Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Prasat Baksei Chamkrong
A few hundred metres north of Phnom Bakheng is the small, often ignored
PRASAT
BAKSEI CHAMKRONG
, the sole monument built by Harshavarman I. Consecrated to
Shiva and his consort, the temple wasn't finished in the king's lifetime and was
re-consecrated by Rajendravarman I in 948. The simple structure comprises four square
tiers of decreasing size, rising to a single brick sanctuary tower with decorated
sandstone lintels and columns. A Sanskrit inscription on the door frame here records
that the sanctuary contained a golden image of Paramenshavara, as Jayavarman II was
known posthumously. If you want to head up to the top of the temple, the northern
staircase is the best of a badly worn bunch.
Angkor Thom
The wall of the city is some five miles in circumference. It has five gates each with double portals… Outside the wall
stretches a great moat, across which access to the city is given by massive causeways. Flanking the causeways on
each side are fifty-four divinities resembling war-lords in stone, huge and terrifying…
Zhou Daguan, visited Angkor Thom 1296-97
3
Still recognizable from this description by the Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan, who
visited the Khmer court at the end of the thirteenth century, the ruins of the great city
of
ANGKOR THOM
form the physical and architectural centrepiece of Angkor, home to a
trio of state temples -
Baphuon
,
Phimeanakas
and the spectacular
Bayon
- as well as
numerous other royal, religious and secular structures. The former city itself covers an
area of three square kilometres, enclosed by a wide moat and an 8m-high wall
reinforced by a wide earth embankment (constructed by Jayavarman VII after the city
had been sacked by the Cham in 1177). Sanctuary towers stand at each corner of the
walls, which are pierced by five much-photographed
entry gates
- one per cardinal
direction, plus an additional eastern portal, the Victory Gate. Each gate is topped by a
tower carved with four huge faces looking out in the cardinal directions and
approached via a causeway lined with huge naga balustrades. Nominally, these faces are
said to represent the bodhisattva Lokesvara, although they also bear a certain similarity
to carved images of Jayavarman VII himself, perhaps symbolizing the far-reaching gaze
of the king over his lands and subjects.
The site is most usually approached from Angkor Wat through the 23m-high
south
gate
and along a 100m-long
stone causeway
flanked by a massive naga balustrade,
with 54 almond-eyed gods on one side, and 54 round-eyed demons on the other
holding a pair of nine-headed nagas, which are said to protect the city's wealth. Most of
the heads here are replicas, the originals having been either stolen or removed for safety
to the Angkor National Museum. The base of the gateway itself is decorated with
sculptures of
Indra
on a three-headed elephant; the elephant's trunks hold lotus
blossoms that droop to the ground, doubling as improvised columns.
The Bayon
The state temple of Jayavarman VII and his immediate successors, the
Bayon
is one
of Angkor's most memorably mysterious and haunting sights, with its dozens of
eroded towers carved with innumerable giant-sized images of the enigmatically
half-smiling face of the bodhisattva Lokesvara. The
design
of the Bayon is unique
among the state temples of Angkor. Instead of a huge central pyramid, an
impression of ascending height is created by a dense cluster of towers, with the main
sanctuary towers rising out of the centre of the complex like a kind of Matterhorn
carved in stone - the ultimate architectural representation of the mythical Mount
Meru. Approaching the temple, all you can initially see is a mass of ill-defined
stone, dark and imposing, looking from a distance like some kind of bizarre natural
