Situated between India and China, Southeast Asia has been the birthplace of several cultures, some of which rank among the world’s greatest civilizations. Among the Indianized kingdoms which sprang up in Southeast Asia before the Common era, the great Khmer civilization and its capital, Angkor, in modern day Cambodia. The advent of Indians in Southeast Asia has hardly a parallel in history. In view of the ethnic affinities between the prehistoric Austro-Asiatic races of India and those of Suvarnabhumi, contact between the two regions may well go back to the remotest antiquity. Most of the countries of Southeast Asia came under the cultural and religious influence of India. This region was broadly referred to by ancient Indians as Suvarnabhumi (the Land of Gold) or Suvarnadvipa (the Island of Gold). Vedic Indians must have charted Java, Yawadvip, thousands of years ago because Yawadvip is mentioned in India's earliest epic, the Ramayana. The Ramayana reveals some knowledge of the eastern regions beyond seas; for instance Sugriva dispatched his men to Yavadvipa, the island of Java, in search of Sita. 

The whole area was so influenced by India, that according to a European scholar who wrote in 1861, that "the Indian countries situated beyond the Ganges hardly deserve the attention of History." The various states established in this region can therefore be called Indianized kingdoms. Invasion nor proselystism was by no means the main factor in the process of Indianization which took place in the Indian Archipelago. International trade was very important. Angkor Wat indeed deserves to play the leading part not only because of its exceptional artistic and architectural achievements but also on account of the hydrological, agricultural and ecological problems solved there. 

Angkor wat is often hailed as one of the most extraordinary architectural creations ever built, with its intricate bas-reliefs, strange acoustics and magnificent soaring towers. Angkor Wat, originally named Vrah Vishnulok - the sacred abode of Lord Vishnu, is the largest temple in the world. It was built by King Suryavarman II in the 12th century. The Sanskrit Nagara (capital) was modified by the Cambodian tongue to Nokor and then to Angkor. The word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit word 'nagara' meaning 'holy city'. Vatika is Sanskrit word for  temple. "The city which is a temple," Angkor Wat is a majestic monument, the world's largest religious construction in stone, and an architectural masterpiece. The Khmers adhered to the Indian belief that a temple must be built according to a mathematical system in order for it to function in harmony with the universe. Distances between certain architectural elements of the temple reflect numbers related to Indian mythology and cosmology. The sheer size of the place leaves visitors in awe and the complex designs illustrate the skills of long gone priest architects.  Every spare inch has been carved with intricate works of art. The sculptures of Indian icons produced in Cambodia during the 6th to the 8th centuries A D are masterpieces, monumental, subtle, highly sophisticated, mature in style and unrivalled for sheer beauty anywhere in India says Philip Rawson. The scale of Angkor Wat enabled the Khmer to give full expression to religious symbolism. It is, above all else, a microcosm of the Hindu universe.

It is frequently said that Angkor was 'discovered' by the Europeans but this is patently nonsense and simply reflects a Eurocentric view. The Khmer never forgot the existence of their monuments. French naturalist Henri Mouhot stumbled across the city complex of Angkor Wat while on a zoological expedition. He was overwhelmed by the magnificence of these ruins hidden in the jungle and wrote: “One of these temples – a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michael Angelo  - might take its place besides our most beautiful buildings – Grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome …it makes the traveler forget all the fatigues of the journey, filling him with admiration and delight, such as should be experienced on finding a verdant oasis in the sandy desert."

The grandeur of this ancient civilization is truly astounding. Covering an area of one square mile, Angkor Wat is one of the largest temple complex in the world. The temple is dedicated to the Lord Vishnu from whom the king was considered a reincarnation. Essentially a three-layered pyramid, Angkor Wat has five distinctive towers, 64 meters high. On the outer wall are eight panels of bas-relief depicting scenes of Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. These relics of past grandeur bear mute testimony tone of the least known yet most glorious chapters in the history of mankind: that of the classical culture of ‘Greater India.’ 

Unlike other countries, Cambodia does not minimize Indian influence on the local culture. On the contrary, the people of the country generously acknowledge it. Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia recalled the close cultural ties that have existed for two thousand years between India and Cambodia. He said: "When we refer to 2000 year old ties which unite us with India, it is not at all a hyperbole. In fact, it was about 2000 years ago that the first navigators, Indian merchants, and Brahmins brought to our ancestors their gods, their techniques, their organization. Briefly India was for us what Greece was for the Latin Occident."          


