Angkor Wat in Cambodia was first a
Hindu temple and then later it was gradually turned into a
Buddhist temple. It is located in Angkor, north of Seim Reap and was first
built by Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yasodharapura,
the capital of the Khmer Empire. The Angkor temple Ta Prohm was used as the set
for the famous movie Tomb Raider. And world was surprised to see this massive
temple.
Angkor Wat is a
temple complex in Cambodia and is the largest religious monument in the world,
on a site measuring 162.6 hectars. It is at Angkor (earlier known as
Yashodapura), north of a modern town Seim Reap in Cambodia. The construction
was started by Khmer king, Suryavaram II and completed by Jayavaram VII. It is
one of the largest religious monuments ever constructed. Angkor Wat was built
in the first half of the 12th century (113-5 BC). The construction
took over thirty years to build the massive temple at Angkor, the capital of
Khmer empire.
Angkor Wat is the prime example of the classical style
of Khmer architecture - the Angkor Wat style - due to which it got its
name. By the 12th century Khmer architects had become skilled and confident in
the use of sandstone (rather than brick or laterite) as the main
building material. Most of the visible areas are of sandstone blocks, while
laterite was used for the outer wall and for hidden structural parts. Traditional
method was used in the construction. The binding agent used to join the blocks
is yet to be identified, although natural resins or slaked
lime has been suggested.
The temple has attracted attention above all for the harmony
of its design. According to Maurice Glaize, a mid-20th-century conservator of
Angkor - the temple attains a classic perfection by the restrained
monumentality of its finely balanced elements and the precise arrangement of
its proportions. It is a work of power, unity and style.
Architecturally, the elements characteristic of the style
include: the ogival, towers shaped like lotus buds;
half-galleries to broaden passageways; axial galleries connecting
enclosures; and the cruciform terraces which appear along the main axis of the
temple. Typical decorative elements are devatas, extensive garlands and
narrative scenes. The statutes of Angkor Wat are considered conservative, being
more static and less graceful than earlier work. Other elements of the
design have been destroyed by looting and the passage of time,
including gilded stucco on the towers, gilding on some figures
on the bas-reliefs, and wooden ceiling panels and doors.
It is said that towards the end of 12th century, Angor Wat
gradually transformed from a Hindu centre of worship to Buddhism which
continues to the present. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in
that although it was largely neglected after the 16 century it was never
completely abandoned. Fourteen inscriptions dated from 17th century discovered
in Angkor area testify to Japanese Buddhist pilgrims who had established small
settlements alongside Khmer locals. At that time, the temple was believed by
the Japanese visitors as the famed Jetavana garden of the Buddha, which originally
is located in the kingdom of Magadha in India. The best known inscription tells
of Ukondafu Kazufusa who celebrated the Khmer New Year at Angkor Wat in 1632.
For many years, no
westerner had visited this area nor stepped into the temple, until one of the
first western visitors to the temple was, Antonio da Madalena, a Portuguese who
visited in 1586. And he said – It is of such extraordinary construction that it
is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no
other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the
refinements which the human genius can conceive of.
In the mid-19th
century, the temple was effectively rediscovered by the French naturlist and
explorer Henri Mouhot, who popularized the site in the west through the
publication of travel notes in which he wrote – One of these temples, a rival
to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michel Angelo might take a
honourable place beside our most honourable place beside our most beautiful
buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and
presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now
plunged.
Originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to God
Vishnu for the Khmer Empire; it was gradually transformed into a Buddhist
temple towards the end of the 12th century. The temple design is of classical
style of Khmer architecture and has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on
its national flag, and it is the country’s prime tourist attraction. It’s a
UNESCO World Heritage site. And restoration work has helped in preserving this
national treasure.
Angor Wat combines two basic plans of the Khmer temple
architecture – the temple-mountain and the galleried temple. It is designed to
represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology within a moat more
than 5 kms long and and outer wall 3.6 km long, are three rectangular
galleries, each rising above the other.
At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers.
Unlike most of Angokian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west. The temple
is admired by the tourists for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture and
the numerous devatas adorning the walls. The original name of temple was Vrah
Vishnuloka or Parama Visnuloka in Sanskrit and Barom Visnulok in Khmer, which
means the sacred dwelling of Vishnu.
According to a legend, the construction of
Angor Wat was ordered by Indra to serve as a palace for his son Precha Ket
Mealea. And according the 13th century Chinese traveler Zhou Daguan,
some believed that the temple was constructed in a single night by a divine
architect.
A further interpretation of Angkor Wat was proposed by Eleanor
Mannikka. Drawing on the temple's alignment and dimensions, and on the content
and arrangement of the bas-reliefs, she argues that the structure represents a
new era of peace under King Suryavarman II: as the measurements of solar
and lunar time cycles were built into the sacred space of Angkor Wat, this
divine mandate to rule was anchored to consecrated chambers and corridors meant
to perpetuate the king's power and to honour and placate the deities manifest
in the heavens above. Mannikka's suggestions have been received with a mixture
of interest and skepticism in academic circles. She distances herself from
the speculations of others, such as Graham Hancock, that Angkor Wat is
part of a representation of the constellation Draco. The Angkor Wat
temple's main tower aligns to the morning sun of the Spring Equinox.
