We began our day with a visit to Cambodia’s national monument, Angkor Wat. After spending around two hours there, our motor tricycle (“tuk tuk”) driver took us to the next stop on our tour of Angkor Archeological Park.
This was a bridge en route
More headless statues here, some stolen or lost
Now, many of these heads are getting replaced
If you haven’t noticed it, these faces are a prominent feature of Bayon. This is just one of the gates surrounding Bayon temple.
That’s Bayon
Our driver dropped us off outside the temple. We had a quick lunch, sitting under an eatery’s umbrella, as it had started to rain.
Post-lunch, we entered Bayon. There were staff who checked our tickets before allowing us inside. So keep your tickets safe until the end of the tour.
More naga (snake) and simha (lion) here too
Bayon temple was built nearly 100 years after Angkor Wat
Bayon was the state temple of King Jayavarman VII
It is a ‘mountain’ temple built to represent Mount Meru, considered to be the center of the universe in Hindu and Buddhist cosmology
Much of the temple remains in ruins
I don’t know how they go about restoring a place like this. It’s a LOT of work.
We walked up the staircase to the upper level
Bayon was built as a Buddhist temple, unlike Angkor Wat which began as a Hindu temple complex
That said, the common design traits inspired by Hinduism are all over Bayon
Initially the faces were thought to be of Brahma, the Hindu God of creation
But some say the faces are of Lokeshvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion. Some say they are statues of Jayavarman VII himself.
Many, many visitors were standing and aligning their faces with the statues. Aligning themselves for a ‘nose to nose’ shot is a popular pose at Bayon.
We did not do that pose. So we went back down
There wasn’t a whole lot else to see
As we left Bayon, our guide pointed to this stretch
It’s called the Terrace of the Elephants
It was basically a viewing platform from where the Angkor king Jayavarman VII and his people could view the returning army from battle.
Other artworks include Garuda sculptures
We then moved on to the third stop on our tour, Ta Keo temple. We would visit two more after that. All in the next few posts.
