Wondrous Angkor • Angkor Thom

•A mile north of the Wat is the south gateway to Angkor Thom, once a magnificent city of a million inhabitants.

Just outside that gate, on the west, is Phnom Bakheng, a natural butte rising •195 feet abruptly above the flat plain. It is believed not only to have supplied some of the stone of which Angkor Thom was constructed but to have been the exact center of the first p90 Angkor Thom and, therefore, the abode and shelter of the Devaraja, or linga.

Its ancient name was Yasodharaisvara, or Indradri ("Mount of Indra"). The five-story temple on the summit •(234 feet square at the base; •130 feet square at the top), built by King Yasovarman at the end of the 9th century, was dedicated to Siva and once was surrounded by a wall. Of the latter nothing now remains except some laterite fragments; of the former, a few of the original sixty small sandstone towers.

To behold the superb panorama from this point at its best, ascend Phnom Bakheng by one of three paths (two are accessible to elephants) after 5 P.M. In the cool of the evening the setting sun tinges the surrounding forest with delicate color, lighting up the towers of Angkor Wat as if they were beacons.

Visible in the west, reflecting the last gleams of the sun, is the West Baray;º far to the south, the new Grand Hôtel d'Angkor at Siemreap and the dim outline of Phnom Krom, a peak near Tonle Sap, the "Fresh Water Sea"; to the southeast, Angkor Wat; to the northeast, Ta Keo, and to the north, if the light is right, the summit of the Bayon. On the northeast horizon, 25 miles away, the bluish profile of Phnom Koulen (Letchis Mountain), whence came most of Angkor's countless stones, is often discernible.

p93 The South Gate

Like the four other portals to Angkor Thom, the South Gate is of huge dimensions •(65 feet high) and is dominated by the four faces of Lokesvara, each •9 feet 9 inches high. It is approached along an avenue flanked on either side by all that remains of 54 huge figures that once supported in their arms the body of the seven-headed cobra, Vasuki. Unfortunately they are neither so intact nor so impressive as those before the Gate of Victory in the east wall.

However, the gate itself is noteworthy. It is as clumsy as it is primitive, being totally devoid of a central keystone or a perfect right angle. Yet it has withstood the ravages of time and weather for eleven centuries while many more solid and massive monuments nearby have well-nigh vanished.

The walls on both sides of the porch are decorated with graceful female figures and with Indra mounted on his three-headed elephant, Airavata, which is browsing on lotus flowers at its feet.

Within the vault of the gateway are sentry lodges set within the stonework. Overhead are wooden crossbeams, miraculously preserved, and fragments of what may have been decorated wooden ceilings still clinging to the rafters.

p94 The Bayon

Angkor Thom today is a wild jungle approximately •two miles square. But as the north wall projects farther westward than the south, the geometrical center of the city is slightly west of the axis joining the north and south gates.

At that geometrical center — its middle tower just off plumb with the roadway — is the Bayon •(2 miles north of the Wat). The Bayon (not translatable, though possibly a term designating a reliquary for royal ashes) is the best designed, the most original and, to me at least, the most impressive of Angkor's 600 monuments.

At first believed to date from the 8th or 9th century, it is now known to have been erected by the great Buddhist king, Jayavarman VII, in the last years of the 12th century, fifty years or more after Angkor Wat. The ancient name of its site was Yasodharagiri ("Hill of Yasovarman") but eventually became Bhnam Kantal ("Central Mountain").

Each of the Bayon's 51 stone towers was built to represent the head of Lokesvara, the great Buddhist god of mercy, though later they also became dedicated to Siva, the Brahman deity whose divine symbol, the linga (called "devaraja" here), is believed to have been enshrined in the central prasat, or tower.

p95 Each tower, or head, has four elaborately carved faces of varied expressions. They smile grimly under their big flat noses, maintaining an aspect of ironical good nature that neither the slow labor of the forest nor the heavy dissolving rains of at least seven centuries have availed to destroy.

To the Bayon more than to any other Angkorean edifice may be applied Delaporte's⁠1 definition of Khmer architecture:

Created by a blending of India and China, purified and ennobled by artists whom one might call the Athenians of the Far East, this art which is the finest expression of human genius to be found in Asia, differs from the calm conceptions of Greece and Egypt. It consists in shapes laborious, complex, tormented; in superpositions, multiple recesses, labyrinths, low galleries, storied pyramids, and ragged towers, with an extreme profusion of ornamentation and sculpture, constant effects of light and shade which enrich the whole without altering its majesty, and are in marvelous harmony with the intense light and luxurious vegetation of the tropics.

