Awesome Angkor

Trip Start Aug 21, 2003

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Cambodia Siem Reap, Cambodia
Sunday, September 28, 2003

The Angkor temple complex is a group of temple/city ruins which spans about 77 square miles of Northwest Cambodia. They were all built within the 9th to 12th centuries, during which the powerful Angkor empire ruled over much of Indochina, including Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Burma. It was one of the most powerful and influential empires of Asian history, and it can be resurrected in one's imagination by experiencing the ruins, which contain the largest religious monument in the world, the temple of Angkor Wat. The temples were the center of the empire, and supported a city of 1 million people. The different temples reflect elements of both Buddhism and Hinduism, as the empire flip-flopped between the two. They were mostly initially Hindu, due to the integral role that India had in shaping Cambodia's culture. Upon switching to Buddhism, many of the temple statues and carvings were defaced. You can still see this today, like the body of the Hindu god Shiva with the head of a typical Asian Buddha image. The ruins were rediscovered in 1866 during France's expiditions to Indochina.

Since the temples are so spread out, we hired a driver, Mr. Marom, for the 3 days we spent exploring. He drove us around in a motorbike-drawn carraige. We felt like we had our own chariot. As we drove closer and closer to the temples for the first time, our excitement grew as we came upon the moat that surrounds the largest and most famous temple, Angkor Wat. This is the largest religious monument in the world, and is preceded by a massive stone causeway (~ about 40 feet wide) across the moat (~660 feet wide).

01 - Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Walking across the causeway one gets the feeling of leaving the present and stepping into the past, about to enter the grandest thing one has ever seen. Walking up to the massive wall which divides the causeway in half (these gates are part of all of the temples, called a gopura, like a divine entrance), you see the different entrances to the temple, some for mere humans, some for kings and some for elephants. We took a detour down the right side of the gopura and peeked through a doorway, for our first view of the 5 magnificent towers of Angkor Wat. At this point we could see why the Cambodian people still believe these temples were built by the gods. They are really too beautiful for words. They are made entirely of stone, and remain largely intact, especially for being located in a country that in the last half century became one of the most bombed in history. All the temples are sculptural masterpieces, elaborately decorated with carvings of religion and war, life and death. You can only imagine the sheer amount of talented artists they must have had working on these temples. Everything is so detailed and perfectly placed like a puzzle; it is easy to see that each and every stone was carved and chiseled to lie exactly adjacent to one another. They are so incredible they look as though they must have taken an eternity to build. We saw too many temples to write about all of them, but see the pictures for specifics about our favorites. We have many many more pictures to show you when we come home.

Siem Reap in itself is a sad place.

02 - Bas-relief carving at Angkor Wat

We paid $40 for a 3 day ticket to Angkor, and you really have to wonder where the money goes. The people live in poverty, but the roads leading into town are lined with luxury hotel after luxury hotel, with more going up every day. The temple ticket system is run by an oil company, Caltex I believe, so you can see where that's going. The money we paid probably ends up in the hands of American politicians. Our first night there, we climbed a temple hill, Phnom Bakeng, to see the sunset, and afterwards we went to Jayavarman VII, a children's hospital in town. This hospital is run by a Swiss doctor, is one of only a few in the country to meet international standards of cleanliness, and is dedicated to saving children's lives for free. It is run entirely through donations without any governmental support, and every service is free, for 95% of Cambodians are too poor to pay. The Swiss doctor, Beat Richter, is also a celloist, and every Saturday night gives a free cello concert/fundraising event at the hospital. This was a very moving experience for us. The doctor worked in a hospital in Phnom Penh in the '70s when the Khmer Rouge came in and forced out all of the foreigners (and the locals). After the demise of the Khmer Rouge, the King asked him to come back and reopen the hospital. He has been back for 11 years and has built 3 of these hospitals. As this man played his cello, in the sounds of his music and the pain in his face one can see the pain and sorrow of the Cambodian people. It brought tears to our eyes to see such dedication to a group of people most of the world chooses to ignore. We learned that this particular hospital saves over 2000 lives a month, children who would otherwise die due to epidemics of dengue fever and tuberculosis. It has also played an important role in preventing the spread of AIDS in Cambodia, with its new maternity ward, which allows mothers with AIDS to have their babies without spreading the disease. On our last day of temple-hopping, we returned to the hospital to donate our blood, for which they are very grateful as they are having a shortage. Upon entering the hospital we could see how badly it is needed - mothers and their babies and children were lined up on blankets on the floor. The hospital is overloaded due to the epidemic being so severe. If anyone is interested in learning more or in donating to this hospital, let us know, for it is a great cause.