Indra's heaven: Stupendous architecture
Splendid Sculpture
Conclusion

***

For the rest of the chapter refer to the links listed below:

Sacred Angkor
Sacred Angkor Part 2
Sacred Angkor Part 3

 

Indra's heaven: Stupendous architecture

Robert Joseph Casey
(1890 - 1962) a reporter with Chicago Daily News, writing in his book Four faces of Shiva in 1926 wrote: 

"Angkor vat, supreme architectural effort of this culture, not only the most grandiose temple of the group but probably the most stupendous undertaking attempted by man since the corner-stone was laid for the tower of Babel.   

 

Lord Harihara of Phnom Da. 

In this image of the deity who combines the qualities of Shiva and Vishnu the two halves of the face are subtly differentiated. The stern half is Shiva, on the proper right, with the tangled locks. The gentle, sublime half Vishnu, wearing a mitre, is on the proper left.

(image source: The Art of Southeast Asia - By Philip Rawson).

***

Here at Angkor was the finest metropolis in Asia – a town whose splendor is permanently embossed in temple wall and tower and terrace. The people were called the Khmer and were either of Hindu extraction or the diligent pupils of Hindu teachers. There is mention of a kingdom under Hindu direction, if not domination, in Indo-China as early as the year 238 AD and there is evidence that the Khmer flourished during the 13th and possibly into the 14th century."   

"One looks upon it through misty eyes and with an odd constriction of the throat, for there is only one Angkor. There is no such monument to vanished people anywhere else in the world. It seems futile to record its grandeur. One doesn’t describe an Angkor. One just gazes at it in silence and amazement. "

"The emotional reaction to the stupendous beauty of Angkor is that we have seen it before. It is a matter of psychological stimulus through senses that cannot comprehend the legerity, the delicacy of so terrific a mass.” 

On experiences the same sensation as one gazes at the Grand Canyon or the loveliness of the Taj Mahal. It seems to be the concomitant of emotional surprise….which may explain why the doctrine of reincarnation appealed to so many races of the age that produced Angkor.” 

It rises to its heights in a steady masterful sweep. Heat waves give it a shivery unreality, and the eye has difficulty in focusing on its pinnacles.   

 

On a square terrace at the heart and the summit of Angkor wat, five towers enclose the temple's principal sanctuary. 

(source: Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris).

***

The towers are loftier than the tallest palms of the jungle but they are lifted still higher by tricks in perspective that form the most interesting part of their design. In the mass Angkor is as impressive as the great pyramids of Egypt, more striking as an artistic ensemble than even the Taj Mahal.” 

Monsieur Pierre Furneau, one of the French road engineers, said: 

“That is Angkor vat for you. It is no ruin. The carvings on the galleries are complete. The roofs still turn the rains. The walls are as solid as they were when the Khmer masons put them there without binder or cement. And one can not but feel that only a few hours ago it was palpitating with life. …companies of priests were in the galleries chanting the rituals. ..”    

 

A depiction of Royal polo at Angkor near the Elephant Terrace.

(image source: Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World - National Geographic Society. p.186-190).

***

Angkor vat is the apotheosis of the Khmer people. If nothing else remained of all their works it would be enough to mark them as one of the great races that time has produced.”

Jean Commaille (1868-1916) first Conservative of Angkor expressed it: 

“Angkor vat is isolated like an island in the middle of a lake."

"The façade of the temple proper is five times as wide as the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. The central tower is more than two hundred feet high. The construction of the pyramids of Egypt was a task of minor importance compared with the building of Angkor vat. For the works of Ghizeh it was necessary to haul the stone only across the valley of the Nile from the quarries beyond the present city of Cairo. Some of the rock used in Angkor vat is believed to have come from points more than forty miles distant, part of it by water, much of it overland on rollers. And there is no group of structures in Egypt, not excepting even Karnak, as intricately carved as this.”   

 

***

"One is conscious instantly of a strange combination of delicacy, finely wrought detail and terrific immensity, a conception that is peculiarly typical of the Khmer arts. Here is at once a rocky uplift, whose very bulk is potent thaumaturgy, and a hanging garden whose banks of flowers are chiseled stone. 

Never, if one looks at it for an hour or for a day or repeatedly for weeks on end, does Angkor vat seem real.  

"The architects of the great temple were masters of their craft, but first of all they were close students of the human eye. They set out to build not only a tremendous pyramid but an ensemble which would instantly seize upon the vision of one who entered through West Gate and carry it irresistibly in a direct unwavering line to the climax of the central tower.   

