Man’s connection to the divine
August 13, 2006 | 12:00am
No matter how many times you come across the images of Angkor – in evocative black and white photographs or in documentary features – nothing compares to seeing it firsthand. I suppose that is true of all historical monuments. Great works of art always exceed one’s expectation, particularly when born out of divine inspiration. The temples of Angkor, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992, stretch over an area of 400 square kilometers, each conceived as a heavenly abode on earth by the Khmer kings to honor various Hindu gods. For centuries Angkor was unknown to the Western world until French explorers came upon the site in the late 19th century.
The French naturalist Henri Mouhot who rediscovered Angkor Wat in 1860 described the grandeur of the site as " a rival to the temple of Solomon, erected by some ancient Michelangelo – it is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome." Since Mouhot hand-painted the first maps of Angkor, the French have done much to decode and interpret Cambodia’s history and give it back to the people. Whether one would go as far as Mouhot’s description, Angkor Wat is indeed spectacular, visually and conceptually. For many photographers, its sheer dimension makes it a challenging pictorial subject. It was intended, after all, as a microcosm of the Hindu universe.
The stone temples of Angkor reveal a complex belief system that stems from Hindu and Buddhist texts, shedding light on the kings and artisans who spent their lifetimes engaged in "merit-making" to ensure their places in the celestial realm. This is heady stuff for any traveler who wants to make heads or tails of the extensive bas-reliefs and the various decorative elements seen in the numerous temples that comprise Angkor complex. The name Angkor comes from the Sanskrit word nagara, meaning holy city. It is also the modern name for the complex of monuments and the empire that would become the largest and most important in Southeast Asia, spanning from the 9th to the 15th century.
My journey began at the Amansara – the former Villa Princière built in the 1960s for the guests of King Norodom Sihanouk. It is located in Siem Reap, the seat of the Khmer culture and lies 10 minutes away from the Angkor complex. The property was acquired by Amanresorts in 2002 and converted into an intimate hotel with 24 suites. The suites are situated around a low-slung dwelling, fronting a garden courtyard on one side, and a swimming pool at the opposite end. The ambience is much like staying in a private home. Guests are invited to help themselves to home-baked sweets, and a selection of wine and cheese is served in the main dining room throughout the day. All suites have flourishes of Khmer arts including occasional wall carvings, silk sarongs, lotus-filled native baskets and souvenirs placed by your bed every night. Like its sister resorts in other parts of Asia, the Amansara is a study in contrasting light and dark neutrals, enhanced with a contemporary flair. As it is mainly a cultural resort, there are a list of excursions and "house outings" that explore the length and breadth of the local culture, including visits to pre-Angkorian monuments, the Conservation d’Angkor which houses over 5,000 pieces of Khmer art, and the floating villages of the Tonle Sap lake, one of the world’s richest sources of freshwater fish.
Every evening, the Amansara highlights various aspects of the Khmer life and culture. An ancient form of shadow puppetry depicts episodes from one of the best-loved Hindu legends, the Ramayana. It is said that epic has inspired Khmer arts for centuries. The children of the Sangheum orphanage give performances of traditional dances with a grace and bearing worthy of an art form long cherished by Cambodia’s kings. Sophea Kagna, who trained in the royal dance school, gave us a short performance and talk on classical Khmer ballet and its language of gestures. Kagna once traveled to Paris with Princess Bopa Devi to train a troupe of exiled Khmers in this most exalted art. On another evening, there was a presentation of the feature film, The Flute Player, narrated by the Cambodian-American Arn Chorn Pond who escaped the regime of the Khmer Rouge and later returned to his homeland to revive traditional Cambodian music with the help of master musicians. There, he confronted the ghosts of his past and shared a moving tale of trial and redemption. A memorable evening at the resort was the visit of Dr. Vittorio Roveda, the Italian art historian and author whose expertise is the interpretation of the bas-reliefs at Angkor and other important temples in Cambodia. Professor Roveda shared his extensive knowledge of the culture and clarified many of the complex aspects of Khmer history.
Apart from these cultural features, the Amansara houses a library with select and old volumes on Cambodian and Southeast Asian history authored by leading scholars from around the world. You can easily spend an afternoon engrossed in these books as a lost world leaps from their pages and comes alive again. Throughout the resort, an air of peace and serenity prevails. Local musicians render soothing sounds from their wind and string instruments in the circular dining room. As night falls, candles and soft lights lend the resort a romantic aura. A caring and attentive staff makes every effort to make you feel at ease and at home. The Indonesian executive chef Linda Wati Turnip makes her rounds in the dining room at lunch or dinnertime to inquire about guest preferences or special requests, often entertaining queries about Khmer cooking which is a medley of flavorful salads, stir-fried dishes and fragrant curries. The affable hotel manager, Toby Anderson, regularly checks in with guests to help with itineraries or excursions and just about anything else.
