Hoof Hearted at Angkor Wat - Part Two

Part two - Hoof Hearted takes one in the temple...

In part one I showed you my visit to the main temple.  Heading over the moat and back to the parking area I am immediately targeted by beggar children. These Cambodian kids are speaking English and are sad and pathetic and totally over dramatic about selling you a bracelet or a postcard for a dollar. I said no politely about three hundred times and they were just relentless. I didn't give in though. My driver spotted me and off we went to the next location.   In the carriage behind the motorcycle, the wind felt great as I smiled and waved to some of the puffing and panting bicycle riders. Its a hundred degrees out as we pass through a ruins of an archway just wide enough for cars to drive through. This Temple is called Bayon and it an incredible work of tower after tower.

Building of Angkor Wat began in the early 12th century by King Suryavarman II. Bayon was started in the late 12 century under reign of King Jayavarman VII.  Looking at it, I can't tell if this is an architectural marvel or mess. There are 37 towers in Bayon.  As I enter the ruins of a courtyard and find access, off the beaten path once again.

The Jungle around Bayon is tall and there are many dark corners and corridors in this ruins.  Inside taking pictures I ran across a local man, hanging out in the shade, he spoke English and gave me an impromptu history lesson about the temple. Warily I followed him as he wove through dark chambers to show me places to get good pictures. "This is where national geographic took their cover shot" he said... It could be true, I have no idea. He knew the temple well, I'll give him that.

When we came up from his tour through the darkness I was greeted by the faces of Bayon.  I have seen these faces before on tv but I had no idea that this was their home. My new friend gave me a smile and I was feeling the positive energy, then he asked if he could get a dollar for something to eat. Ahhhsoo, the truth is revealed. I gave it to him and told him I could take it from here. Look at these tower faces, I think it was worth the buck.

There are something like 216 of these stone faces, my shadowy guide told me that the four faces represent "compassion, love, joy, and equality." While doing some reading I found mixed views as to who the faces may be. Some think they may represent the faces of the king Jayavarman VII himself, while other say they are the image of the god Loksvara as well as a few other ideas. One thing is certain, they are absolutely massive! I see a sign at the exit that says the government of Japan is helping with this restoration project. Very cool news indeed!

As soon as I clear these steps, my driver is there with a bottle of cold water and away we go to the next location.  Like most of the people around, my clothes are soaked through and through with sweat, but I lift my bottle in cheers to the other tourists as Tee drives around more pedal pushers. Tee pushed deeper down the dense jungle road which finally opened up to a this long long walk way to the next spot. This place is called Phimeanakas, located inside the royal palace compound, this used to be the temple of king Jayavarman V.  Tee tells me there was a bit of a curse here, the story goes that a snake lived in a golden tower at the top and every night the snake would transform into a woman. The king would have to make love to the woman every night or disaster would strike the kingdom. Its a long walk but I can just imagine the grounds full of water and how amazing it must have looked.

I saw maybe less then 20 westerners here, and about the same number of Asian visitors including several monks robed in orange, exploring the grounds. I heard a couple monks speaking in Thai so I assume they were traveling like myself. The heat is now extreme and my pace is slowing a bit. After a few flights of stairs I duck into some side corridors to find shade.

Finally to the center of the grounds. As large as this place is, I haven't found much for shade. Maybe the heat is starting to get to me and I have missed something. I do notice that the walls here are not so detailed with carvings and pictures as the other temples. Once again, I found more stairs.

The view from the top is grand. Picture looking down on these grounds during their glory days. This is the tallest of the temples around Angkor that you are able to scale on your own. It feels about 10 degrees warmer up here and the rock is hot like a brick oven.

Finally at the top. I'm assuming this is part of the restoration project, and since most of the sandstone was not inscribed, nothing special was done with the new stones. Its too bad the room at the top is no longer around, I would have liked to see where this snake lady and the kings of Angkor were getting down. I'm sure the view from that chamber would have been amazing.

