This year's winter vacation took us to Cambodia, to Angkor and its temples and palaces. So for the next few posts, you will be treated to a series of temple visits, pictures of what I found there.
From the 9th to the 15th century the Hindu-Buddhist Khmer empire ruled over large areas of South East Asia, modern Cambodia, and parts of Laos, Thailand and southern Vietnam. The sprawling city of Angkor was its capital for a few hundred years. Over one thousand sites with relics of palaces and religious structures from this time can be found in an area of about 1000 square kilometers north of the lake Tonle Sap close to the modern city of Siem Reap. In its golden age it is thought that the capital supported nearly one million people with an intricate hydraulic water management system with reservoirs and canals, to allow three harvests of rice per year despite unpredictable monsoon rains in this part of the world.
Angkor Wat is the main temple and was built by the Khmer ruler King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as a Hindu temple, later converted to a Buddhist temple. Parts of it have been used as a monastery throughout the centuries even continuing through the period when it was "lost" to visitors and the world's public.
It is surrounded by a very large water-filled moat 190 m wide that gives a serene atmosphere in stark contrast to the over two million visitors each year that crowd in the spaces inside.
a glimpse of the wall on the other side of the moat
from the road across the moat
bathing in the moat
repair work
We had the chance to visit very early in the morning before the tour buses arrived, entering from the back in moonlight, with torches, arranged by the perfect Amansara hotel close-by.
the back entrance
before sunrise
crowds waiting for the sunrise behind the five towers
Inside, galleries on four sides of the building tell the stories of the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata in beautiful bas-reliefs.
corridor of the outer gallery
Apsara dancers
an inner courtyard
A Hindu statue of eight-armed Vishnu
- when the temple became Buddhist, the head was replaced with a Buddha head but the arms stayed.
Seven-headed nagas at the corners
more admirers
trying the local beer after an exhausting visit ...
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