Trippingg Abroad
Siem Reap – The Temple Wonderland
Part I
Let’s do something different this time. Let this post be an Anthology of small posts that you wrote on the social media. While clearing up the desktop, you came upon this folder with all these photographs that you used with the small posts. And you say, why not use these photos instead of writing a post sometime in the future and again go trawling for suitable photos. The blog post will have a smattering of posts of your days across Cambodia and will give a nice feel of the wonderful people and country of Cambodia. The current endeavour is to have at least one post of each country that you visit these Wonder Days.
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| The Largest Temple - Angkor Wat in Cambodia |
Indianization of Cambodia
We really do not know for
sure how Cambodia got Indianized. David Chandler in his ‘History of Cambodia’
calls Indianization a centuries-long phenomenon when elements of Indian culture
were absorbed or chosen by Cambodians in a process that lasted more than a
thousand years. Nobody knows how the process transpired.
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| Entering the Temple Wonderland - Siem Reap |
The process of culture
change is complex. Why were the new elements adopted and were preferred to
local ones? Was there a pick and choose of elements? The caste system,
thankfully was not adopted wholesale but was limited to the court. Were the new
culture elements adopted by the royals and elite or did they percolate down to
the village level? Who were the Indians who went to Cambodia or was there an
exchange of people?
In the beginning of common
era, India was Buddhist – did both Buddhist and Hinduism elements made their
way together and Hindu elements were chosen first? Why would some later kings
choose Buddhism but later regimes would revert to Hinduism?
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| The Apsaras of the Bayon Temple - Siem Reap |
What made a people adopt
foreign elements? Cambodians are almost like Indians - costumes, jewellery,
alphabet and customs were adopted and are similar. You rather wish Indians now
need to learn from Cambodians of being kind, friendly and civil-sensible – a
subject for another post.
Cambodia or Kambuja or
Kambuja Des – More Indian than India
The Mind Games Begin
Angkor Wat is just a jumbo
meal-sized appetizer. The mind twisties will be served now. A twenty-minute
walk north from Angkor Wat brings you right in the middle of giant Samundra
Manthan. This is the causeway and one of the five gates of the last and most
enduring Khmer Capital of Jayavarman VII, the most prolific builder King. The
earlier capital was called Yashodharpura.
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| The Gateway with the Faces - Tonle Om |
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| Samudra Manthan on the Causeway - Tonle Om in Siem Reap Cambodia |
The nine sq km capital is
surrounded by walls and a moat. On this moat are built one of the most
fantastic renderings of Sagar Manthan. Rows of Devs and Asurs are pulling on
Vasuki. The Devs look serene and well, like Gods. The Asurs don’t seem to be in
good mood and apparently are fuming. And the gate seems to be out of the world.
Smiling faces on the towers look at you. Angkor Wat awed you with its grand
scale. This bridge and gate seem to be leading you straight into a wondrous
mythological portal. You can’t wait to enter.
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| Gods on one side and the Demons on the other side of the causeway |
Tonle Om – The South Gate of Angkor Thom (Great City), late 12th Century, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Indianized Cambodia;
Indigenous Temple Construction
While the Cambodians
wholeheartedly adopted Indian religions (Hinduism & Buddhism), alphabet
(Sanskrit) and customs but when it came to the design and scale of temples,
they were clearly unique and totally indigenous.
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| Ta Keo Temple - Siem Reap, Cambodia |
They might have started
with the Indian temple template in the early Pre-Angkor era during Funan and
Chenla periods but by 9th century the Cambodians will come into their own when
they will start erecting magnificent and awe-inspiring temples with designs
that will blow your mind. They might not have mastered the art of sculpting
images or it is totally possible they consciously avoided it and instead put
their energies in the size of the temples and this totally exquisite bas-relief
work ornamenting their walls, lintels and pediments.
Ta Keo will herald this
phase when the entire temple was built of large sandstone blocks cut from the
Phnom Kulen mountain range, 30 kms away. The temple would be built in the shape
of an enormous pyramid symbolising Mount Meru, with enclosures with galleries
and on the top five Prasats or Towers arranged in quincunx form. You are
conserving your energy in this sapping heat and will just go around the base of
the temple surrounded with dense trees.
Ta Keo (Hemagiri,
Hemasringagiri or Tower of Crystal), dedicated to Lord Shiv, state temple of
Jayavarman V (968-1001), son of Rajendravarman whose state temple was Pre Rup –
probably unfinished, conservation with Chinese support, Angkor Archaeological Park,
Cambodia
The Modern Indian
Connection
Cambodia has seen more than
1500 years of construction of some majestic temples across the country. Most of
these were found in ruin. Upon appeal by the Cambodian government, India was
the first country to respond in 1980. Since then. looking at the several
signages across the park you can see countries like France, Japan, Germany, USA
and China and agencies like UNESCO and WMF too have joined the monumental
conservation and restoration task.
