by John Keeble
Some say the events
in the killing fields of Cambodia, in which around two million people died at
the hands of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in the seventies, were then the latest drama
unfolding in the sacred politics of Angkor's temples.
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| Angkor Wat |
In essence, the
theory is based on Pol Pot dreaming of turning back the clock to an agrarian
society after linking his knowledge of the Khmers' great empire days with a
theory that their economic life was founded on sacred lakes and the pulsing of
the natural Tonle Sap lake producing enormous quantities of rice on the Angkor
plain.
A thought like that
makes you gasp, like a sudden fall through a trapdoor. But, as you walk through
the living death of Angkor's temples - including the world's largest sacred
building, Angkor Wat itself - you can somehow imagine the theory to be right;
the tragedy of the 20th century as a legacy of the misleading mysteries that
underpinned the power of the Khmer rulers from the ninth to the fifteenth
centuries.
That strange world is
there for you to read in the sacred fabric of sandstone, the carvings in
rivers, and the statuary of gods and demons churning beautiful apsara - the
dancing girls of heaven - from the cosmic milk of life.
It is a strange,
haunting story too. Of politics and power first; of religion and art as a means
of control; of wars, victories and defeats in the pursuit of wealth and glory;
of great inventions in engineering and agriculture... and of the idea, just
one, that started it all and turned to stone in edifices as tall as Notre Dame
and bigger than Egypt's greatest pyramid.
That idea was the
'god-king': the indivisible blend of the king and the gods of a tailored cult
based on Shiva worship and Hinduism. Later, when Shiva failed to protect the
Khmers from the Chams, the new cult used Buddha instead. But the idea stayed
the same: the king was the gods' representative on Earth and everyone must
obey. The result was the growth of an empire, with a ferocious army, a stable
and powerful political organisation, centralised and uniform society, excellent
techniques for rice production - and all of these were informed by deep
religious beliefs and artistic genius focused almost entirely on its expression
through religious building and decoration.
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| Banteay Srie |
It was the apex of a
civilisation that started from the dynamic mix of local people and the ideas of
Indian traders and Indian-influenced Chams from Vietnam - they introduced Hindu
ideas and art that gained strength from the 5th century and fuelled the rise of
the Khmer empire.
In 802, Jayavarman II
began the building era as the first 'god king' embodying the power and virtues
of Shiva. He declared independence from Java and set himself up as king. He
built a 'temple mountain' at Phnom Kulen, 40 miles east of Angkor, to represent
Shiva's mythical Mount Meru - today's Cambodians regard the mountain as the
most sacred in the country.
By the 10th century,
Angkor art was emerging from its Cham origins and the most beautiful of all the
temples was built at Banteay Srie, the Shrine of the Women. This Hindu temple,
dedicated to Shiva, was the greatest achievement of artists in the 10th
century. Each of the pink sandstone buildings was distinctive with inventive
architecture and decoration - there were mythical guardian animals and a
structural vibrancy that still rocks the senses.
Through the 11th
century, the water from the hills flowed in blessed vitality and the bizarre
seasonal backward flow of the Mekong and Tonle Sap river continued to quadruple
the size of the lake to provide an amazing bounty of fish and crops. The
well-fed population was on its way to one million when London boasted only
35,000. And, of course, wealth and people accumulated for expansion into
neighbouring regions and for labour on the temples.
In the 12th century,
the ambitions of the god-king, Suryavarman II, knew such awesome bounds that he
created the world's largest sacred building - Angkor Wat. But the burden of
building was immense - and in 1177, the Chams took advantage of a struggling
state and the Khmer army being all but destroyed by jungle fevers, and captured
Ankor, destroying the city and ruining many temples. The Khmers took their
revenge in 1181 after a series of ferocious battles on the lake and canals;
they went on to conquer Champa (in what is now Vietnam) and building a new
capital, Angkor Thom - “the great city” - surrounded by a eight-miles moat.
And, because the Hindu gods had not protected them in the past, the new
protector would be Buddha.
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| Bayon |
The biggest monument,
Bayon - which means Buddha - was built around 1200 in the centre of Angkor
Thom. It has216 faces of the omnipresent deity watching over the temple and the
people - its 54 towers, with the coldly smiling Buddha faces, coincide with the
54 provinces of that time. Historians believe it was the intention to
intimidate the people of the far-flung settlements with the all-seeing
watchfulness...the faces were a blend of the god-king and Buddha.
Angkor Thom was the
last major work, the height of the empire with the most people and the most
power: then it began a slow decline, having reached the limits of its water
supply and the land available on the plain of its birth. By 1430, nearly all of
Angkor had been abandoned - only Angkor Wat remained in use as a Buddhist
shrine. After the empire fell, the jungle reclaimed much of the land and it was
not until the French colonial explorers found it in the 1860s that there was
any attempt at restoration - its full extent was not realised until aerial
surveys were flown after the Second World War.
While many think
Angkor is just Angkor Wat, the extent of the architectural wonder stretches
over scores of temples, many huge, and the sacred networks of canals, rivers
and lakes.
Today's Khmers have
much to thank their ancestors for: Siem Reap, the city nearest the historic
site, thrives unusually well for Cambodia and there is currently a boom in
luxury hotel building. It looks like the organisation of historic area into a
coach-party tour centre will be completed before the end of this decade.
