Visiting Angkor Wat, Day 2

The Angkor Wat complex includes 246 temples. Today I visited 8 of them.

When Europeans discovered the ruins of Angkor Wat in the early 20^th century, all buildings were blanketed by jungle. When the vegetation was cleared, many were just piles of rocks. A few like the main Angkor Wat temple and Banteay Srei were well engineered and less damaged.

Cambodia does not have the money to restore its best tourist attraction. For decades, that job fell to benevolent foreign countries—Japan, France, Switzerland, and India to name a few. Work on reconstruction and restoration continues and may for decades.

Each of the Khmer kings built temples during their reign. One guy commissioned 8. When a new king came to power, previous temples often fell out of favor and declined. Many show incomplete carvings; indicating that work just stopped when the patron died.

The official Khmer religion swung between Buddhism and Hinduism. When a new king came to power with a new religion, often the previous gods were erased from existing temples.

I took 70 pictures today. Below are a few.

Above is Taprohm built in the 12th century. The conservators left some of the largest trees in place so that people could see  how the jungle affected the temples. This is a sponge tree estimated at 300-400 years old.

Next is Banteay Srei built in 968. It may be my favorite.

Constructed of rugged red sandstone, it remains one of the best preserved despite being the second oldest in Angkor Wat. The above picture shows the guardians, humans with monkey heads.

The above picture shows some Sanskrit carved into a column at Banteay Srei. Less than an inch high, the letters are still illegible over 1000 years later.

 This carving over a doorway at Banteay Srei is still sharp, seemingly erosion proof.

The second largest temple group is Angkor Thom. The next picture shows some of the guardians of the temple.

Monsters and birds guard the temple

Within Angkor Thom, Bayon has two signature features. One is a wall of relief carvings showing everyday life in the kingdom like the one below.

The other is dozens of carvings of Buddha looking serene or smiling, as below.

Namaste!