Though built in three terraces, it is only •531 feet (east and west) by 468 feet (north and south), or •about ³⁄₁₀ths of a mile in perimeter.

The outer gallery on the ground floor is without a ceiling, though some of the pillars, p97 exquisitely carved with dancing apsaras framed with the bodies of two Nagas entwined in graceful curves, remain intact. This gallery has carvings that are even more interesting than those at Angkor Wat where one eventually may weary of the endless mythological episodes.

The adventures of gods and semi‑divine monarchs and heroes are well in keeping with the Wat's greatness. But the Bayon's scenes, less perfect in technique, are so much more human in their inspiration and rendering.

The outer galleries of this shrine are embellished with themes taken from the life of man with his daily struggles, pleasures and familiar occupations. Not a single mythological character appears. The whole Khmer society is represented: how it toiled and made merry, laughed and wept, lived and died, eleven centuries ago.

Every detail is treated with the most astonishing realism whether the scene depicted is inspired by a princess at her toilet, a child at play, or a woman scratching her husband's head. So numerous are the causes of delight provided by the lively pictures that when one starts exploring the Bayon he may find it difficult to move on to other monuments.

To inspect the outer galleries, start from the middle of the south facade and turn to the right (east).

p98 South Gallery: East Wing
(West to East)

Near the doorway are several bas‑reliefs depicting wrestling and feats of strength, also carpentering, cooking and other domestic scenes. The instruments, weapons and tools vary little from those used by the present Cambodian, thereby providing a tangible link between him and the ancient Khmer.

Above them guests at a banquet are eating with fingers from trays and bowls. Then appear battle scenes on land and on water. Some of the warriors wear a strange headgear resembling upturned flower pots. They probably are Chams, as they are arriving in junks like ancient galleys, but in any case they must be enemies since they always are being slain or subdued by the short-haired Khmers.

A sudden change of scene reveals a palace, or perhaps a series of palaces one behind the other, in which are shown a game of chess and a conference (middle strip); feats of strength, sword and spear duels and a combat between wild boars (lower strip). Beyond are aquatic and fishing scenes, dances and festivals. Below are an open‑air market with wares exposed for sale, a crowd watching a cockfight and princely figures surrounded by slaves waving elegant fans.

Beyond the second doorway are shiploads of warriors floating down a river in large p99 junks. Below are hunting scenes, a woman in childbirth and other curious episodes: a woman's orchestra, a "head hunter" (for lice), animals devouring human beings in a forest and fish swimming among birds in the treetops.

East Gallery: South Wing
(South to North)

With a small pavilion at the angle are the outlines of a temple with three towers, probably Angkor Wat. If this hypothesis is correct it establishes beyond all doubt the exact century (the 12th) in which the Bayon was built.

The south wing of the east gallery starts with domestic scenes in the lower panels: a kitchen in a palace, birds on the hilltops.

Then comes a procession of warriors, a cow tethered to a tree and several homely scenes of domestic life. Warriors clash in the north end of this wing, with chieftains mounted on elephants and followed by lesser satellites, servants and slaves bearing victuals. The combatants are brandishing spears, pikes and other fantastic arms of warfare in a most comical manner.

East Gallery: North Wing

This gallery depicts several historical battle-scenes in great detail and precision. Human p100 beings, in most unnatural poses and curious headgear, as well as half-natural, half-stylized elephants are engaged in the fray. The wholesale slaughter on both sides indicates the high pitch to which the terrible combat has mounted.

At the northeast corner is a remarkable round pedestal, with unmistakable Greek lines.

North Gallery: East Wing

The episode at the extreme end of this gallery depicts a defeat inflicted on the Khmers by their avowed enemies, the Chams. The invaders are in pursuit of the fleeing army. Among various little incidents in the panel are a warrior with close‑cut hair taking refuge on a hilltop, a chieftain being hoisted on an elephant by his men, and warriors quenching their thirst from gourd-shaped vessels. The remainder of the wall has fallen away.

North Gallery: West Wing

In the central porch is a figure of the Buddha seated in meditation. Though certainly erected subsequent to the Bayon, nevertheless it is now an object of great veneration, visited daily by pilgrims.

Many of the bas‑reliefs on the walls of this gallery are incomplete, only the outlines of the battle scenes being visible.

p103 In the lower panels, however, are Brahmanical Yogis surrounded by a forest, while in those above are mounted horsemen.