But while some
benefit in money, others find other contentments.
The shrines,
everywhere at Angkor, are alive with the worship of people. An altar here, a
broken shrine there; a fragment of an icon, a huge Buddha or Vishnu ... there
are always people, the wax of candles, the flower, the fragrance of incense.
The old ways may be dead, but the sacredness lives on in the people.
Others are enjoying a
social role, like those reviving and extending Cambodian dance. As part of the
restoration of Preah Khan - the Temple of the Sword with corridors and chambers
in a square some half a mile by half a mile - the World Heritage Fund has been
paying for a dance teacher for local youngsters.
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| Prean Khan |
Originally, dance was
taught at the palace and then as a state art. But the Pol Pot years destroyed
the system and mostly saw the murder of the people who ran it and performed in
it. Dancers and trainers who fled to Thailand kept the dances alive by teaching
and performing them in the refugee camps until they could return to Phnom Penh.
Now, the Preah Khan group is among those working on the traditions of dance,
music and dress.
And their teacher has
been visiting the villages to collect the folk dances that tell the stories of
life, work on the land, religious beliefs and the seasons. Now, in Preah Khan's
Hall of Dancers they perform for chosen audiences. The mortal apsara in royal
splendour, and shy village lads finding shy village girls in age-old stories in
paddy fields.
The god-kings are no
more than ghosts in the miles of sacred stone. But life goes on ...
**
Angkor Wat is one of
more than 70 temples that fit into a sacred pattern of rivers, canals and lakes
and make the sacred plain of Angkor one of the wonders of the world. Here are
some of the temples to see:
Angkor Wat
Built between 1113
and 1150, it is the physical representation of Hindu cosmology adapted into
Khmers' unique beliefs - it is the best example of the temple mountain, used
over and over again in the Khmer building.
An enclosing
quadrangle symbolises the world ringed by mountains with endless oceans (the
moat, 190m wide, 1.5km by 1.3km around the quadrangle) beyond; in the centre,
the five lotus-bud peaks of the celestial Mount Meru where the gods live
through cycles of destruction and creation. There are 12,000 bas-relief
carvings portraying religious scenes, the history of the Khmers and 1,700
figures of the celestial dancers, the apsaras, who awaited the lucky in heaven.
The wat has the usual east-west orientation - but what is unusual is that it
faces west, the death aspect, and this has convinced many that it was both a
temple and a royal mausoleum.
Bayon
Bayon is one of the
most mysterious of the Angkor temples: its 54 towers each has four faces to watch over the
cardinal points - all the faces are the same, the serene but watchful blend of
Buddha and the builder, Jayavarman VII, constantly watching everyone in the 54
provinces.
In contrast with
Mount Meru of Angkor Wat, Bayon is a model of the kingdom. But beyond this, it
is also the spiritual centre - literally the centre of the 10 square miles of
Angkor Thom and its sacred buildings and waterways. Jayavarman VII, Angkor's
greatest king, built it after the Chams were defeated: it was the City of
Angkor which would never fall again to an invader. Except, of course, it
eventually did. The city and its huge temples were encircled by a 100 metre
wide moat once inhabited by crocodiles and an 8 metre wall. It has five
monumental gates - one each to the north, west and south and two in the
direction of life. Bayon is decorated with thousands of bas-reliefs of
religious and military scenes, including the defeat of the Cham army.
River of a Thousand
Lingas
This quiet river
flows down from the Kulan hills - part of Shiva's creative powers to irrigate
the Angkor plain as a favour to the king. The walk through the jungle is part
of the charm of the visit. But it is the river bed, sculpted with lingas and
images of Shiva, that makes it worthwhile.
Ta Prohm
This is one of the
most visited temples after Angkor Wat and Bayon - it has been only partly
restored to show how the jungle had reclaimed the temples before work revealed
their old magnificence. About 12 feet of loam was removed from around the
roots. It was built 1186 as a Buddhist temple - it is so huge (like others)
that 80,000 people were required to attend to the temple and maintain it,
including 2,700 officials and 615 dancers.
Banteay Srie
The Shrine of the
Women was dedicated to Shiva when it was built in the 10th century. It was the
greatest achievement of artists of the time. The pink sandstone and mythical
creatures still rock the senses.
Perhaps most
captivating of all - and another of the enduring images of Angkor - are the apsaras, the page three
girls of the Khmer period. The apsaras were the erotic beauties waiting for the
good in heaven but, also, they had an earthly presence too, because they could
visit the mortal, they were seen in court and temple dancing, and their
representation - thousands of them - were all different, showing the (extremely
scanty) clothing of the time, the fashionable jewellery and hairstyles. As the
sun falls into the kingdom of death at the end of the day, the warm rays and
the subtle pink of the sandstone still bring the apsaras to life at the Shrine
of the Women.
Preah Khan
The temple of the
Sacred Sword was built in the late 12th century. It has miles of narrow stone
corridors, centring on a Shiva linga, and towards the back a beautiful open
area that links to the Hall of Dancers where the lucky may find the local dance
troupe performing - not for money, but for prestige groups organised by the
World Heritage Fund, which is paying for the temple’s restoration. It was
dedicated to 515 divinities and had 18 major festivals a year - needing
thousands of people to maintain and run it.
First published in
VISA issue 48 (winter 2002).
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