In stones I found beauty: Angkor and its temples

Bayon and Angkor Wat

Day 2 - 29 Dec 2003

We left at around 8:30 to visit Bayon and adjoining temple ruins. Reaching the south gate of the Bayon, we got off from the car and looked around at the famous sculptures of demons and gods churning the ocean. Time had taken its toll on most of the sculptures. Some has no heads and those that had, did not have very definite features. Ironically, the demons were in a better shape than the gods! The south gate provided us with the first sight of the famous Bayon face. The faces are so life-like and the simle so real that you feel like there is someone up there looking down at you, maybe exactly what the builders wanted it to do.

Built in later 12th century by King Suryavarman VII, Bayon is one of the most widely recognised temples in Siem Reap because of the giant stone faces that adorn its towers. There is still a debate as to who is being depticted in the faces. It could be Avalokiteshvara, Mahayana Buddhism's compassionate Bodhisattva, or perhaps a combination of King Jayavarman VII and Buddha.

Bayon can be divided into three levels - the first two are bas-reliefs and the uppermost consists of the central sanctuary. The outer gallery depicts scenes from everyday life and historical events, while the second inner gallery depicts mythical figures and stories.

As everywhere near these ruins, Bayon has it share of determined street sellers, selling books, post cards, paintings and what not! In the beginning we tried to make sense of the bas reliefs on our own. Surya finally put her foot down and demanded that we walk back to the children and buy a book that explains the reliefs. Pride hurt, I followed. Seeing us walk back to them must have give the kids immense joy, since just minutes ago I had 'shooed' them away. We ended up buying "Angkor" by Dawn Rooney for a great bargain. A small advice to any would-be travelers to Angkor. Do not buy books before coming here. Almost any book you would end up buying is dirt cheap here.

More Bayon photos can be found in my Bayon Gallery.

After exploring Bayon till afternoon, we had lunch near the Angkor Wat temple. Book sellers followed us there too. One guy even started guessing our nationality. He guessed mine correctly, and that too in the first try.

After lunch, Bon drew us a rough plan of Angkor Wat temple and explained the best route to take. We entered through the west entrance. After reaching the entry tower, we walked to the right to get a glimpse of all the five towering goupras. Passing the tower and the libraries on both sides of the walkway, we climbed down the steps towards the left side reached the water basin. The image of the temple and its reflection in the water reminded us again of the symmetry of the temple. Going past the basin we reached the left end of the temple.

The famous bas reliefs depicting scenes from various mythological stories and historic events starts from there. Walking from left to right we came across scenes from battle of Ramayana, Mahabharata, army of Suryavarman II, scenes from judgement by Yama (the supreme judge), churning of ocean by demons and gods to get Amrita - the nectar of immortality, Vishnu's victory over demons, victory of Krishna over Bana and other scenes of battle between gods and demons. Though a lot of sharpness had been lost, the carvings still amaze in its attention to details.

Stairs of steps got us to the second tier. One can reach the third tier climbing the steps oriented towards any of the four cardinal points. However, sticking to Bon's plans we took the steps on the south as it is supposed to be the easiest to climb. Though there is supposed to be a Hall of Thousand Buddhas, we did not see anything more than 10 statues. I guess time had again prevailed over human art.

Since the top did not give a good view we decided to climb down to get back to the outer tier by sunset. Heading to the stairs we came across one of the longest queues I ever found in Cambodia. It looked like all the Japanes tourists (who are the majority of tourists in Angkor) had the same brain wave we had. The fact that they travelled in big groups did not help too. By the time we reached down, the sun was already setting, but still the changing color of sun's rays on the stones of the temple was a sight to watch.

Bon took us to dinner to Boray Sovan. Surya fell in love with the food. The service is courteous and fast. Do try them out if you have no specific place to go. You won't be disappointed.

More Angkow Wat photos can be found in my Angkor Wat Gallery.

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