Around the back of the grounds I saw a sign stating the this restoration project was funded by the Czechs. Good for them! Its encouraging to see different countries of the world recognizing the significance of this ancient culture and its capital city. I took my exit at the back of the temple and the main path meandered through the beautiful royal grounds. I found a side trail that split off a few times getting smaller and smaller and seemed to head out of the grounds all together. I thought this might have been a maintenance path or something and I did not see a soul out here. I walked on for quite a distance, out of water, until I started feeling light headed and a bit dizzy.  I stopped for a moment for shade under a tree but the mosquitoes started swarming and I was looking at some kind of huge ants on the ground with red and white stripes. They were not looking shy and I had never seen anything like them before so I decided to push on and hope that I wasn't making a mistake. If I passed out and hit the ground out here, it could be awhile before anyone finds me and by that time the monster mutant ants will have carried parts of me away I'm sure.  Stumbling ahead I looked up and saw this...

Not a soul around, just myself and this little temple which I later learned is named Preah Pililay. It had a lot of detail and carving but it looked to be in an unsafe state of ruin, I didn't go inside. A couple of pictures and then I trekked off again in search of water. Luckily it was just a few minutes away as I looped back toward the royal palace grounds. 

Near the parking area I see there are parts of the grounds that I had missed by taking my side journey. Tee spots me and drives over with a cold bottle of water for me. I tell him I am going to back track a bit and he just smiles and tells me to take my time.  Nearby I walk around a admire this area called "Terrace of the Elephants". Its beautiful how the heads and trunks are statued out of the wall carving.

Another place just nearby but the name escapes me. I walked over, considered another flight of stairs and decided to just take a picture and walk back. Its well over a hundred degrees out and I have been at it for several hours, I wonder how much weight I have lost today?

This last spot on the palace grounds is called the "Terrace of the Leper King". According to some Khmer legend, this king was bitten by a snake and contracted leprosy. Other stories are that when statue of the Leper King was unearthed, it was in a state of decay that made it look like it had leprosy, and thus the nick name of Leper King. I didn't get a shot of the statue but I did wander around the Terrace. Its almost maze like as the wall had been unearthed and it appears a wall was built around the original, possibly to protect it from erosion. Some incredible detail found on this terrace none the less.

Back on the road with my driver and I am feeling relief that I made it back. This is the hottest time of the year in s.e. Asia and its a boiling hot day today. Even though it seemed I was close to blacking out at one point because of the heat, I must say that I am feeling rather spiritually wholesome right now.  A permanent grin pasted to my face as we tool through these ancient grounds to the next stop.

This place is called Ta Prohm and scenes have been shot here from movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark II and Tomb Raider. The surrounding jungle still holds parts of the complex and refuses to let go. Originally a monastery built by king Jayavarman VII, it was dedicated to his mother. Trees now grow seemingly right out of the walls. In its prime this monastery controlled over 3000 villages and was filled with wealth of gold and jewels.

There are several places in Ta Prohm where the building is slowly losing to the jungle. Inside the walls, some of the grounds have been kept and/or recovered very well. There were quite a few people here and its easy to get lost or turned around in all the small passageways.  There were some reinforcements here and there for safety but mostly it was just jungle that had a grip of its own.

The detail in the stonework is simply amazing!

I did a few laps outside the fallen walls and came across the famous overgrown area that I had seen in a few films before.

This is one of my favorite shots...

Through a small doorway, in the dark behind the tree, I headed down into an underground passage where just a bit of light was glinting on a golden idol far down the hallway. I smiled and whispered "come to daddy..."

I hadn't noticed all the small holes that lined the walls down the entire corridor. As I sped up my walk, the stone under my foot sank with a deep gravel rumble. I heard a "whooosh" as the first dart shot from a hole in the wall. The rocks started coming down behind me at the front of the corridor. A second later there was a volley of the same whoooshing sound. I felt the sting of the dart and I knew I was in trouble...

Thanks, I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

For a change, every photo in this post was taken with my camera.

H.H. 

=)

Hoof Hearted at Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is the single largest religious structure known in the world today.  In the Khmer language, the word "wat" means temple, and "angkor" means holy city.  This giant temple was abandoned and lost to be reclaimed by the jungle. When it was discovered once again by westerners, it was thought to be one large temple. Gradually it was discovered to be many temples and finally we know that it was once a city. In reality the temple grounds were never totally lost from the local people. Cambodians still prayed and held rituals at the temples but the jungle had taken over and the buildings were failing. The grounds here are amazing, you can feel the history living through the sculpted stone carvings that cover most all the structures to be seen. 

