Cambodia 2015

Thursday12November

New day, new temple visits! This time, no need for a car, a simple tuk-tuk and its patient driver will allow us to travel from temple to temple in the area.
We start with the temple of Angkor Preah, a little more recent than yesterday's (Prasat Beng Mealea).

The temple is surrounded by moats and at each cardinal point, long avenues span the water barrier. Here is the West entrance with its alley of small columns where Buddhas were sculpted.

The representations of Buddha (normally in the upper part) were destroyed by the Brahmanists who frowned upon Buddhism infiltrating the Hindu religion...

Two Nagas follow on each side of the bridge. Each Naga is pulled by the tail by gods and demons. Thus, alternately, they cause the rotation of the mountain around which the Naga is coiled. This is an episode of the "Churning of the Ocean of Milk" which I will not recount here!  

Apsaras, these young dancing women, at the entrance of the temple.

The grip of the roots is not lacking here either.

Preah Khan means "the sacred sword of the King". Here is the illustration with this statue, or at least what remains of it... The time when looters decapitated the King...

The stone blocks of the ceiling of this corridor have defied time, but for how much longer? Outside, the blocks are laid out, waiting to reconstruct the puzzle...

Half-sun on Apsara.

Frieze of Rishis on this exterior Bas-relief.
"In Hindu mythology, there is mention of seven sages or Vedic patriarchs; they are the progenitors (prajāpati) born from the mind of Brahmā to engender the world; they are associated with the seven stars of the Big Dipper"
© Wikipedia

3 of the 7 Rishis. Generally, Rishis are depicted with a beard, cross-legged, and with hands joined.

And again, Apsaras.

In the center of the temple, a stupa.

Again, Preah Khan, the sacred sword of the King... without its head...

The walk is very pleasant, the temple being in the middle of the woods.

This Tetrameles nudiflora seems to delicately straddle the old stones of the temple.

Even the delicate Apsara dancers cannot hide the stone blocks that make up the sanctuary...

On this one, you might think we've got the wrong puzzle piece...  

The old two-story library and its columns.

The temple is under perpetual restoration, but the vast majority of the site is accessible.

The holes allowed for the attachment of panels to reflect external light.

A "Lingam", a phallic representation of the male sex, placed on its "Yoni", a representation of the female sex...

A Yoni designed for three lingams!  

Continuation of the visit with this temple completely enclosed within the Jayataka Baray reservoir.

A narrow dirt path crosses the expanse of water, making the atmosphere of the place very soothing.

Not much remains of the site except for the large basins that surrounded the temple.

The mythical horse in the great basin. This basin was built in the image of the sacred Anavatapta Lake in the Himalayas, source of the Ganges...

A red dragonfly Neurothemis fulvia, and a lotus flower.

This temple is worth a visit especially for its 2 gates with "4 faces". These towers are just a foretaste of the Bayon temple that we will see tomorrow. This face represented on each side of this ear-shaped column is none other than Buddha, to whom the temple is dedicated.

Each face is unique with its own characteristics.

Then arrival at the 2nd tower with 4 faces. This one enjoys the services of a luxury doorman, as it is a banyan fig tree (Ficus benghalensis) that had the delicacy to leave the passage clear...  

The 4 Buddhist faces of the tower.

The bas-relief on the lintel barely concealed by the superb roots of the ficus.

And here in Angkor, there is always room for Apsaras, in a permanent ballet on the walls of the sanctuaries.

Mainly, only the towers remain. Four around a larger central one.

On the wide walls surrounding the enclosure, an elephant and its lion.

Then another elephant.

The finely decorated door of one of the four towers.

Skylight in the central tower. The holes perforate the apsara, undoubtedly to place precious stones there at the time.

The East lintel of the central tower, with the God Indra balancing on his white elephant Airavata.

Inside the central tower, an altar dedicated to Buddha.

A superb Buddha, in his imperturbable meditation, draped in his orange cloth, the color of renunciation.

And meanwhile, next to the temple, a tiny orchid mantis a few millimeters long climbs the blocks of Angkor! This Hymenopus coronatus is not yet adult size and has just emerged from its nymph. So small and so impressive...  

This brick temple, also from the 10th century, stacks platforms and has 13 towers. 8 towers at the bottom and 5 towers on the last platform.

The steep staircase to reach the upper terrace.

View from the top of the steps.

The lintel with Indra again on Airavata his three-headed white elephant.

On each side of the doors, the essential Apsaras.

The brown and orange color of the bricks.

After this studious morning, it's time to get your locomotor system back in shape with a foot massage!  

It's late afternoon, and we're planning our sunset at the top of Phnom Bakheng temple hill. To get there, we won't use these poor elephants who don't seem very happy in their thankless and useless task (at least here) of transporting tourists... No, we'll use our freshly massaged feet...  

Sunset or not, the Angkorian twilight magnifies the Angkor forest and its hazy horizon.

The sun is setting, and the dead leaves lying in their silk hammock put on their best smile for the photo...  

What remains of the central tower...

Down below, the restoration work continues, the puzzle has only just begun...