The Bayon

Sorry, too busy to update the blog last few days. I'm going back S'pore for the Half-Year Review next week & I got "arrow-ed" to prepare the Cambodia office's presentations - All my weekend plans down the drain. Anyways, here's the mysterious smiling buddha heads of the Bayon - Part 5. Enjoy....

The fortified ruined citadel of Angkor Thom is about 3km north of the Angkor Wat temple. The city & its temples were built by Angkor's greatest king, Jayavarman VII, about 60 years after Angkor Wat (It is said that he built more in his reign than all his predecessors). Within the heavily fortified 8-metre high walls & a 100m wide moat, located in the centre, lie the ruins of amazing monuments like the Bayon, Royal Palace, the Terrace of Elephants, the Terrace of the Leper King the Kleangs & 12 Towers of Prasat...

Angkor Thom is only accessible by 5 massive seriously kickass monumental gates. They are 20 metres in height, decorated with elephant carvings & on the top of each gate, the 4 faces of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara face the 4 cardinal points. The gateway is very narrow, wide enuff for only 1 vehicle. Giant statues of 54 gods (leftside) & 54 demons (rightside) line each of the bridges leading to these gates. These statues are holding onto a naga, obviously a major reference to the legend of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk. Most of the gods & demons are decapitated by looters but the ones at the south gate had their heads fully restored.
Sorry, we ran out of time so didn't time to stop and take photos...but trust me it's bloody impressive...

The Terrace of Elephants is freaking magnificent. The 350m long terrace, decorated by kickass garudas, lions & fighting elephants, was used by the king as a grandstand for public ceremonies. Legions of infantry, cavalry, chariots & elephants in a military parade in front of this grandstand. The god-king dressed in gold diadem (attended by a train of mandarins & handmaidens) oversee this display of pomp & granduer of the might of the Khmer empire. Just trying to imagine it at the terrace gave me goosebumps...
No photos as well, sorry!

The Bayon is built in the exact centre of Angkor Thom. Relating this central location to the legend of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, the Bayon is supposed to be the pivotal mountain that churns the sea. The Bayon was Jayavarman VII's state temple. Its most distinctive feature is its 54 towers, each decorated with 4 massive, coldly smiling faces of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (some speculate the faces represent Jayavarman VII looking over his empire).

Quite an unique experience. From a distance, you see piles of crumbling formless stone but as you get closer, you see a face, then more faces, all smiling, seemingly springing eerily to life. Under the gaze of the 216 faces of Buddha, a sense of awe, mystery & humility washes over your whole being....


The overview (from my bootleg Lonely Planet Cambodia) didn't help at all as it was pretty hard to make out the structures among the ruins. Basically the Bayon consists of 2 galleried enclosures (bas-reliefs of mythical, historical, normal day events) & the upper terrace of towers...


Here's the entrance. The dude-in-blue is the temple guard. He is suppose to lookout for foreigners & verify their day-pass stubs. The ppl in front of me are French tourists.


1st level. Ruins. Remaining pillars & doorways with intricate devata designs. 3rd photo - pile of rubble


The mystical faces of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara - Simply Breathtaking. But to be honest, it's pretty eerie to walk around the upper terrace. Imagine about 10+ huge stone smiling faces, visible at any given moment, staring down at you.... It seems like your every move is being watched and recorded - no way of avoiding their gaze....Creepy.... Also note the smiles on those faces are not identical, some express a sense of serenity, some display a hint of sadness and also some look alittle stern - all staring stonily ahead, omnipresent and all-seeing. What's the symbolism behind these faces & their mysterious smiles? Dunno, nobody knows for sure...


Grace Epitomised - Remarkable detailed carvings of apsaras & devatas found on walls & pillars of the Bayon....


Tourists sitting around soaking in the moment, reading their guidebooks & writing in their journals...... Note that they are sitting in the central cruciform structure, filled with little windows & doorways...


Ist photo - Paved walkways of the upper terrace. 2nd photo - View from the top.


More tourists talking photos, sitting around, resting. Last photo - French tourist get her fortune told with twigs...


1st photo - Smack in the centre cruciform structure is small Buddha statue. The woman in the photo kinda shoo-ed me away....no photos? 2nd photo - Huge statue of "Naga sheltering Buddha" located at the side of the Bayon...


Ground level. Bas-reliefs of historical & everyday events are found on the enclosure walls. Total length of the bas-reliefs is about 1.2km long. It was pretty hard to navigate thru the low levels since the walkways are in ruins. Lot of climbing and jumping around....


Courtyard in ruins. Last photo is one of the 2 temple libraries that line each side of the entrance to the Bayon.


Climb up, jump down....


French hottie & hubbie leaving the Bayon. Au Revoir!


Remaining standing doorways line the sides of the courtyard. A big round pedestal thingy.


Other than the obvious attraction of the massive smiling buddha faces, I was drawn by the craftmanship involved in creating this remarkable piece of masonry. Totally amazed how ppl fashioned humongous stone into such an awesome structure....bear in mind, they didn't have cement, heavy equipment & machinery.

The cold, grey weather-beaten stones adds to to aura of the place...The cold stillness of aged stone contrasts with the noisy chatter of the jungle. Howling of monkeys, chirping birds & crickets chanting mixed with the eerie silence within the Bayon itself - in the immortal words of Mr. Keanu "NEO" Reeves - "WHOA...."


Another Hottie leaving the Bayon with her partner....

As we follow this Hottie out, we bid a very fond farewell to the mystical temple of Bayon & its 216 smiling buddha faces....be sure come back as I roundup the whole trip in Part 6!