 

Angkor vat is built up from the fan of the multi-headed cobra at the end of the causeway through a series of buildings of increasing importance and cumulative effect. 

With profound faith and rich imagination, the Hindu religion adopted by the Khmer endowed the Gods with varied manifestations, human or animal, sometimes both.

(image source: Angkor: Splendors of the Khmer Civilization - By Marilia Albanese p. 138).

***

Angkor vat is built up from the fan of the multi-headed cobra at the end of the causeway through a series of buildings of increasing importance and cumulative effect. Without the twin libraries the eye might be distracted by the reaches of open space on the side of the road of honor. With them it is caught and centered. The pools that sparkle in the part are merely decorative fringes to a picture whose essential values are never for a moment in doubt. 

It is one of the strangely fascinating features of Angkor vat that a person must go about the work deliberately if he is to study the building in detail. So long as he stands on the causeway before the first staircase he is conscious only of what lies ahead of him, a vision so ethereal that it might well be a mirage or a thing of moon-dust dropped from Indra’s heaven.” 

(source: Four Faces of Shiva - By Robert J Casey p. 270 - 277).  For more refer to chapter on Suvarnabhumi, Seafaring in Ancient India, War in Ancient India and India on Pacific Waves?

Top of Page


Splendid Sculptures 

Most of the elegant bronze statues in the temples have all but disappeared, except portion of this huge statue of Lord Vishnu. It testifies to the excellent workmanship of the Khmer. The smaller statues and ornaments found reveal a high level of technical and artistic skill. They were made by the lost wax technique and some parts were often cast separately and then riveted together. Some were decorated with precious metals. Sadly none of the articles made of gold, silver or alloys of precious metals referred to in the Khmer inscriptions, known as samrit, have survived, apart from the magnificent Nandi, the bull ridden by Lord Shiva.

 

  

Lord Ganesha now in Guimet Museum Paris. Besides the deities of the Trinity, the Khmer royalty also worshipped Ganesha and Hanuman, who was a devotee of Lord Rama.

Hinduism bestows on the worshipper freedom to see God in any form: The Indian artist did not hesitate to indicate the omnipresence of a God by giving him several faces and forms.

  As an American professor Abraham Kaplan, in his book, The New World of Philosophy p. 207says:

“It is paradoxical that we, (we in the West)  who put so much emphasis on individualism in economics and politics, have so little room for it in morality and religion, as compared with Indian thought.”

***

Philip Rawson ( ?  )  academic, artist, Keeper of the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and archaeology at the University of Durham and author of The Art of Southeast Asia has remarked:

"The sculptures of Indian icons produced in Cambodia during the 6th century to the 8th centuries AD are masterpieces, monumental, subtle, highly sophisticated, mature in style and unrivalled for sheer beauty anywhere in India. 

A number of Buddhist figures were carved in the same style. None of the Buddhist images therefore attained the same sensuous suggestiveness as those of the Hindu deities. Where a Hindu king would derive his royal authority from a Hindu deity, a king who was a Buddhist would find it difficult to derive similar authority from the Buddha himself, who was a humble mendicant." 

“One of the most interesting pieces of all is a fragmentary bronze bust, from the western Mebon, of the God Vishnu lying asleep on the ocean of non-being. Head and shoulders and the two right arms survive. It shows the extraordinary, delicate integrity and subtle total convexity of surface, which these sculptors could achieve by modeling. Eyebrows, moustache and eyes seem to have been inlaid, perhaps with gold, silver or precious tone, though the inlay is gone and only the sockets remain. This was one of the world’s great sculptures. "   

 

Lord Shiva and Uma from Banteay Srei. 10the century, sandstone. 

 The chief iconic image from the site is a splendid sculpture of Shiva seated, holding his wife Uma on his left knee. The massive cubical forms give a grandiose impression of power. 

***

Another magnificent bronze of Shiva, from Por Loboeuk, suggests the wealth of metal art that once must have existed in Cambodia (Kamboja) at the height of its power."

Indian influences in early Khmer or Sambor art is so marked that some scholars have suggested the artists came form India. The statues are extremely beautiful, but only a few have survived. The most exquisite of these are the statues of Harihara, Uma and Lakshmi in the Phnom Penh museum.  The chief iconic image from the site is a splendid sculpture of Shiva seated, holding his wife Uma on his left knee. The massive cubical forms give a grandiose impression of power. 