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| India's ASI partnering with Cambodia government for conservation and restoration of Ta Phrom Temple - Siem Reap, Cambodia |
You can see the progress at
several sites while some sites are still simply mounds of ruins. The
conservation work could continue forever since there is so much to rescue.
India’s ASI started the conservation first at Angkor Wat from 1986-1993 during
time of extreme political instability.
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| The restored Eastern Gallery at Ta Phrom |
In 2002, ASI got another
mandate to conserve Ta Phrom at eight assigned places. Some have been completed
while you can see work progressing at some places. The difference here was that
the work involves conservation of both natural and built heritage. FRI Dehradun
too contributed in this multi-disciplinary work by treating the decaying and
diseased trees. Yes the trees look much healthier than the structures they are
strangling below! The now restored Hall of Dancers and Third Enclosure Gallery
seem to be good piece of work by ASI. Maybe now they can apply their learning
back home.
‘Tree Temple’ Ta Phrom,
12th Century, Jayavarman VII, Angkor Archaeological Park, Cambodia
The Killing Fields
On an average about 300
detainees were executed every day. Trucks filled with the unfortunate would
arrive from S-21 and other locations. Sometimes they were not able to execute
them all so there would be holdover prisoners awaiting their fate the next day.
Entire families will be finished off including babies. There was a storage shed
with killing tools and a chemical storage for DDT that would be thrown over the
mass grave.
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| Hope such horrors are never repeated - Killing Fields in Cambodia |
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| The Memorial at Choeung Ek |
About ten kms from
downtown, the city has expanded with highways and malls but fifty years ago the
Killing Fields were actually among the far from idyllic rice fields, a part of
the agrarian society being built by a hideous monster. You remember reading about
this in the newspapers and watching this movie. About 1.2 million people were
executed and buried here. You had to be here on your last day in this land of
beautiful people.
Village of Choeung Ek,
Killing Fields, Cambodia
That Soaring Khmer
Zeitgeist – of Moving Mountains
Cambodians absorbed Indian
culture as people from India – traders, sailors, immigrants and of course
priests - would bring ideas and customs right from the Neolithic period to
across the 1st, 5th and 11th centuries. Who were the people in Cambodia then –
were they indigenous people and if not then of what ethnicity? What influenced
or inspired them that they would adopt foreign customs, language and religion –
the epics, the purans, and the whole paraphernalia that came with it.
Mercifully, they probably rejected the caste system. But trust the Brahmins to
do their thing with the kings and end up with the largest landholdings along
with the royals. Well, the historians are still trying to figure this all out
and have been bringing out books on how all this Indianization happened.
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| Thommanon Temple - Siem Reap, Cambodia |
But you cannot find
anything on this mammoth exercise of temple building. Sure, the Khmers would
have received manuals and blueprints of temple building over the centuries. So
why did they depart from the Indian architecture of small temples and go on to
create their soaring temples? Were they trying to impress the Gods so they
would move here from their original homes? The Khmers would literally cut up
mountains, transport the stones and erect these huge mountain-like temples and
sprawling complexes that will tire out a visitor simply walking through them.
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| Thommanon Temple- Angkor Archaeological Park - Siem Reap |
It is apparent that the
interpretation of the purans and the epics was quite different and literally
monumental here. The Khmers did not incorporate sculpture as part of the
temples. The images though uncommonly large will not carry the typical
iconography and will find place either inside the sanctuary or at the gates and
gopuras. All their skill in sculpting would go into creating these wonderful
reliefs in galleries, ornamenting walls and pediments. How did they get this
skill of weaving the most wonderful reliefs on stone? The awe-inspiring
sculpted faces on the towers lift the Khmer imagination to dizzying heights.
So what brought this
brilliance and motivation to construct such superstructures that have their
equivalence in the Mayan and Egyptian civilizations.
Thommanon Temple – a temple
that finally has the scale of Indian temples and a contemporary of Angkor Wat –
was this temple built for the royals while the construction of Angkor Wat was
going on? Dedicated to Lord Vishnu & Shiv, King Suryavarman II (1113-1150),
Cambodia
Temple Run is No Walk in
the Park
In Cambodia, temple run can
be fatal. The tragic recent past of Cambodia is life threatening present. It is
said Cambodia might have upto 10 million unexploded landmines / ordnance (UXO)
in the country side. Cambodia today has the dubious distinction of having
largest number of UXO. Civil wars, the murderous Pol Pot regime, neighbouring
countries and superpowers are all to blame for this.