Outside the tranquil setting of the Amansara, the province of Siem Reap is waking up to the growing demands of the tourism industry, which has grown brisk in recent years. Road reconstruction efforts have been undertaken with aid from Japan and Korea. Thailand has provided funding for a museum that will house the arts and artifacts currently stored at the local conservancy. Craft and souvenir shops as well as popular hotel chains stand along the main roads and squares. The boutique hotel concept has arrived with the presence of the Hotel de la Paix. The current hip spot seems at odds with the provincial setting but caters to trend-seeking travelers. Visiting the sights of Angkor can be physically demanding depending on your fitness level and your tolerance for the heat. There is much to learn and to absorb here. The myths, legends, the pantheon of gods and goddesses depicted on the temples walls are complex in theme, particularly for those of other religious traditions. What ultimately stays with you are those first impressions of the ethereal Angkor Park with its majestic trees, the moat that surrounds Angkor Wat and elevates the structure to a sacred and heavenly plane. Though many temples in Angkor are in various stages of restoration, some were allowed to remain in their original state. There, the jungle encroaches upon the temple as the force of nature reclaims the ground once usurped by kings on a building spree. At the temple of Ta Prohm, the tall trees with their deep roots cling to the structure, becoming part of its haunting beauty. Further into the park, as you cross the five gates of the great capital of Angkor Thom, the gigantic faces of the Bodhisatva Lokesvara, the Buddhist ideal of compassion, crowns the structure facing four cardinal directions. Though these are by now a well-depicted pictorial subject, their sheer scale says much about the grandeur of Angkor during its golden age. The Bayon, the state temple of Angkor Thom was an architectural marvel built by King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th or 13th century. The temple’s 37 surviving towers depict the faces of the Bodhisatva Lokesvara. Within its walls, many of the bas-reliefs tell stories of everyday life. As you motor around the royal city, a long terrace at the center looks out to the royal square. Here, the king once stood to view processions and parades. The main wall is embellished with carvings of elephants and their mahouts in hunting scenes, and with the figures of the Garuda, a mythical bird-man figure known as the vehicle of the god, Vishnu.
It is said that the Khmer culture values the ornate and that the carving of images depicting religious themes and deities was one way to ensure passage to heaven. Though the Kings of Angkor were prolific builders and employed thousands of artisans and craftsmen, much has been lost to those who have laid claim to this land, and to the looters who have mercilessly defaced the decorative elements within the temples. At the Conservation d’Angkor, a repository of Khmer treasures from various sites and periods in Cambodian history, the French who have led restoration efforts as early as the 1900s work with the Cambodian government to catalogue and restore thousands of Khmer artifacts. Among those found here are inscriptions in ancient Khmer, stone carvings of religious and mythic figures and parts of decorative reliefs.
Among the most beautiful temples in Siem Reap are Banteay Srei and Banteay Samré, both a distance away from the center of Angkor and relatively small in scale as compared to its imposing temples. They are widely regarded as the "gems of Khmer architecture." Banteay Srei is built of pink sandstone with elaborately carved pediments, lintels and sanctuary towers. Banteay Srei was not a royal temple, but was built in the mid-10th century by the guru of the King Jayavarman V, Yajnavaraha. As Professor Vittorio Roveda points out, the most striking feature of the temple is its reduced scale which is half that of any other Khmer temple. Apart from the many myths depicted here, ornamental decorations abound in the form of vines, foliage, lotus flowers and mythological animals, giving the temple a distinctive elegance and graceful beauty. Banteay Samré is another 30 minutes away from Banteay Srei but is well worth the trip. Along the narrow roads that lead to the site are grassy fields and scenes of an agricultural and rural life where wooden huts dwell and children are seen playing along roadside stalls. Banteay Samré is said to be the most complete and best preserved of the Angkorian monuments as Professor Roveda observes in his book on Khmer mythology, further explaining that its decorations are of exceptional quality. It was built in the mid-12th century shortly after Angkor Wat, though its foundation is uncertain. The three large doorways to the temple are richly craved with narrative reliefs, while on the interior temple pediments the reliefs are inspired by the Ramayana. Banteay Samré enjoys a serene setting and a remote location and is best explored in the late afternoon set against the fading light of day.