 

Harihara of Kambuja.

 

Lord Ganesha: symbolizes, Intellect, Wisdom and Learning.

Watch Ganapati Om Kirtan - By Dave Stringer.

(image source: Angkor: Splendors of the Khmer Civilization - By Marilia Albanese p. 25).

***

Lord Shiva: From Hariharalaya with Broken arms.

Nandi: Lord Shiva's vahana.

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

 

  

Varun: Lord of Sea. 10th century. Phnom Penh Musuem.

The image of Lord Vishnu is reproduced 1,020 times on the sides of the monument found in Preah Khan, now in the Guimet Museum, Paris.

(image source: Angkor: Splendors of the Khmer Civilization - By Marilia Albanese).

***

Head of Lord Shiva from Por Loboeuk, Siem Reap. 11th century, gilded bronze. This life-size head once had glazed and colored inlays which would have given vivid expression on the face.

 

Lord Brahma - 12th century.

***

Silver head of Lord Vishnu, region of Wat Phu (Laos) (8th century) now in mutilated condition.

 Discovered more than ten years ago by two companions who tried to share it between them by dividing it into two with an axe. It entered the collection of the Princes of Champassak in this mutilated condition. 

The eyes must have been inlaid; gold leaf still covers the lips. From under his cylindrical mitre Vishnu's curly hair covers the nape of his neck. The very gentle face is lit by an ineffable smile.

***

No one knows in which of the temples in Wat Phu in Laos, the silver statue of Lord Vishnu was worshipped, only its head has been found in the waters of a little stream, near the Lingaparvata. This exquisite piece is probably of 8th century date. The sumptuous material, the fine workmanship, the nobility of the features and more than all else the infinite sweetness of its smile make this image, sadly mutilated though it is, one of the most extraordinary masterpieces of southeast Asia. It bears witness to the piety and splendor of the princes of Chenla from whom all the Khmer kings were to proclaim their descent.

(source: The Civilization of Angkor – by Mideline Giteau   p. 80 – 82). 

For more on The Glorious Hindu Legacy: Indic influence in Southeast Asia refer to the chapter under Glimpses XII to Glimpses XIX

Top of Page


Conclusion

Angkor Wat, the greatest of Khmer temples, is a text in itself. The hundreds of reliefs sculpted on its stones narrate the events from the Hindu Epics and the Puranas, and symbolically communicate the fundamental religious, philosophical, ethical and political principles of the Khmers at the time of Suryavarman. Varman was a title given to Kings and Pandita was title given to Brahmins. 

Philip Rawson (   )  academic, artist, Keeper of the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and archaeology at the University of Durham and author of The Art of Southeast Asia says that Angkor Vat is the crowning work of Khmer architecture, carrying to their high point all the features of earlier styles. But Rawson could not help noting ``the ultimate foundations of the style remain what they always were, securely Indian, reminiscent of the late Pallava and Chola art in south-eastern India.''

Kampuchea in the national language of Khmer was the ancient Kambujadesa or Kambuja. Chinese chronicles of the third century have recorded the rise of an Indian state in the Mekong valley and named it Funan and by the fifth century it was known as Kambuja as recorded by Sanskrit inscriptions there. Kambuja was one of the many India-colonised states, which included Pagan in Burma, Srivijaya in the Indonesian isles and Champa in Vietnam. From 802 AD to the end of the 14th century there was continuity in Hindu and Buddhist kings ruling over the region with their dynasties. The most famous of them were Suryavarman II and Jayavarman VII who built the great Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom respectively in the 12th and 13th centuries.

The glory of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom which highlighted the perfection of the fusion of Indian and Khmer art and architecture was unparalleled in those times when they were constructed. These temple complexes included the palaces of the kings and dwelling places for numerous others.

 

Lord Krishna Govardhan of Wat Koh style of the Phnom Da style, 6th century. National Museum, Phnom Penh.

The statue represents Krishna, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, in the act of raising Mount Govardhan to provide shelter for flocks and shepherds during a raging storm unleashed by the God Indra. The curly hairdo and Krishna's garment reveal the influence of Indian sculpture of the post-Gupta period.

Recently an Ancient statue of Lord Vishnu has been found in Russian town of the Volga region For more on The Glorious Hindu Legacy: Indic influence in Southeast Asia refer to the chapters Suvarnabhumi and Glimpses XII to Glimpses XIX.