In 1586 a friar named Antonio da Magdelena gave this description of the city of Angkor to a historian named Diogo du Couto. This is from Couto's written account of the friars journey to the great city:

"The city is square, with four principal gates, and a fifth that serves the royal palace. The city is surrounded by a moat, crossed by five bridges. These have on each side a cordon held by giants. Their ears are all pierced and are very long. The stone blocks of the bridges are of astonishing size. The stones of the walls are of an extraordinary size and are so jointed together that they look like they are made of just one stone. The gates of each entrance are magnificently sculpted, so perfect, so delicate that Antonio da Magdelena, who was in this city, said that they looked as if they were made from one stone the source of which is, amazingly, over 20 leagues away. So you can judge the labour and organisation dedicated to construction. The written lines which record this city, these temples, and other things were built by the order of 20 kings over a period of seven hundred years. On the sides of this city are royal monuments which must be palaces on account of their sumptuous decoration and grandeur. In the middle of the city is an extraordinary temple. From each of the gates, there is a causeway of the same width as the bridges, flanked by canals, fed by the great moat round the city. The water originates from the north and east, and leaves from the south and west. The system is fed by the river diverted there. Half a league from this city is a temple called Angar. It is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decorations and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of. There are many smaller towers of similar style, in the same stone, which are gilded. The temple is surrounded by a moat, and access is by a single bridge, protected by two stone tigers so grand and fearsome as to strike terror into the visitor."

 I was super excited to see this temple, I had heard that it was really one of the highlights of Cambodia.  I was a little surprised that ticket price was $20 American for a day pass, this is Cambodia after all, its hard to find anything that costs that much. I got to the temple and I was immediately awestruck by the size of it. Just the stone bridge crossing the moat to then entrance was huge!  Consider the time that this was built, and here it is still standing up to a myriad of foot traffic daily. This is a shot with the temple at my back showing the bridge and moat.  There was a ton of tourists and I kept thinking that at twenty bucks a head this place was making a killing!

 After the crossing the moat, the first thing I did was divert off away from the crowd, I decided that I can see the mainstream stuff on the way back. The tourist horde crossed the bridge and went directly into the complex. I made a left just past the water and started a lateral adventure away from the flow of traffic.  I found this little boardwalk side door and entered from here.

I soon discover this is just a perimeter wall and although it is quite extensive it is covered in detail. There are statues at every junction inside the halls, and all the walls are also carved as far as the eye can see.  It was a five minute across the inner courtyard to the next wall and again side entrance. There are halls along the outside with detail as well as halls inside the next perimeter wall. I chose to walk the outside wall a while and admire the stonework on another lateral trip until I found an entrance a little bit more off the beaten path then the last one.

Its about 11:30am by now and its nearly 100 degrees outside already.  I see the tourist horde headed straight through the middle of the complex from the distance.  They will be in and out much faster then me but also they are walking through the grass in the courtyard now behind yet another perimeter wall. I have spent a lot of time walking way off of the beaten path but I still feel good because I have been in the shade of these majestic halls, not out in the sun like the masses. I am finding little side buildings with not a person in sight and I am feeling spiritual for a change, soaking in the energy from all the culture of the these ancient buildings.

I am inside of the second wall of the temple now and the main temple lay ahead.  I see five structures reaching upward called the "five lotus towers".  Finally I am headed into the inner complex. The middle tower stands high above the rest and I am reunited with the horde of now sweaty and panting tourists.  As I do my side trip move to ditch the crowd, I find that it doesn't work here. We are nearing the heart of the complex and everyone is starting to spread out now. The outside halls of the temple are insanely carved out with historical counts of many battles.

These halls wrap around the entire temple complex.

At every corner I notice there is a carving of a goddess, or sometimes a few of them together.

Finally I am at the center of the grounds. The walls resemble more of a fortress then a temple, and I am sure they have served as both. I can only imagine the kings that have walked here, the colors of the city and the bustle of its people. This was once the capital city of a civilization that covered Cambodia and most of modern Thailand. We have come to know that Angkor was in its prime during the times 800 to 1400 A.D.

One last steep flight of stairs and I am high up in the central Lotus Tower, from here I can see the majestic courtyard running all the way to the first perimeter wall, off in the distance. A second and third set of wall run nearby along side.  I try to picture this place teaming with people.

Here is a passage written by a Zhou Daguan, a Chinese visitor to Angkor in the year 1296.
Zhou describes watching King Indravarman holding the sacred sword high during a royal procession.

