephants

Bas-relief elephants

Terrace of the Leper King was one of my favorite sites in all of the Angkor ruins. It was built by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. It has a double terrace wall with deeply carved nagas, demons, and mythological beings. The inner wall was excavated by French archaeologists in the late 1990's. It is named for either the legendary Khmer leper king, or due to the appearance of the moss-eaten king which sits on top of the terrace.

Preah Palilay was built in the 13th century (or later, due to the Theravada Buddhist theme which came later)

There was an active Wat behind Preah Palilay, so, of course, there was some laundry.

Ta Prohm (Angelina Jolie movie site) again - I went back looking for the Buddha head in the roots.

It turned out to be an Apsara head behind some roots.

Angkor Wat is believed to be the largest religious structure in the world. The temple itself covers an area of one square kilometer. It was built during the Reign of Suravarman II in the early to mid twelfth century as a Hindu temple, dedicated to the God Vishnu, but later became a Buddhist temple. Angkor Wat's design is in the form of a massive temple mountain" design - a three-tiered pyramid, crowned by five lotus-like towers, rising 65 meters. The exterior wall is 1.3 kilometers by 1.5 kilometers, surrounded by a moat 190 meters wide. The walls are covered with base-reliefs depicting Hindu mythology. There are nearly 2000 apsara carvings alone. Four sculptures of Buddha were later added to the Central tower, each facing a cardinal direction.

I have been thinking about going to Angkor Wat since my first trip to Asia 30 years ago. I am so excited to finally go there, that I withheld the experience for a few days. But this is my 6th day in Siem Riep and my second day of my three day pass at the temples, so it is about time.

Though the main entrance to Angkor Wat is from the west, I decide I wanted to enter from the east (traditionally the holy direction for Buddhist temples). This is my first view of Angkor Wat.

Three of the five central towers

It turned out it was a little bit of a mistake to enter from the east. The temple is totally oriented from the west (the death side), which is why many experts speculate that it is also the tomb of Suravarman II. So I went back my last day on the three-day pass, and entered from the west. This is the view from the west.

The entry to the Wat is so large I had to take three photos - the left side, the center, and the right side. This is the view of left side.

The center view

The view of the right side

View of the outer building's columns

The columns seem to go on for ever. Inside are where all the bas-reliefs are carved, as well as many of the apsara figures.

Apsara (I like this one so much for it seemed to me that she was peeking around the corner).

More apsara figures

The breasts are polished from all the rubbing - supposedly good luck

The most famous of the Angkor Wat reliefs - The Churning of the ocean of milk (what a great name!). I really like the "heavenly female spirits" above.