***

The bas-reliefs in the temples depicting the epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are without compare. The apsaras of Angkor who number 1850 are rare specimens of art and no two are alike. Many western explorers and historians have written eloquently on these monuments:” “Undeniably an expression of the highest genius”. 

“Its beauty and state of preservation are unrivalled. Its mightiness and magnificence bespeak a pomp and luxury surpassing that of a Pharaoh or a Shah Jahan, an impressiveness greater than that of the Pyramids, an artistic distinctiveness as fine as that of the Taj Mahal” are some of their observations. The kings were Saivites, Vaishnavites and Buddhists and true to the Indian tradition the entire pantheon of gods and goddesses are there. The Kambuja kings were contemporaries of Chalukyas, Guptas, Pallavas and Cholas and they maintained close ties with them.

Every king added to the construction of temples to commemorate his rule and the extensive building of monuments over the years depleted the resources of the empire. The decline of the Cambodian or Khmer Kingdom was brought about by wars with Thailand whose kings defeated the Khmers and destroyed Angkor Thom. There was a long period of lawless drift for about four centuries and by the early 19th century the French colonisers had arrived and Cambodia became a French Protectorate in 1863. In the post second world war phase, Cambodia gained her freedom in 1953. Inevitably ‘however, Cambodia got embroiled in the 20-year-long war which the Americans unleashed in the neighbouring Vietnam.  

 

Image of Angkor wat on the flag of Cambodia.

To the Cambodians Angkor wat symbolizes the soul of the nation.  

***

King Norodom Sihanouk tried to maintain a neutral posture which was a red rag to the Americans who manoeuvred to get him ousted and install a puppet regime headed by Lon Nol in 1970. The Americans carried out bombing raids in the eastern region of Cambodia, apart from Laos, to obliterate the famous Ho Chi Minh trail, which was the lifeline of the Vietcongs. 

It is estimated that the US bombings killed up to four lakhs of Cambodians.

(source: The glory and the agony of Cambodia - By T. V. Rajeswar - tribuneindia.com).  For more refer to chapter on Suvarnabhumi, Seafaring in Ancient India, War in Ancient India and India on Pacific Waves?

The culture is frozen in time, limited to concepts from the Vedas, Ramayana and Mahabharata, unlike temples in India that are Puranic. Every temple recreates the ancient concept of jambudvipa with Mount Meru at the center, as a tall multi-tiered pyramid. The garbagriha at the top of Meru is a literal recreation of the womb of the universe, and the deity within is the source of creation."

The outside walls are decorated with the gods, dvarapalas and beautiful apsaras with whom the local women identify. Indra on Airavata, Krishna lifting Govardhana, the Vali-Sugriva battle and Ravana shaking Kailasa are among the popular subjects. Often, Rahu and Ketu are carved on lintels, a rare sight in India. 

The main object of veneration may be the Shiva Linga or Vishnu or the Buddha, but the walls would contain stories of Rama, Krishna and the ascetic Shiva on a hill. The most popular motif is the samudra manthana, the churning of the ocean by the devas and asuras for the divine nectar, where the tortoise is the base on which Mount Meru is placed and churned, unlike later Indian literature where Vishnu is identified with the tortoise. There are several Sanskrit inscriptions written in Pallava Grantha. 

Surrounding the Angkor temples is the temple tank or Indratataka, a typically South Indian feature wrongly described as a moat by European.

(source: The Temples of Angkor - By Nandita Krishna).

Stones that speak a story

 

Goddess Lakshmi. 

(image source: Musee Guimet, Paris).

***

It is surprising that the Hindu temples and traditions in Cambodia are so meagerly mentioned while discussing the Hindu history in India and in the West.

If stones can speak, the sculptures in Cambodia will tell the story of glory, when Hindu kings built grandiose temples, the times when the precincts were crowded with devotees, art lovers and the sad tale of loot and plunder and mining they are subject to now. The Hindu temples were built in Cambodia between the ninth and 12th Century and are strikingly similar to the temples in Tamil Nadu and Kalinga (Orissa) areas, in India. It is surprising that the Hindu temples and traditions in Cambodia are so meagerly mentioned while discussing the Hindu history.

The ‘reverse-reclining’ Vishnu, i.e, Vishnu whose head is on the right (commonly it is on the left) and the eight-armed Vishnu are found in abundance in Cambodia. These two figures are prominent in the three temples—Vaikunta Perumal, Tiru Vekha and Asahta-bhujakaram—in Kanchipuram. According to Dr Vasudha, the eighth century three-storied Vaikunta Perumal temple is the prototype for the 12th century three-storied west-facing temple at Angkor Wat, built by Suryavarman II.

