The Dragon's Mirror: The Magic of Angkor Wat I

Part 1

Introduction

Angkor or “The Capital Temple” is a large complex of temples structures in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world. Angkor Wat was first a Hindu, and then a Buddhist temple, built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II at the beginning of the 12th century in Yasodharapura, the site that is recognized today as Angkor.
Angkor was the old capital of the Khmer empire, it was a State Temple and then a mausoleum.
Detaching from the Shiva traditions of previous kings, Angkor Wat was built in dedication of Vishnu.
Angkor is also the main temple of the whole religious complex, the most preserved and the only one left among the ancient religious centers since its foundation. The temple is built with the classic style of the Khmer architecture at its apogee.
It is, today, the symbol of Cambodia (it is present on its national flag) and the first touristic attraction of the country.


Angkor Wat combines two basic principles of Khmer architecture: the Temple-Mountain style, and the later Gallery Temple style. The general structure is inspired by the earliest Dravidian architecture with some notable elements such as the Jagati.
The temple was designed to represent Mount Meru, the house of the Devas in the Hindu mythology: it is surrounded on the outer perimeter by a large, artificial lake and protected by an outer wall of 3.6 kilometers (2.2 miles). The internal plan features a series of 3 rectangular tunnels, each erected on a higher level than the others; at the center of the temple there is a series of 5 towers arranged in a quincunx. Unlike many Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented westward. Scholars are divided as to the meaning of this orientation. The temple is admired especially for the grandeur and the harmonies of its architecture, for the incredible number of bas-reliefs, and for the numerous figurines of the Devas adorning the walls.
Angkor Wat means "Temple City" or "The City of the Temple." In Khmer language, Angkor means "City" or "Capital City," being a vernacular form of the word nokor, which comes from the Sanskrit nagara. Wat is instead a native Khmer word meaning "Templar Site" (its Sanskrit counterpart would be vata.) During our visit at Angkor Wat, and after observing the complex symbolism of its elements, we feel that the original root of the word Angkor, that is, nagara, takes its roots from Nag- or “Serpent”. Our comparative studies of the Hindu lore (see the Indus Civilization Series on thexgates.com) lead us to believe that a more appropriate translation of Angkor Wat should be “City of Nagas” or “The Nagas’ Temple.”

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The Khmer Empire

Angkor Wat is located 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) north of the modern city of Siem Reap, and not far from what was the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire, Baphuon. It is an area where there lies an important group of ancient structures that arrive (and cross) the border with Thailand. Angkor Wat is the southernmost among these structures.
According to the legend, the construction of Angkor Wat was ordered by Indra as a palace for his son Precha Ket Mealea. According to Chinese traveler Daguan Zhou (13th century), some believed that the temple was built in a single night by a divine architect. Our Khmer guide confirms this legend, adding that King Suryavarman II himself, aided by his "Divine Protector", had actually operated the miracle.
The initial design of the temple was laid out in the first half of the 12th century during the reign of Suryavarman II (1113–1150); dedicated to Vishnu The Preserver (in the Shiva-Vishnu-Brahma Trimurti concept), it was conceived as the State Temple and capital of the kingdom.

Since neither foundation stele nor contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its original name is still unknown, but it may have been "Varah Vishnu-lok" in honor of the inspiring deity. Construction works seems to have been completed shortly after the king's death, and some bas-reliefs remain unfinished.
In 1177, 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the Chams, traditional enemies of the Khmers.

Later, the temple was renovated by a new king, Jayavarman VII, who established the new capital and State temple (Angkor Thom and Bayon respectively) a few kilometers North of Angkor Wat.
In the late 13th century Angkor Wat shifted his cult from Hindu to Theravada Buddhism, a tradition that continues to this day.

Angkor Wat, De Laporte ca. 1880

Compared to the other temples at Angkor, Angkor Wat was never completely abandoned (although it experienced periods of neglect after the 6th century), perhaps due to the presence of the artificial pond that prevented the advancing jungle from covering it.
One of the first Westerners to visit the temple was Antonio da Madalena, a Portuguese monk who in 1586 wrote,

"[Angkor Wat] is such an extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it on paper, particularly because it is unmatched in the world. It has towers and decorations and every finishing that human genius can conceive…"

In the mid-19th century the temple was visited by French naturalist and explorer Henri Mouhot who popularized it in the West through the publication of his travel notes, in which he wrote,

"...One of these temples, which rivals that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo, could have a place of honor next to our most beautiful buildings. It is greater than everything that the Greeks and the Romans have left us, and it is in dire contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation has plunged today...".
 Mouhot, like other Western visitors, found it hard to believe that the Khmer people could have built the temple, and mistakenly dated it back to around the same time as the Roman empire. However, the true story of Angkor Wat could be reconstructed piece by piece only by the stylistic and epigraphic evidence accumulated during the subsequent works of restoration and cleaning that was conducted over the entire surface of the Angkor complex. There were no traces of dwellings or houses or other settlements throughout the area, such as cooking utensils, weapons or tools, and clothing, which are usually found in other ancient sites. Instead, the only evidence was in the monuments themselves.

Angkor needed considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly due to the removal of deposits of soil and vegetation. The works came to a stop during to the civil war that placed the temple under Khmer Rouge control (1970s and 1980s), but except for the looting and destruction of post-Angkorian statues, the temple as a whole did not suffer serious structural damages.

Angkor Wat is a powerful symbol for Cambodia, and a source for a great sense of national pride that has played an important role in diplomatic relations with France, the USA and Thailand. The profile of the temple has been present on the Cambodian national flag since the introduction of the first version in about 1863.


From a greater historical and trans-cultural perspective, however, the temple of Angkor Wat did not become a symbol of national pride per se, but was placed in a broader political and cultural process of French colonial heritage. The temple was presented at various exhibitions in Paris and Marseille between 1889 and 1937. The aesthetic beauty of Angkor Wat has also been on permanent display as a scale model at the Museum of Louis Delaporte (under the name of Museè Indo-chinois) at the Trocadero Palace in Paris from 1880 to the mid-1920s.


The magnificent artistic heritage of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments within the Angkor region led France to adopt Cambodia as its protectorate (on August 11, 1863), and to the invasion of Siam (Thailand) to take possession of the ruins. Because of this, Cambodia later has claimed the lands situated in the northwestern corner of the country that had been under Siamese control since 1351 BC. Cambodia became independent from France on November 9, 1953 and has since managed Angkor Wat and the whole area directly.