The jewel of the Khmer culture is undoubtedly the Angkor Wat. From a distance the monument is breathtaking in scale as it is in setting. It is the largest temple at Angkor with a total area of almost 200 hectares. This vast temple of stone rises amidst a forest and is surrounded by wide expanse of moat. The setting evokes the might of this kingdom and the central role that religion played throughout its existence. After crossing the long causeway, you reach the main temple and take the first steps to the first level of the structure. It is said that the higher you climb, the closer you are to heaven. The temple itself is meant to be a replica of Mount Meru, the mountain of the gods in Hindu cosmology. Around the first level of the structure are entire galleries of bas-reliefs narrating the stories of creation, episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabarata, battle scenes, and the struggle between the forces of good and evil. On the second level, a terrace embraces the structure. Along its walls are images of the apsaras – bejeweled, celestial dancers beloved by the kings who believed that these figures transformed the earthly abode into heavenly palace. The apsaras are a major decorative subject of Khmer art and an integral symbol of the culture. The second level was as close to heaven as I got. Getting up to the third level seemed like a treacherous climb. Those who made their way up did so slowly and deliberately. We set off from the hotel at half past five in the morning and left the temple at a half past seven. The Amansara organizes predawn visits for its guests to see the monument come to life as the first light of day sets in. You approach the temple through a path in the forest and make your way up to the first level then climb all the way to the top to see the dawn break through. Since I chose to explore the first level, the guide began his talk about the life and times of King Suryavarman II who built Angkor Wat from 1113 to1150 as a temple dedicated to the god Vishnu. The temple is said to be the finest example of Khmer classical architecture. It was built for a heavenly purpose and wrought by the industry of common men. It will forever be a statement on man’s connection to the divine.
Leaving this marvel of stone, you feel fortunate to have seen a monument that belonged to a great epoch of Southeast Asian history. You wonder what became of the many artisans, craftsmen and the people who abandoned their city after the Thais sacked Angkor in 1436. Subsequent efforts to reestablish a capital here again were short-lived. The time for greatness had passed. Much goodwill has come to this land over the years in the hope that the legacy of Angkor endures and triumphs over the legacy of conflict. The efforts have clearly paid off. Thousands of visitors from around the world visit Angkor every day, and that is helping a nation and a people in dire need of the revenue tourism brings. Recently, one of the most celebrated architects of our time, Renzo Piano, reflected on the meaning of architecture. He told Paul Aspden of the Financial Times Weekend that architecture " is among the most spiritual of arts, because it changes the world and changes lives. It is about beautiful things." After a visit to Angkor, you would wholeheartedly agree.
The French naturalist Henri Mouhot who rediscovered Angkor Wat in 1860 described the grandeur of the site as " a rival to the temple of Solomon, erected by some ancient Michelangelo – it is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome." Since Mouhot hand-painted the first maps of Angkor, the French have done much to decode and interpret Cambodia’s history and give it back to the people. Whether one would go as far as Mouhot’s description, Angkor Wat is indeed spectacular, visually and conceptually. For many photographers, its sheer dimension makes it a challenging pictorial subject. It was intended, after all, as a microcosm of the Hindu universe.
The stone temples of Angkor reveal a complex belief system that stems from Hindu and Buddhist texts, shedding light on the kings and artisans who spent their lifetimes engaged in "merit-making" to ensure their places in the celestial realm. This is heady stuff for any traveler who wants to make heads or tails of the extensive bas-reliefs and the various decorative elements seen in the numerous temples that comprise Angkor complex. The name Angkor comes from the Sanskrit word nagara, meaning holy city. It is also the modern name for the complex of monuments and the empire that would become the largest and most important in Southeast Asia, spanning from the 9th to the 15th century.
My journey began at the Amansara – the former Villa Princière built in the 1960s for the guests of King Norodom Sihanouk. It is located in Siem Reap, the seat of the Khmer culture and lies 10 minutes away from the Angkor complex. The property was acquired by Amanresorts in 2002 and converted into an intimate hotel with 24 suites. The suites are situated around a low-slung dwelling, fronting a garden courtyard on one side, and a swimming pool at the opposite end. The ambience is much like staying in a private home. Guests are invited to help themselves to home-baked sweets, and a selection of wine and cheese is served in the main dining room throughout the day. All suites have flourishes of Khmer arts including occasional wall carvings, silk sarongs, lotus-filled native baskets and souvenirs placed by your bed every night. Like its sister resorts in other parts of Asia, the Amansara is a study in contrasting light and dark neutrals, enhanced with a contemporary flair. As it is mainly a cultural resort, there are a list of excursions and "house outings" that explore the length and breadth of the local culture, including visits to pre-Angkorian monuments, the Conservation d’Angkor which houses over 5,000 pieces of Khmer art, and the floating villages of the Tonle Sap lake, one of the world’s richest sources of freshwater fish.