West-facing temples are not common in Cambodia. But there are several in Tamil Nadu. The 12 Bhakti saints of the Vaishnava sect called Azhvars have sung in great devotion about these shrines. Most Hindu temples are built in accordance with the astronomical calculations. The Angkor Wat is a classical example of this architectural grammar. On certain days of the year, like the spring equinox, the sun rises over the central tower of the temple. At another spot, the sun falls on the carving of Bhisma, on the day of Uttarayana, when he gave up his mortal body, using his boon for death on desire. The similarities do not end here. 

The tradition of carving Vishnu, in the sayana posture in the open is seen in Kalinga as well as Cambodia.

(source: Stones that speak a story - By Vaidehi Nathan - organiser.org).

Cambodian Appreciation

Unlike other countries, Cambodia does not minimize Indian influence on the local culture. On the contrary, the people of the country generously acknowledge it. 

In a similar vein of appreciation, Norodom Sihanouk, Head  of the State of the Royal Government of Cambodia (1954-1970 and, again, since 1993) had on the occasion of the inauguration of the Jawaharlal Nehru Boulevard  in Phnom Penh, on 10 May 1955, traced the cultural evolution in Southeast Asia to the pervasive Indian cultural influence:   

“When we refer to thousand year old ties which unite us with India, it is not at all a hyperbole. In fact, it was about 2000 years ago that the first navigators, Indian merchants and Brahmins brought to our ancestors their gods, their techniques, their organization. Briefly India was for us what Greece was to Latin Orient. “  

(source: The Fossilized Indian Culture of Southeast Asia - By Y Yagama Reddy). 

For more on The Glorious Hindu Legacy: Indic influence in Southeast Asia refer to the chapter under Glimpses XII to Glimpses XIX

Today's Cambodia

Although in the Khmer language there are many words meaning "king", the word officially used in Khmer (as found in the 1993 Cambodian Constitution) is preahmâhaksat (Khmer regular script: which literally means: preah- ("sacred", cognate of the Indian word Brahmin) -mâha- (from Sanskrit, meaning "great", cognate with "maha-" in maharaja) -ksat ("warrior, ruler", cognate of the Indian word Kshatriya).

 

Garuda: Lord Vishnu's mount.

***

On the occasion of HM King Norodom Sihanouk's retirement in October 2004, the Cambodian National Assembly coined a new word for the retired king: preahmâhaviraksat (Khmer regular script: where vira comes from Sanskrit vīra, meaning "brave or eminent man. Preahmâhaviraksat is translated into English as "King-Father", although the word "father" does not appear in the Khmer noun. As preahmâhaviraksat, Norodom Sihanouk retains many of the prerogatives he formerly held as preahmâhaksat and is a highly respected and listened-to figure. Thus, in effect, Cambodia can be described as a country with two heads of state: an official one, the preahmâhaksat Norodom

(source:  Cambodia - wikipedia.org).

 

Head from Bantay Srei with the third eye, an attribute of Lord Shiva.

To Siva, to the Lord of the eternal thoughts, to the One Being who, 
To gratify himself by creating, conserving and destroying, divided
himself into three supreme gods: 

He who was born from the lotus, Brahma;
He who has the eyes of the lotus, Vishnu;
He who has three eyes, Siva;
Three supreme gods on whom the Powers repose. 

To him whose knot of hair adorned with the new moon, saluted as 
greater than the three Vedas, is the seed which brings forth Brahma,
Hari and Isvara when it divides into three according to its elements;
Whom the saints call the manifestation of the Absolute, only to be 
understood by ecstasy; to the blessed Siva let homage be paid.

May he bring you prosperity!

(text and image source: Angkor: Art and Civilization – By Bernard Groslier p. 24 and cover).

For a documentary on Hindu temples, refer to The Lost Temples of India.

***

Visitors thoughts on seeing Angkor wat:

An American visitor, in her enthusiasm for Angkor, made the request that her ashes be scattered on the causeway of Angkor Wat - a satisfaction granted to her at the beginning of 1936. Such a gesture symbolises the extraordinary power which these ancient ruins have on peoples' imagination.  

"The size and scale of things is remarkable - ruins extend for miles; each is big and there are so many!"

