Siem Reap: Temples, and more temples

The challenge of blogging while traveling overwhelmed me in Siem Reap. I published a very abbreviated version of this post while I was in Saigon. But now I’ve fleshed it out, maybe with too much detail. But there was so much to experience in Siem Reap and the ancient city of Angkor.

If you want to just look at the photos, here they are. There are a lot more in these albums than I’ve include in this post.

• Siem Reap
• Ta Prohm
• Angkor Wat
• Angkor Thom
• Banteay Srei

Day Zero (from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap)

It was about an eight-hour drive with stops. Our first stop was to buy some lotus from a girl at the side of the road, and we all got to sample some lotus seeds.

Our next “adventure” was a tarantula encounter. We got a demonstration from a local woman who hunts them, defangs them, and fries them up to sell to neighbors and tourists. We watched her cook them, and then we got to eat them.

We also stopped to see this 12th-century bridge in the village of Kampong Kdei.

This was once the longest corbeled stone-arch bridge in the world, with more than twenty narrow arches spanning 285 ft (87m). The bridge was built in the 12th century during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. It is one of the few Khmer empire era bridges to have survived to the modern day.

The bridge is on an ancient road that connected the capital of Angkor to the provincial area to the southeast, crossing the Chikreng River. There were 22 bridges along this route. Only 11 remain.

After we arrived in Siem Reap and checked into our hotel, we gathered for dinner in the hotel dining room. This was the first night of Chanukah, and since 13 out of 16 of us on the tour were Jewish, we had a candle lighting and sang all the blessings.

Day One

We started the day with water buffalo cart rides.

Then we took a boat ride on a canal leading to Lake Tonlé Sap. We visited a floating village and had a visit with a midwife there.

It’s really remarkable how people in the 21st century live with so little and yet have so much. 

That afternoon we visited our first temple of the great city of Angkor. Ta Prohm is famous because it was long ago abandoned, and in the centuries since then it has become overgrown with trees. Also I guess because Tomb Raider, with Angelina Jolie (a movie I never saw) was filmed there.

In the evening a group of us went to the night market and Pub Street, where things were definitely jumping. I was going to get a fish pedicure, but settled for dinner and “fried ice cream.”

Day Two

This was our day to visit Angkor Wat, built in the middle of the 12th century and believed to be the largest religious structure ever built. 

The Khmer Empire

I can’t write about Angkor Wat without taking a historical detour. I never learned any of this in school, so it was difficult to understand everything I saw here. Without the historical context, it’s all just a bunch of impressive structures. And what I’ve learned, from Joe, our guide, and from some additional research I’ve done, is fascinating and surprising. 

It’s also very sketchy. No written records have survived from the empire other than inscriptions and reliefs carved in stone. So it’s hard to piece together a coherent historical record. But I’ll try to give at least basic historical outline.

The Khmer empire lasted from 802 until 1431. The capital city, Angkor, was established at the end of the ninth century. The empire flourished and grew based on its control of hydraulic systems. Angkor sits close to Tonlé Sap, the largest freshwater lake in southeast Asia, and by managing access to water, the empire was able to rule almost all of what is now Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and southern China.

By the 13th century, the population of Angkor was possibly as large as one million. It was the largest city in the world.

Decline

The Khmer empire was primarily Hindu. The architecture and engravings in the temples of the area suggest worship primarily of Vishnu and Shiva. But Buddhism increased in popularity, and there is some speculation that this was a contributing factor in the empire’s decline. As Buddhism grew more popular, the kings were no longer considered to be divine or under the direct protection of gods. There was also no need to build new temples; the last major temples date from the early 13th century.

Around that time the water-management system began to deteriorate. Periods of drought alternating with periods of severe monsoon rains led to the collapse of the hydraulic infrastructure.

At the same time, the rise of the Ayutthaya Kingdom in neighboring Siam meant frequent attacks and sieges. In 1393 Angkor lay under siege, and in 1431 the Khmer king abandoned Angkor. This was the end of the empire.

Angkor Wat

Our visit to Angkor Wat was, unfortunately, the hottest day of our trip, but that didn’t spoil the effect of this magnificent structure.

Angkor Wat was built at the behest of the Khmer king Suryavarman II as his state temple. It represents Mount Meru, home of the Hindu deities. A moat for than 5 km around surrounds the entire complex, and a wall 3.6 km around enclosed the temple. There are three galleries on three levels, and in the center are five towers arranged like the number 5 on a die.

Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west with scholars divided as to the significance of this. Some scholars believe it’s because Suryavarman intended it as his mausoleum, but our guide Joe suggested it’s because Vishnu, to whom the temple is dedicated, is associated with the west.

Most visitors enter from the main entrance on the west, but we entered in the morning from the east, with the sun behind us. Thanks Joe (local guide) and John (trip leader)! What a difference that made! Take another look at the photo at the top of this post.

Friezes

The most impressive thing about Angkor Wat, for me and I think for most visitors, is the bas-relief friezes that surround the lowest, outer gallery. Joe took us along the south and east sections, which are the most significant.

South wall

The south wall depicts a procession of Suryavarman II along with the 32 hells and 37 heavens of Hinduism.

The Churning of the Sea of Milk

The east gallery depicts an important bit of Hindu mythology, the Churning of the Sea of Milk. It tells a story about a deal reached between the asuras (sort of anti-gods) and the devas (benevolent deities) to churn the sea of milk in order to extract the amrita to drink to become immortal. Mount Mandara was the churning object. Vasuki, king of the Nagas (half human, half snake beings), coiled around Mount Mandara, was the churning rope. Holding the naga’s head were 92 asuras and grabbing its tail were 88 devas. In the middle of the rope, Vishnu is standing with a tortoise as an avatar beneath. 

The story explains that as the churning goes on, the mount began to sink that the churning could not be continued. Therefore, Vishnu intervened under the form of tortoise Kurma by using its shell to prop up Mount Mandara, effectively preventing it from sinking further. The churning went on for many more years, and as Mount Mandara was constantly shaking, Vishnu appeared again, this time in his own self, at the top in a bid to stabilize the mount. Finally, before the amrita started to emerge, many apsaras (goddesses) and other treasures began to emerge from the sea.

There’s more to the story beyond what’s depicted here. The treasures that emerged were accepted by Vishnu, the devas and the asuras. Apsaras went to the devas, and Sura, the goddess of alcohol, went to the asuras. Many other divine beings and objects emrged, and finally Dhanvantari, the heavenly physician, appeared with the pot of amrita in his hand. He started distributing this to the devas, and the asuras realized that they had been tricked. A battle ensued, and Vishnu appeared as an enchantress, distracted the asuras, and gave the amrita to the devas, who became immortal and powerful. They defeated the asuras, sent them back to the underworld, and took control of the Universe.

Upper galleries

After we toured these beautiful and fascinating friezes, we ascended to the upper levels.

Throughout the temple, stunning decorative carvings of apsaras and devatas (types of divine spirits) are everywhere. Someone counted them. There are 1,796 of them.

West side

We finished our visit out the main gate on the west side of the temple. 

Back in Siem Reap

After we got back from Angkor Wat and had lunch, I walked over to a very cool pottery workshop.

And on the way back to the hotel, I passed this beautiful temple.

It turned out to be an incomplete shell. I poked my head inside, and there was some beautiful art, but it was a construction zone without any sign of active construction.

I asked Joe about it later, and he told me it’s a new temple, but they ran out of money and so work has stalled.

As this was one of the hottest days of the entire trip, I was happy to have time in the afternoon to enjoy the very nice hotel pool before our day’s activities continue.

Angkor Thom

Later that afternoon we went to Angkor Thom. This was the last capital city of the Khmer Empire. There is little left of the city itself other than the temple at its center, Bayon. It was built about 30 years after Angkor Wat was completed. It is famous for its more than 200 serene, smiling faces. These may be of Brahma, the Hindu creator god, or they may be Buddhist. Either way, these faces are believed to be modeled on the face of Jayavarman VII, the first Buddhist Khmer king, who was responsible for the temple’s construction. 

Particularly remarkable are the carvings that depict scenes from battles and from everyday life.

Following our visit there to Angkor Thom, we went back to Angkor Wat and sat outside to enjoy the view of the temple as the sun began to set.

Day Three

This was our departure day, but there was lots of time before our flight. In the morning, a small group (just four of us) visited Banteay Srei, another temple about an hour away from Siem Reap. This is a much smaller temple than the others we saw, and its nothing to look at from a distance, but the carvings were, for me, the pinnacle of my visit to Siem Reap. Though it predates Angkor Wat by 150 years, the detail, the beauty, and the astonishing degree of preservation just blew me away.

On the way back to Siem Reap, we stopped in a small village to get a demo of how a local woman makes rice noodles.

Back in Siem Reap, we checked out of our hotel and went for lunch, and then we had some time to visit the Angkor National Museum. For me, though the information was interesting and there were some nice pieces of art from various temples of Angkor, it couldn’t help but be anticlimactic.