By Patricia Woeber
Among the dense jungles of Southeast Asia, Angkor, a rare and amazing heritage site, was unknown and inaccessible until 1858, when Henri Mouhot, a French naturalist, inadvertently found the ruins and brought their immensity and beauty to the world's attention as the "Lost Cities of Asia."
During the ninth to 13th centuries, the Khmer Empire of Angkor (the main city) was composed of great monuments. The 100 walled cities with more than 50 wats (temples) covered 9 square miles and contained 1 million inhabitants. The Khmer kings built these temples for self-gratification.
At that time this was the greatest empire in the world. The interiors were conceived as celestial palaces. Although the royal burials were elsewhere, the kings believed their spirits resided here, which is probably why no place in the world is as mysterious and enchanting as Angkor.
I spent three days touring several temples with a group. One of my favorite wats was Banteay Srei, a temple admired as the pinnacle of Angkor art that dates back to 967. It is a small, elegant site built of pink sandstone and covered with carvings that look like embroidery with fine, intricate sculptures of Hindu legends. Visitors are impressed by the exceptional illustrations, exotic patterns and fine details, such as the faces of mischievous monkeys and actions of carved figures and animals, particularly horses and elephants.
The art's iconographic and religious symbolism was a graphic reminder of the past while all around me the cicadas hummed in the trees and the scent of sweet jasmine merged with incense from lit candles.
Although Banteay Srei was entrancing, Ta Prohm was also captivating for a different reason. The light was fading as I entered Ta Prohm, which is called "the Kingdom of the Tree." Over the centuries, massive roots of silk-cotton trees have combined with strangler figs to extend like tentacles, snaking through the walls, displacing ancient stones and destroying areas of the complex. Despite the dense encroaching jungle, enough sunlight filtered through screens of lianas and roots to allow me and other visitors to admire carved patterns, scrolls and scenes from Siddhartha. Chirping wild parakeets amplified the eerie ambience of twisted branches and ruined walls.
At midday we returned to Siem Reap, a bustling town of stucco buildings that house boutiques, cafes and hotels. We had checked into the Amansara, an Aman resort that was once the villa of King Norodom Sihanouk. The hotels in Siem Reap are just a 10-minute drive to Angkor.
Later in the afternoon, when it was cooler, we set off again for the temple complex. Bayon, a sandstone wat in the royal 12th-century city of Angkor Thom, contains four vast enclosures. Bayon evokes the ego of a king as it has 200 colossal portraits in stone, all the enigmatic faces representing the same man, King Jayavarman VII, who built the temple. His all-knowing and all-seeing eyes seemed to observe everyone's movements in all directions.
After strolling on the 1,000-foot-long Elephant Terrace, we photographed carved friezes with lion-headed figures and bas-reliefs of Khmer warriors rowing boats and riding elephants. Rare sculptures illustrate divinities and deities, including garudas, which are large, mythical birdlike creatures — half bird and half man. They appear in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology, symbolizing legendary strength and power.
At Bayon and Preah Khan, a 12th-century Buddhist complex, garudas are an integral part of the sites, yet time, nature and neglect have damaged the sandstone figures. At Preah Khan temple 72 imposing garudas stand as protecting figures. It was good to see that restoration was in progress.
To avoid the midmorning crowds, we toured Angkor Wat (Angkor means city) the most famous site, early in the morning. This is a massive complex built by King Suryavarman II from 1113 to 1150 to represent a shrine to the Hindu god Vishnu. The breathtakingly extensive structure includes a large moat, a long entrance causeway of stone blocks, several imposing temples topped with curved stupa shapes and walls covered with bas-relief carvings.
"There are miles of friezes here," said our guide, Khon.
Time didn't allow us to see all of them, so he highlighted choice areas illustrating Hindu legends and epic battle scenes. The original Hindu images and themes later merged with Buddhist ones. We strolled through a section of the 1,000-Buddha Gallery, but today numerous statues are missing, destroyed by the Khmer Rouge.
Around corners, we glimpsed monks in bright orange-saffron robes who murmured together. Khon then led us to another area with rows of apsaras.
Altogether there are 2,000 bas-reliefs of these, he told us. They are celestial nymphs attending Indra, the God of Heaven
"Apsaras were created from the foam of 'The Churning of the Sea of Milk,' the Hindu story of creation," he said.
The figures' individuality both amused and entranced, as each showed off a different detail in headdress, jewelry and pose, and each swayed her hips and held her arms in rhythmic curves while flimsy skirts flowed to long-lost music.
On the final day, a young woman sold me three quality T-shirts printed with apsaras for $7; then, with a big smile, she surprised me with a gift — a bracelet made of seedpods. Her gesture was not lost on me, and it remains one of my fondest memories of Cambodia.
WHEN YOU GO
Cambodia's treasures of Angkor are easy touring since the country is peaceful and roads and hotels are excellent. Flights from all over the world land at nearby Siem Reap. In fact, for the past decade, Cambodia has been recognized as the "new" tourist destination. That's not surprising considering the variety of temples and the caliber of the sculptures.
In response to rapidly rising tourism demands, more than 100 hotels have been built recently. Among them, top-quality properties include La Residence d'Angkor, which has received numerous awards for its outstanding decor and architecture. For a taste of colonial splendor stay in the restored Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor. The Aman group have the elegant Amansara.
Because of the midday heat, it is advisable to return to your hotel for lunch and then tour again later in the afternoon. Most hotels serve buffet lunches. The Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor offers irresistible buffet salads and melt-in-the-mouth desserts —chiffon pies and silky chocolate cake topped with Chantilly cream.
Khmer meals with unrecognizable concoctions of spices and herbs can be sampled at local restaurants.
Geographic Expeditions leads wonderful tours to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos: www.geoex.com
Abercrombie and Kent is similarly an outstanding tour company: www.abercrombiekent.com
Patricia Woeber is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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