"The Angkor Wat temple is the symbol of present day Cambodia. It is depicted on the national flag and on the current 500 Riel banknote, whose value is about US$ 0,20. "

"Angkor wat and the surrounding wonder world of temples and sites. Coming from New Zealand this is the first real taste of human history I’ve been able to come face to face with on such a huge scale. It completely blew me away. I’ve never been moved by a work of art, so colossal and serene. So detailed and rich, full of stories and characters, carved immaculately and so peacefully beautiful. The relics of a people who built temples as cities.. The smiling of bayon temple, the old temples now with towering trees and jungle growing over them, through them, with them, testimony to their age and the movement of time. Next to these things I was lost, such a speck.specktate."

"I've seen the Pyramids in Egypt, the Parthenon in Athens, the Great Wall of China, and the Rome Colleseum, but I think the Temples of Angkor Wat beat them all.  "Think of the world in the 8th to 15th century, when they were burning witches in Britain, and Australia and America hadn't been discovered."  


***

Timeless yet timeworn, grand but intimate, oblivious to the passing centuries even as the jungle devours its huge stone walls, Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and the scores of temples that surround it hint at eternity, only to remind us that nothing is eternal.

To the casual eye the stone of Angkor may seem permanent, but it has only lasted longer than its builders. These great temples to the Hindu Gods are at the mercy of the ultimate destroyer named in The Mahabharata:

“Time (Kala) ripens the creatures, Time rots them.”  

***

Symbols of Hindu deities. Angkor 7th century.

This stele dating from 7th century, engraved with the symbols of the deities of the Hindu Trimurti or Triple form adopted by the Divine to emanate, control and dissolve the universe. The rosary, jug of water, lotus blossom on the left, are associated with Lord Brahma, the trident in the center is the emblem of Lord Shiva, and the shell, sunburst disc, and mace on the right character Lord Vishnu. Now in Musee Guimet, Paris.

(image source: Angkor: Splendors of the Khmer Civilization - By Marilia Albanese).

***

Note to Visitors:  Go visit Angkor 

Editor's Note:  I had an opportunity to visit Angkor Wat in the Winter of 2006.  It has been a life long dream to visit this magnificent and grand architectural monument to the creative impulses that emanated from ancient India.  Angkor Wat represents a combination of Indic influence and achievements which were accomplished without setting out to conquer or subjugate any races or countries.

Angkor wat is a spectacular structure of astronomical significance that has ever been built in the world. Astronomy and Hindu cosmology are inseparably entwined at Angkor Wat. Nowhere is this more evident than in the interior colonnade, which is dedicated to vast and glorious carved murals, bas-reliefs illustrating the scenes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Rarely in history has any culture given rise to a structure that so elaborately and expansively incorporates its concept of the cosmos. Angkor Wat stands as a striking and majestic monument in honor of the Universe and our place in it.

I urge Hindus and non-Hindus to take their children to visit this marvel of the ancient world, as simply standing in front of the colonnade of intricate and exquisitely carved walls and reliefs from the Sanskrit epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata provides one with the true meaning of Eternity.

 

(image source: Angkor: Splendors of the Khmer Civilization - By Marilia Albanese).

***

 

For the rest of the chapter refer to the links listed below:

Sacred Angkor
Sacred Angkor Part 2
Sacred Angkor Part 3

***

Books and Images used for this chapter:

 

  1. Heaven's Mirror: Quest for the Lost Civilization - By Graham Hancock and Santha Faiia

  2. Saving Angkor - By C M Bhandari 

  3. Four Faces of Shiva - By Robert J Casey

  4. India and World Civilization – D P Singhal

  5. Angkor Wat and cultural ties with India - By K M Srivastava

  6. Angkor: Splendors of the Khmer Civilization - By Marilia Albanese

  7. The Cultural History of Angkor - By Henri Stierlin

  8. Ancient Cambodia - By Donatella Mazzeo

  9. Ancient Angkor - By Michael Freeman

  10. Sacred Angkor - By Vittorio Roveda

  11. Angkor: The Hidden Glories - By Michael Freeman and Roger Warner

  12. Angkor the Magnificent - By Helen Churchill Candee  

  13. The spread of Indian culture in Southeast Asia - By George Coedes

  14. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia - By George Coedes

  15. Sacred Places of Asia: Where Every Breath Is A Prayer - By Jon Ortner 

  16. Escape with me – By Sir Osbert Sitwell

  17. Greater India - By Arun Bhattacharjee 

  18. The Culture of South-East Asia - By Reginald Le May

  19. The Indian Colony of Siam - By Phanindra Nath Bose

  20. Angkor and the Khmer empire - By John Audric

***

Top of Page


Did You Know?

