Many faces of Siem Reap- Bayon Temple

Our trip to Siem Reap started with my favorite Temple of the lot, The Bayon Temple after a sumptuous breakfast at the resort. We needed every bit of that energy to walk through the beautiful Temple. I had booked a taxi and a guide for the trip through the Temples all through the internet. And they were there at the hotel right on time! Always. They spoke good English and were quite helpful and informative.

The Cambodians or Khmer kings were Hindus and seem to have enjoyed the Indian epics very much. What connection the country had, with the Indians is not very clear. But Mahabharata, Ramayana, Dasa Avatars have special place in their culture. Especially churning of the ocean for the nectar. The entrance to the Bayon temple is decorated by the huge sculptures of Vasuki and the Devas and Asuras pulling.

Asura side of the churning of the ocean.

Moat around the Bayon Temple

Enormity of the carvings.

Cool Asura side for churning the ocean :)

Eastern entrance to the Bayon Temple. A small sample of the grandeur ahead.

Moat around Bayon Temple

The many faces of Bayon Temple

The Bayon Temple

The Bayon Temple holds the ashes of the king Jayavarman II who built this wonder. Dedicating the temple to the God-king (himself) he has made 50 towers each with his face on all four sides. They all look exactly alike and they look so serene like Buddha. Narcissism to the next level!

The temple is built over a raised platform and we were able to climb to the top most level too. Some places were restricted due to safety issues. 

There 4 faced tower in Bayon

The sculptures at the Bayon are about the campaign the king took to defeat all the warring neighbors 

The Khmers are depicted with short hair and long ears while the Chinese allies have long hairdos and long beards. This is a relief the King attacking and capturing the neighboring Champa.

Apsaras dancing. Note their fingers.

Apsara dances are quite popular in Siem Reap. With every hotel proclaiming to have the best Apsara dance with extensive dinner buffet. I felt that the dance while really wonderful, was so repetitive. We had attended Apsara dance at two places and I felt they did the same fisherman dance, fish and monkey dance, Apsara with monkey dance etc. Kinda got bored after sometime. But the pains the dancers must go through to keep their fingers all curved up while having the beautiful headdress on~ That's something!

Snake obsession at the Bayon

The faced sculpture looks unique, the temple is in ruins.

Walls were well decorated but still had the shallow carvings

Originally a Buddha sculpture, it was later "touched up" to represent Lord Shiva. The hairdo has been added later.

Bayon Temple was originally a Buddhist Temple. The King Jayavarman, accommodating both Hinduism and Buddhism.

Lots of photo ops :)

Big Buddha near the Bayon complex. New additions near the old Temple.

The King's private Temple close to the Bayon in Angkor Thom

The ruins near Bayon

Artifacts we discovered while resting our poor little legs. 

Statues of lions are seen everywhere but surprisingly there were/are no lions in Cambodia. The guide said that these were again depicted due to Indian influence.

Angkor Wat - The gem in Cambodia

As one of the most corrupt developing nations in Asia, engulfed in a turbulent war until 1991, Siem Reap in Cambodia does seem like an odd choice for a vacation destination. But the gems it holds beneath the rough exterior is just too precious to miss.

  Siem Reap, Cambodia houses the largest religious monument in the world. The Ankor Wat Temple. The Temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu and then later became a Buddhist Temple. Though i had read the dimensions , imagined it quite a lot, nothing ever prepares you for the size and grandeur of the building. The moat itself threw me off with its 109m width which took me quite sometime to cross in the hot sun. The water in the moat plays an important role in holding the Temple in place. If the moat water recedes, the Temple will collapse. They had some clever architecture in the older times!

The Temple is surrounded by moats on all four sides

M for Moat for ABC Wednesday

Back Entrance to the massive structure

Upper galleries of the Temple. There is a law prohibiting any other structure to be more taller than the 65m which is the height of the Temple.

Open grounds at the Angkor Wat Temple

Walk, walk and more walk - mantra at the Angkor Wat!

It was a very interesting experience to try and catch the sunrise from the temple. It was 4:20 AM when we reached the moat. We were welcomed to officials holding torches and checking our ID. Later, when we crossed the moat and reached the Temple itself, we were greeted to candles glowing in selected places. UNESCO has not made electricity available in the Temple to protect it. Because of this, the Temple is closed every day around 5:30PM. I wish i had read about this somewhere before searching frantically to catch a night time/ariel view of the temple from the flight at about 2AM Korean time :( Anyway, i missed getting the special sunrise shot because it was cloudy that one day i made up mind to breathe in the 4 AM air.

On the way to see a cloudy sunrise 

Making the best use of a cloudy 4 AM

The gallery in the Angkor Wat

The Temples are grand but the pillars are bare

Sanskrit on the walls of the Temple

The Temple is built with sandstone cut and brought here from Kulen mountains that is a good 55kms from this place. They used bamboo and elephants to build it. The carvings are done are superficial and not so deep and even unfinished in a lot of places. Is it because they had to do a lot of carvings that they did not give in their 100%? "I am sure his mom was not around when he was building this one" quips my son rolling his eyes!

Unfinished and superficial but elegant carvings in the Angkor Wat Temple

Carved lotus on the ceilings of the Angkor Wat Temple

 The carvings on the Temple were from the epics of India- Ramayana and Mahabharata including the battle between Vali and Sugreeva, the Kurukshetra war and also many Indian deities. There was a huge relief from the churning of the ocean for the nectar. This seemed to be a popular legend among the Khmer people as this legend is depicted in a lot of other places in Siem Reap. Then there were also carvings from the war campaigns of the then king Suryavarman II and also the daily life of the people.

God of Death, Yama on the walls of the Angkor Wat

Beautiful carvings of lotus on the walls of the Temple

Unfinished carvings

Beautiful carvings on the window

Ramayana on the wall- King Rama

Suryavarman II - The king who built this largest religious monument in the world. 

The Temple was built in the 12 century is not in great shape and has been protected by the UNESCO World Heritage and has been under the renovation by the Archaeological Survey of India. The Temple structure still holds but there were many places where we could see ruins.

Ruins near the temple

Sandstone and volcanic rock in ruins near the temple 

More ruins close to the Temple

Prayer stones

Lots of lotus and lilies in the lake close to the Temple