Every evening, the Amansara highlights various aspects of the Khmer life and culture. An ancient form of shadow puppetry depicts episodes from one of the best-loved Hindu legends, the Ramayana. It is said that epic has inspired Khmer arts for centuries. The children of the Sangheum orphanage give performances of traditional dances with a grace and bearing worthy of an art form long cherished by Cambodia’s kings. Sophea Kagna, who trained in the royal dance school, gave us a short performance and talk on classical Khmer ballet and its language of gestures. Kagna once traveled to Paris with Princess Bopa Devi to train a troupe of exiled Khmers in this most exalted art. On another evening, there was a presentation of the feature film, The Flute Player, narrated by the Cambodian-American Arn Chorn Pond who escaped the regime of the Khmer Rouge and later returned to his homeland to revive traditional Cambodian music with the help of master musicians. There, he confronted the ghosts of his past and shared a moving tale of trial and redemption. A memorable evening at the resort was the visit of Dr. Vittorio Roveda, the Italian art historian and author whose expertise is the interpretation of the bas-reliefs at Angkor and other important temples in Cambodia. Professor Roveda shared his extensive knowledge of the culture and clarified many of the complex aspects of Khmer history.
Apart from these cultural features, the Amansara houses a library with select and old volumes on Cambodian and Southeast Asian history authored by leading scholars from around the world. You can easily spend an afternoon engrossed in these books as a lost world leaps from their pages and comes alive again. Throughout the resort, an air of peace and serenity prevails. Local musicians render soothing sounds from their wind and string instruments in the circular dining room. As night falls, candles and soft lights lend the resort a romantic aura. A caring and attentive staff makes every effort to make you feel at ease and at home. The Indonesian executive chef Linda Wati Turnip makes her rounds in the dining room at lunch or dinnertime to inquire about guest preferences or special requests, often entertaining queries about Khmer cooking which is a medley of flavorful salads, stir-fried dishes and fragrant curries. The affable hotel manager, Toby Anderson, regularly checks in with guests to help with itineraries or excursions and just about anything else.
Outside the tranquil setting of the Amansara, the province of Siem Reap is waking up to the growing demands of the tourism industry, which has grown brisk in recent years. Road reconstruction efforts have been undertaken with aid from Japan and Korea. Thailand has provided funding for a museum that will house the arts and artifacts currently stored at the local conservancy. Craft and souvenir shops as well as popular hotel chains stand along the main roads and squares. The boutique hotel concept has arrived with the presence of the Hotel de la Paix. The current hip spot seems at odds with the provincial setting but caters to trend-seeking travelers. Visiting the sights of Angkor can be physically demanding depending on your fitness level and your tolerance for the heat. There is much to learn and to absorb here. The myths, legends, the pantheon of gods and goddesses depicted on the temples walls are complex in theme, particularly for those of other religious traditions. What ultimately stays with you are those first impressions of the ethereal Angkor Park with its majestic trees, the moat that surrounds Angkor Wat and elevates the structure to a sacred and heavenly plane. Though many temples in Angkor are in various stages of restoration, some were allowed to remain in their original state. There, the jungle encroaches upon the temple as the force of nature reclaims the ground once usurped by kings on a building spree. At the temple of Ta Prohm, the tall trees with their deep roots cling to the structure, becoming part of its haunting beauty. Further into the park, as you cross the five gates of the great capital of Angkor Thom, the gigantic faces of the Bodhisatva Lokesvara, the Buddhist ideal of compassion, crowns the structure facing four cardinal directions. Though these are by now a well-depicted pictorial subject, their sheer scale says much about the grandeur of Angkor during its golden age. The Bayon, the state temple of Angkor Thom was an architectural marvel built by King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th or 13th century. The temple’s 37 surviving towers depict the faces of the Bodhisatva Lokesvara. Within its walls, many of the bas-reliefs tell stories of everyday life. As you motor around the royal city, a long terrace at the center looks out to the royal square. Here, the king once stood to view processions and parades. The main wall is embellished with carvings of elephants and their mahouts in hunting scenes, and with the figures of the Garuda, a mythical bird-man figure known as the vehicle of the god, Vishnu.
