Angkor Wat

Last week I spent six days in Cambodia with my Politics of Heritage class. Our professor claimed he had a mandate to make us uncomfortable with the pace of the trip. Those six days were the most intense tour I've been on. Our first morning in Cambodia we set off at 5:30 to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat. From the ninth to the twelfth centuries, the Angkor Empire build sandstone temples over what is today Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand. Angkor Wat was at the heart of the capital of that empire. It was discovered by the west in the nineteenth century and since then massive restorations have taken place, so the temple stands once again.


The moat

The temple complex itself is surrounded by a very large, perfectly square moat. Little kids swam in the water with the blooming lilies. Crossing the causeway, we settled down with a couple hundred other tourists to watch the sky brighten. It wasn't the intensely spiritual experience I thought it might be, mostly because there were a lot of people talking, including me. But the talking was good, because it was the first chance for our class to meet outside of the classroom and prepare socially for the rest of our trip. Aside from talking, everyone took a lot of pictures. The scene was beautiful enough that if the picture was focused and the camera pointed the right direction, it was a good picture. Here are some of mine: (Click on the picture to see it larger.)










I have many more pictures just like these

When the day began properly, our class split into smaller groups for the guided tour of the temple. As I said, most of the temple complex had collapsed (though not the five towers) and has been rebuilt. The entire complex has been cleared of trees and rubble, and ropes and signs guide hoards of tourists past the main attractions. It seemed more Disneyland than Indiana Jones.

One of the features of Angkor Wat that is unique among the Angkorean temples is the long panels of stone carving called bas relief (I think it's french). They tell stories from the Ramayana, an Indian Hindu epic. It deals with typical religious epic material like the gods' immortality, heaven and hell, etc.

Touching is not allowed.

One of the more Indiana Jones moments for me was when I spotted two monkeys on the roof. Later, they jumped down into another group and stole someone's banana. We could tell because they screamed a lot.


We spent the rest of the morning at Angkor Wat; then went to a meeting with the French archaeologist in charge of most of the work done at Angkor, a group lunch, a visit to Angkor Thom (a nearby temple complex), another talk with a French architect in charge of a restoration project for part of Angkor Thom, and a group dinner. After dinner, we chilled in the pool at our hotel. Here's a smattering of pictures from that day:


I think most of the temple in this picture was rebuilt.


I found an odd impression in the ground, steps away from where the previous picture was taken.


We climbed the stairs of the towers. The view was terrific. We're not in Disneyland anymore.







Exploring Angkor Wat was a lot of fun.

This post is long enough. Over the next week I'll try to post everyday about Cambodia - there's enough to write about. Stay tuned!