Nectar of Life: Cambodia- a slice from the past

Visiting Cambodia and the Angkor Wat temple was a dream in the recesses of my heart and finally we arrived there on the afternoon of 26^th February 2018. When I deplaned and noticed the small, clean airport, the memory laden breeze that carried fragrance of the glorious past touched my face, transporting me to the Khmer Empire.

We took a tuk tuk to reach the Siem Reap pub hostel where we had booked the room. Tuk-tuk is a two-wheeled carriage pulled by motorbike that can fit anywhere from two people to entire families, and they are a ubiquitous sight throughout Cambodia. Its official name is remorque, or “trailer” in French, but they are colloquially known as tuk-tuks. Once we reached the hostel, we fixed one tuk tuk to take us around for the remaining days of the one week stay.

Siem Reap hostel was a nice place to stay, the staff was friendly. It had a small pool, though we didn’t use it, which had interesting instructions.

Phnom Bakheng

In the evening we went out to the Phnom Bakheng, the state temple of the first Khmer capital in the Angkor region that is surviving as one of the world’s greatest architectural treasures. The Temple of Phnom Bakheng was constructed between the late ninth and the early tenth century by Yasovarman I as the centerpiece of his new capital, known as Yasodharapura.

Phnom Bakheng is a symbolic representation of Mount Meru, home of the Hindu gods, a status emphasized by the temple's location atop a steep hill 65 m above the surrounding plain. The temple is built in a pyramid form of seven levels, representing the seven heavens. At the top level, five sandstone sanctuaries, in various states of repair, stand in a quincunx pattern. These five represent the five peaks of Mount Meru. In the sixteenth century, an attempt was made to construct a large seated Buddha around the central shrine, which has since been dismantled. Originally, 108 small towers were arrayed around the temple at ground level and on the various tiers; most of them have collapsed. Each terrace contains 12 towers which represent the 12-year cycle of Jupiter. According to University of Chicago scholar Paul Wheatley, it is "an astronomical calendar in stone." Today, Phnom Bakheng is a popular spot for panoramic views of the Angkorean landscape, often enjoyed by visitors at sunset. We reached there by about 5 pm, there was quite a big queue already and then we saw this board:

Abandoning the plan to go to the top, we selected a place to watch the sunset and were rewarded by a beautiful view.

Angkor Wat

Next day early morning we started on the tuk tuk and reached the Angkor Wat temple by 7 am. View of the temple complex across the huge water body was indeed breathtaking!

Angkor Wat, Cambodia's famous UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a temple complex in Cambodia and is the largest religious monument in the world, on a site measuring 162.6 hectares. It was originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to the God Vishnu for the Khmer Empire and was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the 12th century. It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura (present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire.

Angkor Wat translates to "City of Temples" or simply "City Temple." New temples and ruins are being discovered nearly every year. Khmer bricks were bonded together almost invisibly by using a vegetable compound rather than mortar.

It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat more than 5 kilometres. Its walls are adorned by numerous devatas.

Angkor Wat is unusually oriented to the west, a direction typically associated with death in Hindu culture. Bas-reliefs at Angkor Wat read counterclockwise, another indication that the temple is associated with funeral rituals. Cambodians are so proud of their ancient monument, that they put it on the Cambodian flag in 1850.

It is really interesting to read how archaeologists rediscovered the remains of an invisible kingdom deep in the jungles of southeast Asia that may have been the template for Angkor Wat.

Bayon

The Bayon is a richly decorated Khmer temple at Angkor in Cambodia. The Bayon Temple complex was built under the direction of the Mahayana Buddhist ruler Jayavarman VII, who ascended to the Khmer kingdom's throne at Angkor in 1181 A.D. He erected the site for Buddhist worship, although it later was renovated and used as a Hindu temple. Following Jayavarman's death, it was modified and augmented by later Hindu and Theravada Buddhist kings in accordance with their own religious preferences. The Bayon's most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and smiling stone faces on the many towers which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak.

The Bayon was the last state temple to be built at Angkor and the only Angkorian state temple to be built primarily as a Mahayana Buddhist shrine dedicated to the Buddha. The similarity of the 216 gigantic faces on the temple's towers to other statues of the king has led many scholars to the conclusion that the faces are representations of Jayavarman VII himself. Others have said that the faces belong to the bodhisattva of compassion called Avalokitesvara or Lokesvara.

The original name for the Bayon was Jayagiri (or "Victory Mountain"). After French occupancy, it was later named Banyan Temple due to its religious significance and Buddhist imagery (the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment under the Banyan tree). When the local Khmer came to work at renovating Banyan Temple, there was a mispronunciation in Banyan, which was pronounced Bayon. The name then stuck. The outer wall of the outer gallery features a series of bas-reliefs depicting historical events and scenes from the everyday life of the Angkorian Khmer.