"When the king goes out, troops are at the head of the escort; then come flags, banners and music. Palace women, numbering from three to five hundred, wearing flowered cloth, with flowers in their hair, hold candles in their hands, and form a troupe. Even in broad daylight, the candles are lighted. Then come other palace women, carrying lances and shields, the king's private guards, and carts drawn by goats and horses, all in gold, come next. Ministers and princes are mounted on elephants, and in front of them one can see, from afar, their innumerable red umbrellas. After them come the wives and concubines of the king, in palanquins, carriages, on horseback, and on elephants. They have more then one hundred parasols, flecked with gold. Behind them comes the sovereign, standing on an elephant, holding his sacred sword in his hand. The elephant's tusks are encased in gold."

At most every hallway intersection there was a Buddha to be found and several had fresh incense burning and Buddhist people stopping to say prayers.  When it comes to religion, I am usually on team atheist, but of all the regions I have observed I like Buddhists the best.  I like the fact that they know Buddha was a real man, not some magical god, a teacher, and very wise. I like that Buddhism teaches you to believe in your self.  If I were to adopt religion, I would become a Buddhist.
In the temple I saw many Buddhist statues missing their heads and some missing their hands. I pondered this awhile and surmised that possibly enemies of the city had damaged their religious icons during invasions and battles to insult the people that prayed here.  Why else would the rest of the statue be so intact after so many centuries? Then I heard a different take on it.  Thieves. Yes thieves had come to cut the heads and hands off to be sold off to westerners as curious centerpieces of art, sometimes the hands were even sold as ashtrays by vandals and black market dealers.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It absolutely disgusts me to think that some euro-trash, old money, trust fund baby, playboy wannabe somewhere is snuffing a marlboro light in the hand of an ancient Buddha, lost from this civilization.

One thing about Angkor is the stairs, you should be prepared to do lots and lots and lots of steep stairs in extreme heat and humidity. I saw lots of adverts on renting bicycles to do a run to Angkor Wat.  I saw said bicyclists on the road panting and sweating, not a single one of them looked happy. For one it is A LOT farther then advertised, and that is just to this first temple, there are many. Secondly there is the heat to be accounted for, as you peddle farther and farther away to try and see other temples. Lastly once you make it to temple after temple you will be greeted by flight after flight of steep steep stairs, but save your energy, you still have to peddle home.  I went another route and hired a private driver. He was great. His name was Tee and he would drop me off on one side of a temple and pick me up on the other side. He had a cold bottle of water for me every time I met up with him again. He gave me the inside scoop on this and that and was always watching for me at every exit, no matter how long I took. I have nothing but the best to say about Tee. I have a feeling that I must have been very lucky to come across such a polite and professional driver, in Cambodia.

It's friggin hot !

Some of the other temples I came across were much more in a state of ruin and some the jungle had claimed. I have many pictures that I feel are much better then the ones in this post, but I will put them into a part 2 blog post.   The very top picture on this post is from a postcard that I purchased, the rest are from my camera.  I will add some links about the temple and I encourage you to use them. Educate yourself on something fun, a lost civilization, some virtual adventure. Here are some random extra pics I have from this particular temple, Angkor Wat.

A wedding just inside the moat

Japan is helping with restoration of the library on the outermost wall.

A random window in a random corridor

Stairs stairs and more stairs

Imagine 750,000 people here for the kings procession

Consider the era that this detail was achieved

even in every out of the way place, like upwards !

Thank you for letting me share these pictures with you. I do love to travel and I have seen a few sights in my time, but these grounds touched my very soul. A picture may be worth a thousand words but the feeling that this place emanates is much more than can be depicted by my compact camera.
In the next post I leave this main temple grounds and find some smaller temples including the temples you may remember in Raiders of the Lost Ark with Harrison Ford and Tomb Raider starring Angelina Jolie.  The tourists definitely fade away and the heat comes into play as I push harder to show you Hoof Hearted at Angkor Wat.

I'm working on part 2 now, stay tuned.

In the mean time try these video links !

The History Channel - Digging for the Truth

Mysteries of Asia - Jewels in the Jungle

Cambodia: History of Angkor

Ok I finished part 2, here's the link:

http://hoofheartedinbangkok.blogspot.com/2012/05/hoof-hearted-at-angkor-wat-part-two.html