As you drive through the
expansive Koh Ker grounds, the reality of living with the landmines hits hard
when you see these red signs just a few metres away from the road, warning you
of the lurking danger beneath the ground. It is said that some landmines were
laid around the temple complexes to thwart looting. The challenge for the mine
removing agencies is that no maps are available to help in the demining
exercise which is a time-consuming and dangerous exercise here.
This country of smiling and
friendly people has seen so much bloodshed that it is unbelievable how nice the
people can be despite going through these horrific events. More of it in later
posts.
Koh Ker or Lingpura, 10th
Century, Preah Vihear Province, Cambodia
The Jewel in the Crown
The Cambodians love and
take pride in their Temples and Kings so much that they have Angkor Wat on
their flag; probably the only country to have a temple / religious structure on
its flag - 64 countries have depictions of religious symbols.
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| Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia |
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| Vishnu and now Buddha - Buddha is one of nine avatar of Vishnu |
There are scores of temple
complexes in this province and neighbouring areas, but the first stop for every
visitor is the Angkor Wat. You have not seen anything this grand and sprawling
and like you will experience at every temple in Cambodia, the first visit is
shock and awe and fluster and incredulity. You need to come back again couple
of days later when some of it will slowly begin to make sense.
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Angkor Wat – City of
Temples (derived from Sanskrit – Nagara and Vata), or Vrah Visnulok,
Yashodharapur, early 12th Century, commissioned by Khmer king Suryavarman II
(1113-1150), originally dedicated to Vishnu and now a Buddhist temple, 402
acres, UNESCO site, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia
The Tragic Kingdom
Cambodia has seen it all –
from the triumphant highs of Khmer Empire to world’s worst genocide. Cambodia
would unfortunately get pulled into the Vietnam war as Viet Cong and the Powers
would use its territory to play out their war games in Indochina. Vast swathes
will get carpet bombed. You are not sure if Khmer temples were victims too. As
Saigon to the east will fall to Viet Cong, the darkest chapter in history of
humankind will play out here in Cambodia.
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| Lest We Forget - S21 Genocide Museum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia |
Homegrown radical Khmer
Rouge (1975-79), led by Pol Pot will unleash the worst killing of his own
people in pursuit of a purely agrarian society. Thinkers and intellectuals will
be rounded up, brought to this high school, detained, tortured and then killed
off. A total of about 3 million people will be killed by the time the brutal
regime will be brought down by Vietnam in 1979. An entire generation of
intellectuals and professionals will be lost. If not here, people will die
working long hours in the fields.
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| Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum or S 21, Cambodia |
As you enter the school
premises, the street sounds quieten into this peaceful place belying the horror
witnessed here as detainees would be tortured in these four three-storey
buildings. Visitors walk numbed listening to the distressing audio commentary.
You wonder if the birds still chirped here then or did they go away unable to
bear the atrocities in the cells behind the barb wires?
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum,
formerly the Tuol Svay Prey High School that was turned into the infamous S-21,
the Interrogation and Detention Centre, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
The Vandalized Temple
In Cambodia, you don’t see
many signs of pillaging. Most of the ruins are attributed to time and nature as
vegetation moves in and reclaims even the built structures. What you see is
subtle – a Buddha image carved into a ling or ling moved from the central
shrine to one of the subsidiary shrines. The damage wreaked by the Chams or the
Ayuthiyyans is not apparent or has been built over.
Tam Som is similar to
Banteay Kdei but even more vibey. It has been literally reclaimed from the
vegetation and therefore more in ruins. Also, the temple saw intentional
destruction in the 15th-16th century. History is silent and you are not sure
what happened in this time. Anyway by this time Angkor had weakened, the place
depopulated and apparently there were no attempts to restore the damaged
temples.
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| Ta Som Temple, Siem Reap Cambodia |
Ta Som gives a glimpse on
how WMF is trying to restore the temples here – still standing walls and
passageways are supported by wooden props and a gopura has been freed from the
tentacles of a Strangler Fig. WMF started the conservation here in 1998 and it
is here the first batch of Cambodian staff was trained who would then move to
more challenging sites.
Ta Som, Buddhist, end of
12th & beginning of 13th Century, built by Jayavarman VII and dedicated to
his father Dharanindravarman II, Angkor Archaeological Park, Cambodia
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