I am not sure how to find the words to describe these religious structures whose period began in AD 802 until 1431. There is a genius in their architectural grandeur and awe in their spiritual devotion and creative ambition.
The temples are a mix of tribute to their Hindu gods and then later modified to Buddhist temples each one showing a different focus. Some for cremation ceremonies, ladies temple, temples for healing, temples that were tributes to the kings father and more.
The villagers would donate their time to travel miles to where there was stone and bring it back, building everything with pure manual labor, often sacrificing with their lives for the hope that the blessing the priest would give them would raise them higher in their next life. During the time of Hindu worship the villagers would never see inside these structures but with Buddhism the cast system changed and they could go in and make sacrifice to Buddha.
The temperatures were 37, felt like 44 and no matter where you stood you felt like a wax statue slowing melting as the day progressed. My mind was also saturated with information and it became difficult to remember which king was building temple to which god, for what reason, depending on which mythological story of milk churning for a 1000 years with a turtle holding up the mountain until thousands of female goddesses emerged resulting in the apsara dance......??? Let's put my confusion to the heat and info lost in translation.
We went to the Angkor National Museum after our tours of the temples and highly recommend going first or at least doing a lot more reading to get a better grasp off he history of the temples that are wrapped in religion and wars and myths.
Here are a myriad of photos and I won't overwhelm you with their context. That's what Google is for!
My creative side loved the textures, light, design, colour and layers of thought this time among the ruins brought. I look forward to recapturing a memory / moment on canvas or sketch when I get home.
Site where tomb raiders was filmed.
The four faces of Buddha that represent:
Charity, Compassion, Sympathy, Equality
This temple had 54 of these faces.
I have been told that Cambodia was once a country full of lush jungles and exotic flowers and animals. Beauty everywhere. Photos and stories of today's Cambodia paint quite a different picture. You truly have a gift to uncover beauty (and fun) where others would see only despair. How awesome is that?
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