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm is the modern name of the temple at Angkor, originally called Rajavihara ,built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. It was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Ta Prohm is in much the same condition in which it was found: the photogenic and atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of Angkor's most popular temples with visitors.

The temple's stele records that the site was home to more than 12,500 people (including 18 high priests and 615 dancers), with an additional 80,000 souls in the surrounding villages working to provide services and supplies. The temple had amassed considerable riches, including gold, pearls and silks. It was abandoned and neglected for centuries after the fall of the Khmer Empire in the 15th century. In the early 21st century when the effort to conserve and restore the temples of Angkor began, it was decided that Ta Prohm would be left largely as it had been found, as a "concession to the general taste for the picturesque."

According to pioneering Angkor scholar Maurice Glaize, Ta Prohm was singled out because it was "one of the most imposing temples and the one which had best merged with the jungle, but not yet to the point of becoming a part of it".

But work has been done to stabilize the ruins, to permit access, and to maintain "this condition of apparent neglect”. The trees growing out of the ruins are perhaps the most distinctive feature of Ta Prohm.

Neak Pean

Neak Pean at Angkor is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple on a circular island in Jayatataka Baray, built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. Neak Pean was originally designed for medical purposes (the ancients believed that going into these pools would balance the elements in the bather, thus curing disease). Four connected pools surrounding the central pond represent Water, Earth, Fire and Wind. Each is connected to the central water source, the main tank.

Some historians believe that Neak Pean represents Anavatapta, a mythical lake in the Himalayas whose waters are thought to cure all illnesses. The name is derived from the sculptures of snakes (Nāga) running around the base of the temple structure, neak being the Khmer rendering of the Sanskrit naga. They are Nanda and Upananda, two nagas traditionally associated with Lake Anavatapta.

Preah Khan

Preah Khan was built in the 12th century by King Jayavarman VII, with the goal of honoring his father, King Dharanindravarman II. Preah Khan translates to “Holy Sword” in Khmer, named by Jayavarman VII in honor of his battle victory against the invading force of Chams, who belonged to a kingdom in what is now Vietnam, in the year 1191. The temple of Preah Khan is one of the largest complexes at Angkor, a maze of vaulted corridors, fine carvings and lichen-clad stonework.

This majestic temple complex is surrounded by a moat and it was the centre of a substantial organisation, with almost 100,000 officials and servants, simultaneously serving as a city, a temple, and a Buddhist university. Its aesthetics are very similar to nearby famous Angkor temple Ta Prohm, with vegetation and trees seeming to swallow the ruins.

Like Ta Prohm it is a place of towered enclosures and shoulder-hugging corridors, but unlike Ta Prohm, the temple of Preah Khan is in a reasonable state of preservation thanks to the ongoing restoration efforts of the World Monuments Fund (WMF).

Food in Cambodia

Consuming food is a spiritual act for me and I do it with deep reverence. In this aspect there was some set back in Cambodia due to the following points:

You can see the items on the menu card below. One day while roaming in the market, we came across kids wearing T-shirts with 'Eat a bug' written on them, carrying trays of fried bugs to sell.

I have to mention that we got amazing banana split to sample!

Cultural program

One evening was spent watching the cultural program and it was just like being in Heaven for me. I enjoy dance and it was such a joy watching the fine performances.

See the dancer's hand and finger movements in the video below. As a dancer I know how tough it is to get those finger movements. It is so amazing!

Angkor Wat- archeological information

Angkor Wat, the great temple of that name, and the city in which it is set, are one of the great marvels of the world – but where did it come from, and what were its origins? When exploration began in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was quickly obvious that there was strong Indian influence. The numerous inscriptions were written in an Indian script and many of them were in Sanskrit, the sacred language of the Hindus. Furthermore, the temple was established to Vishnu, a Hindu deity, and also included statues of Buddha. There was clearly strong Indian influence, but did this also imply an Indian invasion?

The cause of the Angkor empire's demise in the early 15th century long remained a mystery. But researchers have now shown that intense monsoon rains that followed a prolonged drought in the region caused widespread damage to the city's infrastructure, leading to its collapse. The Angkor Wat Discovery is the somewhat controversial concept that refers to the visit of French naturalist Henri Mouhot to Angkor Wat in 1860 and the publication of his travel notes in 1863. These memoirs had an umprecedented reception in Europe and Mouhot was credited with the discovery of the "lost city of Angkor". Researchers believe the Angkor civilization was established in A.D. 802. The Angkor civilization was booming in the early 1100s when construction began on the Angkor Wat temple site. The last major stone temple at Angkor was constructed in 1295, and the latest Sanskrit inscription dates to the same year. The last inscription in Khmer, the language of Cambodia, appears a few decades later in 1327. And the excation continues.