It is said that the Khmer culture values the ornate and that the carving of images depicting religious themes and deities was one way to ensure passage to heaven. Though the Kings of Angkor were prolific builders and employed thousands of artisans and craftsmen, much has been lost to those who have laid claim to this land, and to the looters who have mercilessly defaced the decorative elements within the temples. At the Conservation d’Angkor, a repository of Khmer treasures from various sites and periods in Cambodian history, the French who have led restoration efforts as early as the 1900s work with the Cambodian government to catalogue and restore thousands of Khmer artifacts. Among those found here are inscriptions in ancient Khmer, stone carvings of religious and mythic figures and parts of decorative reliefs.
Among the most beautiful temples in Siem Reap are Banteay Srei and Banteay Samré, both a distance away from the center of Angkor and relatively small in scale as compared to its imposing temples. They are widely regarded as the "gems of Khmer architecture." Banteay Srei is built of pink sandstone with elaborately carved pediments, lintels and sanctuary towers. Banteay Srei was not a royal temple, but was built in the mid-10th century by the guru of the King Jayavarman V, Yajnavaraha. As Professor Vittorio Roveda points out, the most striking feature of the temple is its reduced scale which is half that of any other Khmer temple. Apart from the many myths depicted here, ornamental decorations abound in the form of vines, foliage, lotus flowers and mythological animals, giving the temple a distinctive elegance and graceful beauty. Banteay Samré is another 30 minutes away from Banteay Srei but is well worth the trip. Along the narrow roads that lead to the site are grassy fields and scenes of an agricultural and rural life where wooden huts dwell and children are seen playing along roadside stalls. Banteay Samré is said to be the most complete and best preserved of the Angkorian monuments as Professor Roveda observes in his book on Khmer mythology, further explaining that its decorations are of exceptional quality. It was built in the mid-12th century shortly after Angkor Wat, though its foundation is uncertain. The three large doorways to the temple are richly craved with narrative reliefs, while on the interior temple pediments the reliefs are inspired by the Ramayana. Banteay Samré enjoys a serene setting and a remote location and is best explored in the late afternoon set against the fading light of day.
The jewel of the Khmer culture is undoubtedly the Angkor Wat. From a distance the monument is breathtaking in scale as it is in setting. It is the largest temple at Angkor with a total area of almost 200 hectares. This vast temple of stone rises amidst a forest and is surrounded by wide expanse of moat. The setting evokes the might of this kingdom and the central role that religion played throughout its existence. After crossing the long causeway, you reach the main temple and take the first steps to the first level of the structure. It is said that the higher you climb, the closer you are to heaven. The temple itself is meant to be a replica of Mount Meru, the mountain of the gods in Hindu cosmology. Around the first level of the structure are entire galleries of bas-reliefs narrating the stories of creation, episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabarata, battle scenes, and the struggle between the forces of good and evil. On the second level, a terrace embraces the structure. Along its walls are images of the apsaras – bejeweled, celestial dancers beloved by the kings who believed that these figures transformed the earthly abode into heavenly palace. The apsaras are a major decorative subject of Khmer art and an integral symbol of the culture. The second level was as close to heaven as I got. Getting up to the third level seemed like a treacherous climb. Those who made their way up did so slowly and deliberately. We set off from the hotel at half past five in the morning and left the temple at a half past seven. The Amansara organizes predawn visits for its guests to see the monument come to life as the first light of day sets in. You approach the temple through a path in the forest and make your way up to the first level then climb all the way to the top to see the dawn break through. Since I chose to explore the first level, the guide began his talk about the life and times of King Suryavarman II who built Angkor Wat from 1113 to1150 as a temple dedicated to the god Vishnu. The temple is said to be the finest example of Khmer classical architecture. It was built for a heavenly purpose and wrought by the industry of common men. It will forever be a statement on man’s connection to the divine.
Leaving this marvel of stone, you feel fortunate to have seen a monument that belonged to a great epoch of Southeast Asian history. You wonder what became of the many artisans, craftsmen and the people who abandoned their city after the Thais sacked Angkor in 1436. Subsequent efforts to reestablish a capital here again were short-lived. The time for greatness had passed. Much goodwill has come to this land over the years in the hope that the legacy of Angkor endures and triumphs over the legacy of conflict. The efforts have clearly paid off. Thousands of visitors from around the world visit Angkor every day, and that is helping a nation and a people in dire need of the revenue tourism brings. Recently, one of the most celebrated architects of our time, Renzo Piano, reflected on the meaning of architecture. He told Paul Aspden of the Financial Times Weekend that architecture " is among the most spiritual of arts, because it changes the world and changes lives. It is about beautiful things." After a visit to Angkor, you would wholeheartedly agree.
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