Angkor Temples Offer Timeless, Enigmatic Mystery

Angkor Temples Offer Timeless, Enigmatic Mystery

By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter

Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, northwestern Cambodia
/Korea Times Photos by Yoon Won-sup

SIEM REAP, Cambodia _ Whether you believe in things like past lives and
reincarnations, here's one way to realistically experience them with
a world-renowned tourist attraction.
Spend several days visiting the old temples of Angkor in Siem Reap, in
the northwestern part of Cambodia, and you will surely feel as if you
are living in a completely different environment, turning back the
clock by centuries or a millennium.

On getting back home after a trip to Cambodia, visitors to the Angkor
temples area will think, ``Ah, those days in Cambodia is like a past
life,'' just as I did.

The Angkor temples, selected as one of the must-visit tourist
attractions in the world, are where people lose track of time. Every
single temple and other ruin make visitors confused where they are and
which century they are living. That is, until they meet up with other
visitors in colorful T-shirts and pants.

For people outside Siem Reap, all the temples, particularly Angkor
Thom, Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm (or jungle temple), are worth visiting at
least once in a lifetime for the great devotion of humans to god.

The Angkor temples are symbols of the Khmer Empire, which was based in
the Angkor region in Cambodia form the early 9th century to the early
15th century. Kings of the mighty empire once ruled over a vast
territory covering Thailand, Myanmar and part of Vietnam and China.

But the cities and temples of the Angkor period had been abandoned
after the empire moved its capital to Phnom Penh. They were discovered
in 1860 and designated as a UNESCO World Heritage in 1992.

Angkor Thom, which means the great city with its temples and king's
terraces, is usually the first destination for tourists who visit Siem
Reap. The city, surrounded by a 12-kilometer castle wall, was founded
by King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century.

Among other things, there are the Bayon Temple, famous for its
enigmatic faces, the pyramid-shaped Baphuon Temple, and royal terraces
such as Elephant Terrace as tourist attractions in Angkor Thom.

To look around the Angkor Thom, most travelers enter southern gate of
Angkor Thom because it is the best preserved compared with other gates
in the north, east and west.

One side of the entrance of the gate are sculptures of 54 good gods
holding seven-headed mythical snake Naga while the other side is
composed of 54 bad gods carrying Naga.

The figure shows a Hindu myth: good goods and bad gods in a long fight.
Vishnu, one of three gods of Hinduism, meditated the fight and proposed
that they make an elixir of life by churning the ocean of milk. They
churned the ocean of milk with Naga, and all creatures were created
during the stirring.

This legend will be the first of many legends to be told by a tourist
guide, as all the carvings and sculptures around the temples have their
own interesting stories.

Bayon Temple, located in the center of Angkor Thom, is a huge stone
monument with head-shaped towers. Each tower has four different faces
of humans in four directions, which mesmerize visitors in awe by its
enigma.

On the walls of the first floor gallery, relief workers are compactly
sculptured, featuring the war in which King Jayavarman VII conquered
the Chams. The relief shows the start and the end of the war.

Those bas-reliefs, which contains detailed information about the war,
even show a mother delivering her baby with the help of a midwife in
the thick of the war as well as soldiers of Cambodia and their enemies
with different looks.

Fifty-four towers containing four faces each are on the second floor.
In all, there are 216 heads whose calm smiles are called ``Smile of
Angkor.''

Lost in smiling faces, travelers will have difficulty interpreting the
meaning of the facial expressions.

Unfortunately, Baphuon Temple, which was built by Udayadityavarman II
around 1060, is now under reconstruction. So visitors can only watch
the pyramid-shaped temple from a distance.

The 300-meter-long Elephant Terrace extends from Baphuon Temple to
Terrace of Leper King where the king enjoyed national festivals and
performances like dances and songs. The upper level of the terrace
permitted only to kings and senior government officials offers a wide
view to today's visitors.

The terrace gained its name as so many elephants were carved on the
walls and stairways.

Angkor Wat

At first, visitors will open their mouths wide to see from a distance
the huge size of the temple. Later, they get lost figuring out how this
mysterious temple was built by human beings about 1,000 years ago.

