Awesome

(By Susan)

What is it about men with too much wealth and power?  They always seem to have to build a thing that’s very big and very tall.  And make in the image that they imagine for themselves.  Angkor follows in that tradition.  But this time it’s fabulous.

Angkor Wat - the symbol of the place

Yet-to-be-rebuilt blocks in the Angkor Wat temple grounds

The UNESCO site at Angkor is vast.  It’s gobsmacking in its scale.  It’s wondrous in its many forms and detail.  It’s evidence of a powerful and complex city-state.  It’s an edifice to a mighty dynasty.  The home of more than a million people – kings, courtiers, vendors, construction workers, artisans, slaves.  The entire site spans over 400Km² – 40,000 hectares (that’s 98,840(ish) acres in the old money).  I think the word ‘awesome’ is appropriate to use here.

Bas-reliefs at Angkor Wat.  Elephants, and umbrellas.  Wat came first?

Collonades and courtyards at Angkor Wat

The site itself contains a range of temples and their associated palaces, libraries, towers, moats, reservoirs, causeways, promenades, follies… Some were in use before others, and some were in operation contemporaneously.  They are all orientated so that their walls face North, South, East and West.  They are all decorated with bas-reliefs, and sculptures, and design, and landscaping.  They were all designed to impress.  Even now, the scale, bulk, and strength of their construction is more impressive than most more recent constructions.  In many, the faces of Buddha or Vishnu are said to bear an uncanny resemblance to whichever King was in power at the time.  The concept of a God-King is ever-present across the continents.

Bas-reliefs in the columns

One of the older areas

In the couple of days we had, it was impossible to visit them all, but by the end we certainly had a feeling for the grandeur and enormity of it all.

Promenade capacity to escape from the heat

Our tuk tuk driver, Mao, had clearly done this once or twice before, and was able to tell us which would be the best way to approach the task, which to do when we had the most energy, what time we should meet him if we wanted to catch the sunrise, and even what to take us to when we asked if we could “just look at a small one before lunch”!

 

A little one before lunch

Duelling guide books: Lonely Planet & the one that cost $15 - you can ask Dermot & Rory about that one...

The whole area was rediscovered by the French, and a range of nations have assisted in the archeology, recovery, and reconstruction of various temples and palaces.  French, Japanese, and Indian scientific teams, amongst others, have taken a lead in the mammoth task of restoration.  If the scale of construction was huge, the scale of the reconstruction, solving the puzzle of what-goes-where, hauling the enormous blocks into position, was almost as huge.  We couldn’t help thinking that the symmetry and formality of the buildings in their landscape would have pleased the French aesthetic.  Reconstruction was underway in some of the locations, blocks lay scattered in others, and recently-fashioned blocks and sculptures had been placed in others.  I thought of the craftsmanship, masonry and artisan skills that must have been revived and remembered to recreate some of these buildings, walls, and causeways.

Puzzle-pieces waiting for action

A causeway surrounded by artificial lakes (it's dry season) and more blocks

So atmospheric

Angkor Wat is the tourist and publicity face of the whole site, but each temple and palace has its own character and unique design.  Some were 60 and 70 years in construction, gathering sandstone blocks from up to 100 kilometers away.  We wondered how many artists worked on the bas-reliefs and sculptures – did one person get the pencil out and many others fill in the relief work after he’d done the design-work?  We also wondered whether it was these Cambodian people who had invented the umbrella…

Waiting for the sunrise

Lotus before dawn

Nearly there.....

We saw Angkor Wat in all its grandeur (and again at some stupid time of the morning that neither Rory nor I recognised…  mind you, I think Rory’s seen it more recently than I as a bookend for a long-night-out or two). We saw the Bayon – a stunning piece of ancient science-fiction.  It is like a giant maze with its tunnels and corridors and sets of steps and its sculptures and its building blocks that are covered sporadically with lichen. And everywhere, that Face.  It’s behind you, beside you, in front of you, at the end of the terrace, on the parapet, in the wall, as you turn the corner.  It’s there.  It’s from Dr Who.  I’m glad I didn’t think of the Stone Angels while I was there or I wouldn’t have slept for nights.  It is a marvellous thing.  I think I could have spent an entire morning there.  Just in that one temple.

Entrance to Angkor Thom - across the bridge to the gate

The faces

The face

How many faces?

Rory had looked forward to the Terrace of the Elephants at Angkor Thom.  Just as we crossed to where it is, we saw a couple taking an elephant-ride past it.  It stopped us in our tracks a little.  He was envious.  We could tell.  He said earlier that the elephant had been following him during this trip.  He bought a wall-hanging with an image of Ganesha in our first few days in Bangkok.  In his next life he’s coming back as an elephant.  “Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom.”  That works for Rory.

Along the Terrace of the Elephants - bas-relief....

minor sculptures.....

.....  and the real thing

We didn’t see Angelina, but we did see the temple that featured in her movie “Tomb Raider”.  We also haven’t seen the movie, but the temple was seriously incredible.  At Ta Prohm, nature had begun to conquer what man had built.  The walls had become heaped blocks tied together with wandering Strangler Fig roots – Heaven only knows how the various archaeological teams put any of it back together.  But they have.  Again, steps and corridors and bas-reliefs and shrines and colonnades.  Incredible work.  I wonder if they do jig-saws for relaxation….?

Nature makes its presence felt

What's holding up what?

 

Reconstruction works

Reconstruction works

In the end, perhaps the God-Kings have achieved the immortality they were so in search of....  certainly we're still talking about them, and are still amazed at the structures they made happen and the feats that they and their artisans & designers achieved.