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The true history of Angkor Wat was pieced together from
stylistic and epigraphic evidence accumulated during subsequent
clearing and restoration work. There were no ordinary dwellings or houses or
other signs of settlement, including cooking utensils, weapons, or items of
clothing usually found at ancient sites. Instead there is only the evidence of
the monuments themselves. An exploration commission began drawing up a list of
principal monuments. Subsequent missions copied inscriptions written on Angkor
buildings so scholars might translate them and learn something of Angkor's
history. By 1885 they had worked up a chronology of the rulers and developed
the outlines of a description of the civilization that had produced the temple
complex. In 1898 the French decided to commit substantial funds to Angkor's
preservation. Centuries of neglect had permitted the jungle to recapture many
of the more significant structures, and unless efforts were made to free the
buildings from the embrace of huge banyan and silk-cotton trees, they might
soon be crushed and lost for ever.
The 20th century saw considerable restoration of Angkor Wat.
Gradually teams of laborers and archeologists pushed back the jungle and
exposed the expanses of stone, permitting the sun once again to illuminate the
dark corners of the temple. Work was interrupted by the Cambodian Civil
War and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and
1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period. Camping Khmer
Rouge forces used whatever wood remained in the building structures for
firewood, and a shoot-out between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces put bullet
holes in a bas relief. However more damage was done after the wars, by art
thieves working out of Thailand, which, in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
claimed almost every head that could be lopped off the structures, including
reconstructions.
The temple is a powerful symbol of Cambodia, and is a source
of great national pride that has factored into Cambodia's diplomatic relations
with France, the United States and its neighbour Thailand. A depiction of
Angkor Wat has been a part of Cambodian national flags since the
introduction of the first version circa 1863. From a larger historical and
even trans-cultural perspective, however, the temple of Angkor Wat did not
become a symbol of national pride but had been inscribed into a larger
politico-cultural process of French-colonial heritage production in which the
original temple site was presented in French colonial and universal exhibitions
in Paris and Marseille between 1889 and 1937. Angkor Wat's aesthetics were
also on display in the plaster cast museum of Louis Delaporte called musée
Indo-Chinois which existed in the Parisian Trocadero Palace from 1880 to
the mid-1920s.
The splendid artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer
monuments in the Angkor region led directly to France adopting
Cambodia as a protectorate on 11 August 1863 and invading Siam to
take control of the ruins. This quickly led to Cambodia reclaiming lands in the
northwestern corner of the country that had been under Siamese (Thai) control
since AD 1351 (Manich Jumsai 2001), or by some accounts, AD 1431. Cambodia
gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has controlled Angkor
Wat since that time. It is safe to say that from the colonial period onwards
until the nomination as UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992, this
specific temple of Angkor Wat was instrumental in the formation of the modern
and gradually globalised concept of cultural heritage.
In December 2015, a research team from University of
Sydney had found a previously unseen ensemble of buried towers built and
demolished during the construction of Angkor Wat, as well as massive structure
of unknown purpose on its south side and wooden fortifications. The findings
also include evidence of low-density residential occupation in the region, with
a road grid, ponds and mounds. These indicate that the temple precinct, bounded
by moat and wall, may not have been used exclusively by the priestly elite, as
was previously thought. The team used LiDar, ground-penetrating
radar and targeted excavation to map Angkor Wat.
Since the 1990s, Angkor Wat has become a major tourist
destination. In 1993, there were only 7,650 visitors to the site and by
2004, government figures show that 561,000 foreign visitors had arrived in Siem
Reap province that year, approximately 50% of all foreign tourists in
Cambodia. The number reached over a million in 2007, and over two
million by 2012. Most visited Angkor Wat, which received over two million
foreign tourists in 2013. The site was managed by the
private SOKIMEX group between 1990 and 2016, which rented it
from the Cambodian government. The influx of tourists has so far caused
relatively little damage, other than some graffiti; ropes and wooden steps
have been introduced to protect the bas-reliefs and floors, respectively.
Tourism has also provided some additional funds for maintenance and in 2000
approximately 28% of ticket revenues across the whole Angkor site was
spent on the temples, although most work is carried out by teams sponsored by
foreign governments rather than by the Cambodian authorities.
Since Angkor Wat has seen significant growth in tourism and
attracted visitors over the years. UNESCO and its International
Co-ordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic
Site of Angkor (ICC), in association with representatives from the Royal
Government and APSARA, organised seminars to discuss the concept of
"cultural tourism". Wanting to avoid commercial and mass
tourism, the seminars emphasize the importance of providing high quality
accommodation and services to benefit the Cambodian government economically,
while also incorporating the richness of Cambodian culture. In 2001, this
incentive resulted in the concept of the "Angkor Tourist City" which
would be developed with regard to traditional Khmer architecture, contain
leisure and tourist facilities, and provide luxurious hotels capable of
accommodating large numbers of tourists from around the world.
The prospect of developing such large tourist accommodation
has alarmed and encountered concerns from both APSARA and the ICC, claiming
that previous tourism developments in the area have neglected construction
regulations and more of these projects have the potential to damage landscape
features. Also, the large scale development of these projects have begun
to threaten the quality of the nearby town's water, sewage, and electricity
systems. It has been noted that such high frequency of tourism and growing
demand for quality accommodations in the area, such as the development of a
large highway, has had a direct effect on the underground water table, subsequently
straining the structural stability of the temples at Angkor Wat. Locals of
Siem Reap have also voiced concern that the charm and atmosphere of their town
have been compromised in order to entertain tourism. Since this local
atmosphere is the key component to projects like Angkor Tourist City, the local
officials continue to discuss how to successfully incorporate future tourism
without sacrificing local values and culture. And not affecting the environment
of nearby areas and locals. However Angkor Wat continues to draw a lot of
tourists from around the world.
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