Angkor
Wat is the largest Hindu temple complex in the world. The temple
was built by King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century
in Yasodharapura, the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state
temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from the Shaivism tradition
of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the
best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a
significant religious centre since its foundation – first Hindu, dedicated
to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is at the top of the high
classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of
Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the
country's prime attraction for visitors.
Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture:
the temple mountain and the later galleried temple, based on early Dravidian
Architecture, with key features such as the Jagati.
It is designed to represent Mount
Meru, home of the devas in Hindu
mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres
(2.2 mi) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next.
At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian
temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the
significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the
architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs,
and for the numerous devatas adorning
its walls.
The modern name, Angkor Wat,
means "Temple City" or "City of Temples" in Khmer; which comes from the Sanskrit word.
Angkor Wat lies 5.5 kilometres north of
the modern town of Siem Reap, and
a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was
centred at Baphuon. It is in an
area of Cambodia where there is an important group of ancient structures. It is
the southernmost of Angkor's main sites.
The initial design and
construction of the temple took place in the first half of the 12th century,
during the reign of
Suryavarman
II
(ruled 1113 – 1150). Dedicated
to
Vishnu, it was built as the
king's state temple and capital city. As neither the foundation
stela
nor any contemporary inscriptions
referring to the temple have been found, its original name is unknown, but it
may have been known as
Holy
Vishnu'-Location. After the
presiding deity. Work seems to have ended shortly after the king's death,
leaving some of the
bas-relief
decoration unfinished. In 1177,
approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by
the
Chams, the traditional
enemies of the Khmer.
In the late 13th century, Angkor
Wat gradually moved from Hindu to Theravada
Buddhist use, which continues to
the present day. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that
although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never completely
abandoned, its preservation being due in part to the fact that its moat also
provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle.
One of the first Western visitors to the temple was Antonio da Madalena, a Portuguese monk who visited in 1586 and said that
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 visited by the
French naturalist and explorer, Henri
Mouhot, who popularised the site in the West through the publication of travel
notes, in which he wrote:
Architecture
Angkor Wat, located at 13°24′45″N 103°52′0″E, is a
unique combination of the temple
mountain, the standard design for the empire's state temples, the later plan of
concentric galleries, and
influences from Orissa and the Chola of Tamil
Nadu, India. The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods: the
central quincunx of towers symbolises the five peaks of
the mountain, and the walls and moat the surrounding mountain ranges and ocean. Access to the upper areas of the
temple was progressively more exclusive, with the laity being admitted only to
the lowest level.
Unlike most Khmer temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west
rather than the east. This has led many to conclude that Suryavarman intended
it to serve as his funerary temple. Further evidence for this view is provided
by the bas-reliefs, which proceed
in a counter-clockwise direction—prasavya in Hindu terminology—as this is the
reverse of the normal order. Rituals take place in reverse order during
Brahminic funeral services. The archaeologist Charles
Higham also describes a container
which may have been a funerary jar which was recovered from the central tower. It
has been nominated by some as the greatest expenditure of energy on the
disposal of a corpse. Freeman
and Jacques, however, note that several other temples of Angkor depart from the
typical eastern orientation, and suggest that Angkor Wat's alignment was due to
its dedication to Vishnu, who was associated with the west.
A further interpretation of Angkor Wat has been 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 claimed 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
honor and placate the deities manifest in the heavens above."Mannikka's
suggestions have been received with a mixture of interest and scepticism 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.
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Angkor Wat is the prime example
of the classical style of Khmer
architecture to which it has given 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. The binding agent used
to join the blocks is yet to be identified, although natural resins or slaked
lime have been suggested.
Angkor Wat has drawn praise above all for the harmony of its
design, which has been compared to the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome.
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, redented 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 (or apsaras), bas-reliefs, and on pediments extensive garlands and narrative
scenes. The statuary of Angkor Wat is 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.
The Angkor Wat style was followed by that of the Bayon period, in which quality was often
sacrificed to quantity. Other
temples in the style are Banteay
Samré, Thommanon, Chao Say Tevodaand the early temples
of Preah Pithu at Angkor;
outside Angkor, Beng Mealea and parts of Phanom Rung and Phimai.
Central structure
The temple stands on a terrace
raised higher than the city. It is made of three rectangular galleries rising to a central tower, each level
higher than the last. Mannikka interprets these galleries as being dedicated to
the king, Brahma, the moon, and Vishnu. Each gallery has a gopura at each of the points, and the two
inner galleries each have towers at their corners, forming a quincunx with the central tower. Because the
temple faces west, the features are all set back towards the east, leaving more
space to be filled in each enclosure and gallery on the west side; for the same
reason the west-facing steps are shallower than those on the other sides.
The outer gallery measures 187 by 215 m, with pavilions rather
than towers at the corners. The gallery is open to the outside of the temple,
with columned half-galleries extending and buttressing the structure.
Connecting the outer gallery to the second enclosure on the west side is a
cruciform cloister called Preah
Poan (the "Hall of a
Thousand Gods"). Buddha images were left in the cloister by
pilgrims over the centuries, although most have now been removed. This area has
many inscriptions relating the good deeds of pilgrims, most written in Khmer but others in Burmese and Japanese. The four small
courtyards marked out by the cloister may originally have been filled with
water. North and south of the cloister
are libraries.
Beyond, the second and inner galleries are connected to each other
and to two flanking libraries by another cruciform terrace, again a later
addition. From the second level upwards, devatas abound on the walls, singly or in
groups of up to four. The second-level enclosure is 100 by 115 m, and may
originally have been flooded to represent the ocean around Mount Meru. Three sets of steps on each side lead up to
the corner towers and gopuras of the inner gallery. The very steep stairways
represent the difficulty of ascending to the kingdom of the gods. This inner gallery, called the Bakan, is a 60 m square with
axial galleries connecting each gopura with the central shrine, and subsidiary
shrines located below the corner towers. The roofings of the galleries are
decorated with the motif of the body of a snake ending in the heads of lions or garudas. Carved lintels and pediments decorate the entrances to the
galleries and to the shrines. The tower above the central shrine rises 43 m to
a height of 65 m above the ground; unlike those of previous temple mountains,
the central tower is raised above the surrounding four. The shrine itself, originally occupied by a
statue of Vishnu and open on each side, was walled in when the temple was
converted to Theravada Buddhism,
the new walls featuring standing Buddhas. In 1934, the conservator George
Trouvé excavated the pit beneath the central shrine: filled with sand and water
it had already been robbed of its treasure, but he did find a sacred foundation
deposit of gold leaf two metres above ground level.
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