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Angkor Wat.
It is a ruined former center of a rich and powerful Khmer Empire that once stretched from southern Vietnam (the former Cham Empire), up to China, and included what is now Thailand (formerly Siam) and Myanmar (formerly Burma)........all the way to India where the religion and culture of SE Asia originates.
Depending on how you define the Angkor ruins, the wats or temple complexes from the years 800 - to roughly 1500 can be found in 65 square miles or maybe 36 square miles for a more central cluster...... get the picture?
The stone work at Angkor still has very beautiful and well preserved bas reliefs of the mythic battles from the Hindu oral histories and religion..... There is Vishna and the Elephant god and the monkey army.... all entwined and displayed with beautiful skill and composition. The carving on the temples can still be fine in some places; every surface was once covered in carving with allegorical or symbolic meaning for the viewers. It is also HUGE>
Maybe it was the heat, but at some point in our first day at Angkor, walking through room after room, hall after hall, doorway after doorway, I felt like I wasn't sure what was real and what was illusion. Standing in one place you can look either direction and the architecure repeats and repeats until you wonder if you are looking into a mirror... It seemed the same with the bas reliefs. It occurred to me that this architecture reflects the culture and religions that created it.
There was a sense of the repetition of life, bringing to mind features of the Hindu and Buddhist religions/philosophies... re-incarnation, the wheel of life, karma...
We went to several Wat areas in two days with young Phana, our driver, and some of them were very physically challenging to climb about and into in the heat here. The photos are a snapshot only.
It is a ruined former center of a rich and powerful Khmer Empire that once stretched from southern Vietnam (the former Cham Empire), up to China, and included what is now Thailand (formerly Siam) and Myanmar (formerly Burma)........all the way to India where the religion and culture of SE Asia originates.
Depending on how you define the Angkor ruins, the wats or temple complexes from the years 800 - to roughly 1500 can be found in 65 square miles or maybe 36 square miles for a more central cluster...... get the picture?
The stone work at Angkor still has very beautiful and well preserved bas reliefs of the mythic battles from the Hindu oral histories and religion..... There is Vishna and the Elephant god and the monkey army.... all entwined and displayed with beautiful skill and composition. The carving on the temples can still be fine in some places; every surface was once covered in carving with allegorical or symbolic meaning for the viewers. It is also HUGE>
Maybe it was the heat, but at some point in our first day at Angkor, walking through room after room, hall after hall, doorway after doorway, I felt like I wasn't sure what was real and what was illusion. Standing in one place you can look either direction and the architecure repeats and repeats until you wonder if you are looking into a mirror... It seemed the same with the bas reliefs. It occurred to me that this architecture reflects the culture and religions that created it.
There was a sense of the repetition of life, bringing to mind features of the Hindu and Buddhist religions/philosophies... re-incarnation, the wheel of life, karma...
We went to several Wat areas in two days with young Phana, our driver, and some of them were very physically challenging to climb about and into in the heat here. The photos are a snapshot only.
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