Ancient Thailand Shiva Temple To Experience Rare Alignment with Sun   

 

Phnom Rung on the royal road between Angkor wat and Phimai, was built by Suryavarman II.

(image source: Angkor: Splendors of the Khmer Civilization - By Marilia Albanese p. 274 - 275).

***

Chalermphrakiat district, Buri Ram province, Thailand March 20, 2006:

Phnom Rung, on the royal road between Angkor and Phimai, was built early in the reign of Suryavarman II (1112-1152) by Narendraditya, a local ruler and kinsman of the king. The east-facing axial temple is built upon a hill ("phnom" means "hill" in the Khmer language). The temple is approached by a long east-west causeway (160m, or 530') that is lined with lotus-bud posts.

In Hindu and Buddhist cosmology, mountains are believed to be homes to the Gods. Prasat Hin Khao Phanom Rung, a magnificent temple sanctuary set on the summit of Phanom Rung Hill, was built between the 10th and 13th centuries. According to the stone inscriptions in Sanskrit and Khmer found at the site, the original name of the temple complex is Phanom Rung, Khmer words meaning "big mountain." 

 

       

Shiva Nataraja: doing his cosmic dance and Shiva as a yogi. © Michael Freeman

***

A religious sanctuary dedicated to the Hindu God, Siva, Prasat Hin Khao Phanom Rung symbolizes Mount Kailasa, the heavenly abode of Siva. Phanom Rung Hill rises 350 metres above the surrounding plain. 

Astrologers have predicted that an extraordinary astro-archaeological phenomenon will occur at sunrise during the April 3-5 period this year. The doors of the temple sanctuary are so perfectly aligned that during this period, at sunrise on a cloudless day with clear blue skies, the sun's rays will shine through all fifteen doorways of the sanctuary in a single shaft of light.

These magnificent man-made sandstone sanctuaries, often referred to as palaces of the Gods, sit atop hills rising above the high plains of I-san and still bear witness to the half millennium from the 9th to 14th centuries during which a powerful Khmer state flourished in the region, including what is today northwestern Cambodia. These extraordinary towers comprise elements of temple architecture meant to symbolise Mount Meru, the mythical peak at the center of the Hindu-Buddhist universe. 

Sometimes referred to as "high Cambodia," the provinces of Buri Ram, Surin, Nakhon Ratchasima and Sisaket were a perfect setting for the development of these Meru microcosms. 

Although Thai folk belief once held that the larger, cruciform-plan monuments served as palaces for Angkor's all-powerful kings, in fact these buildings were designed as temporary abodes for Siva, Vishnu, Maitreya and other Deities called to earth via religious ritual. To the east of I-san's temple-dotted plateaus lay the river valleys of "low Cambodia," the heartland of Angkorean civilization where its kings resided.

A sacred "superhighway" linked Prasat Phimai with 12th-century Angkor Wat, the largest and most complex of the Khmer temples. Angkor rulers were at the time considered to be devaraja or "god-kings," and to maintain that vaunted status they and their priests periodically travelled between key monuments to perform complex ceremonies involving fire, water, and Sivalingam. Monuments en route offered spiritual and temporal support along these potentially arduous journeys, including 102 "houses with fire" and 121 "hospitals" or "healing stations" (arokayasala). These structures became so important to the sanctity of the Angkor empire that some 300 Khmer shrines were erected between the 7th and 13th centuries. Temple construction reached its zenith in the 12th and 13th centuries.

(source: Tourism Authority of Thailand and Hinduism Today and A Guide to Khmer Temples in Thailand and Laos - By Michael Freeman p. 168 - 195 and 238 - 240). For more on Thailand, refer to chapter on Glimpses XVI

For the rest of the chapter refer to the links listed below:

Sacred Angkor
Sacred Angkor Part 2
Sacred Angkor Part 3

For more refer to chapters on Suvarnabhumi, Seafaring in Ancient India, War in Ancient India, Glimpses XVI and India on Pacific Waves?

For more on The Glorious Hindu Legacy: Indic influence in Southeast Asia refer to the chapter under Glimpses XII to Glimpses XIX

Top of Page

 

 

                                        

 

 

                              

 

 

 

h o m e

s a c r e d    a n g k o r    p a r t    4

c o n t e n t s

Copyright © 2006 - All Rights Reserved.

Guest Book

Updated - October 28, 2008