Angkor Wat, the single largest temple in the world with 5.6 kilometers
of circumference, is comprised of three floors and five towers on top.
The monument was established in the 12th century by King Suryavarman II
and dedicated to Vishnu.

There are also relief works featuring myths in detail on the walls of
the gallery on the first and second floors just like Bayon Temple. It
is even hard to find any walls without relief on them in Angkor Wat,
which leads visitors to feel as if they are in a big museum.

Apsara, meaning dancers for Hindu gods, is one of the commonest
subjects of relief and sculpture with their unique poses for dance.
There are 1,500 reliefs of Apsara and their ornaments according to
guides there, and coronets and pleats of skirts are all different from
one another.

Angkor Wat gives an interesting test of god to visitors when they climb
the stairs to the third floor to the top of the towers as they are so
steep with a slope of 70 degrees. Some tourists give up going up to the
top, overwhelmed by the dizzying precipice.

The slope forces people to clamber to the top by using both their hands
and feet. Such a tough way to the top and fears felt during the climb,
as well as the large scale of the temple seem to make people have both
respect and awe for the god living up there.

There are five towers and the central one is the highest at 42 meters.
>>From the top of the central tower, people can see the entrance of the
Angkor Wat.

Considering the structure forms exact symmetry right and left, and the
intervals between towers are the same, the construction of this temple
is a real mystery.

Angkor Wat was built in a construction period of 32 years, but it is
hard to believe that humans can build such a huge monument and
elaborate sculptures during such a short period, even in the time of
the 12th century. The old views that Vishnu or another Hindu god Indra
created Angkor Wat during one night are rather persuasive.

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm, was built by Jayavarman VII in the 12th century, is totally
swallowed by the jungle, providing a perfect harmony of the temple and
big trees. So it gained the nickname ``Jungle Temple.''

This temple is cloaked in dappled shadow, its crumbling towers and
walls locked in the slow muscular embrace of vast root systems.

Compared with other temples like Bayon and Angkor Wat, which testify to
the unfathomable genius of ancient builders of Cambodia, Ta Prohm
reminds us equally of the awesome fecundity and power of the jungle.

Since the famous ``Tomb Raider'' was shoot in Ta Prohm, visitors to
the Jungle Temple wait in a long line with others to take a photo
against a background of a big tree creeping on the temple where
Angelina Jolie picked a jasmine flower before falling through the
earth.

If you get tired of just temples, then visit the floating village of
Chong Kneas around Siem Reap. It is very scenic in the warm light of
early morning or late afternoon and can be combined with a view of the
sunset fro hilltop temple.

Or there is also a bird sanctuary and biosphere of Prek Toal. Visitors
during the dry season (December to May) will find the concentration of
birds.

Eateries or accommodations? No problem. Siem Reap is now so well
prepared to receive foreign visitors from all around the world with
decent hotels and restaurants of the world food.

About food, there is even food of North Korea. Located on the road to
Siem Reap International Airport from the downtown, Pyongyang Restaurant
offers truly North Korean cuisine.

Ironically, most of customers in the restaurant are South Korean
travelers who enjoy a very unique experience of meeting North Korean
waitresses and taking photos with them.

When to Visit

Though Cambodia can be visited at any time of year, the best time to
visit is now, December to January when levels of humidity and
temperature are relatively low. During this period, there is little
rainfall and a cooling breeze whips across the land.

>>From early February, temperatures start to rise until April when
temperatures often exceed 40 degrees Celsius.

One thing negative with visitors in December and January is that they
don't have a good chance to see beautiful sunrises and sunsets
because whether is not so clear. Local people call this season winter
though the temperatures remain 22 to 30 degrees during the two months.

Flights of Inchon to Siem Reap

Book as early as possible because flights to Siem Reap are full
particularly these days. Most of the airlines provide flights from
Incheon International Airport to Siem Reap via Ho Chi Minh or Bangkok
except Asiana Airlines, which offers direct flights.

However, my experience with the direct flight of Asiana Airlines was
pretty bad as the plane was so small and narrow. It has about 140 seats
and only two restrooms in the backside, which caused passengers to wait
in a long line throughout the flight of five and half hours.



yoonwonsup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

12-29-2005 21:00


Copyright© Hankooki.com All rights reserved. E-mail to webmaster

.

Relevant Pages