Then appears a circus, with scenes of acrobacy and jugglery, together with a full orchestra playing instruments similar to those now in use in Cambodia.

Beyond is a palace scene revealing some high personage giving instructions to his menials. Below is a series of wild and domestic animals.

West Gallery: North Wing

This gallery is a continuation of the preceding battle scenes, relieved here and there by elephants that introduce a note of diversion to the picture. In the northwest pavilion is a conspicuous image of the Buddha sans head or hands.

West Gallery: South Wing

Scenes of strife similar to those in the north wing, with elephants combating one another, are portrayed here. The warriors are almost naked.

Towards the second doorway, in a top panel, a chieftain is being presented with the heads of two of his enemies. Below is a crowd of men and women expostulating wildly, among them a few Brahmanic priests.

Then appear more battle scenes, with blank spaces here and there left unfinished. Another scene (in lower panel beyond the door) p104 reveals a tiger pursuing a Brahman priest who has taken refuge in a treetop. Beyond and above are masons constructing a building under the direction of a big‑bellied supervisor.

South Gallery: West Wing

More scenes of warfare, in which warriors, chieftains and elephants are annihilating their opponents with the usual ferocity displayed in previous panels.

Having returned to the spot whence we started let us now enter the main edifice.

Second Floor

Two oblong structures, believed to have been used as libraries, are at the northeastern and southeastern angles of the courtyard.

As in the case of the outer galleries, the whole length of the inner ones is carved with an amazing series of beautiful bas‑reliefs, but instead of domestic scenes and contemporary incidents they are of a distinctly mythological character, representing various religious legends from the sacred books of Brahmanism.

In a gallery on the east is a cistern •(32½ feet deep), presumably used for drainage purposes.

This second terrace is •285 feet on a side, while the third is •210 feet on the east and west and •174 feet on the north and south.

p107 Third Floor

One may ascend to the third or top terrace of the Bayon either on the north or on the south, as the steps there have been restored to one‑third of their width.

On all sides are little sanctuaries, while about the central tower, or prasat, is a series of smaller shrines. The main entrance to the prasat is on the east. Within are hundreds of squeaking bats that fly about in clouds at the approach of the unwelcome visitor. This great barren sanctuary, or "Holy of Holies," no doubt originally enshrined a colossal image of the Buddha; later, perhaps, the linga, or phallic emblem, attributed to Siva.

As recently as 1935, in fact, the deep central pit beneath its vast dome disgorged, among the accumulated debris of centuries, the broken fragments of a fine white Buddha, •12 feet tall, seated on the coils and sheltered by the hood of a great Naga. This handsome image, since restored, now occupies an especial terrace, beneath a graceful pavilion, along the Avenue of Victory •a mile northeast of the Bayon.

The exterior of the Bayon's central dome is crowned with the usual four-faced visage. It is most curious and extravagant, in elevation being a convex cone, in plan a spoked wheel, in shape an ellipse, •17 feet from east to west, p108 •12 feet from north to south. Its summit is •146 feet 3 inches above the ground.

All about are scores of stone faces (probably 172) of all shapes, sizes and expressions — the smallest •5 feet 8 inches high, the tallest •8 feet.

Unique among world buildings, the Bayon is as haunting as it is chaotic. Once seen it never fades from memory, yet few even notice its structural blunders. It is a mass of unequal wall surfaces and irregular slopes, with vertical overlaid jointings causing the towers to open like slices of cake. Yet one remembers only the mightiness of its conception, the splendor of its decoration.

The Veal

Just north of the Bayon is the Veal ("Plain"), an oblong grassy forum •758 yards long, where, in Yasovarman's day, the social life of the capital centered.

On its west side is the Reserved Royal City, enclosed on three sides by walls and broad moats, and on the Veal side by terraces.

Lining the east side of the Veal, twelve little laterite towers peep out from among the trees. These are the Prasat Suor Prat, or "Towers of the Rope Dancers." At either end are two long cruciform galleries, called kleangs, or stores.

The turrets consist of two floors but have neither windows, doors nor flights of steps p109 leading up to their summits or to the floors within. Natives now believe they were used for rope-dancing, although Tcheou‑Ta-Kwan noted in his diary in 1296 that they were used as cells wherein both accuser and accused in criminal cases were incarcerated until such a time as when "divine justice" should intervene and evoke a full confession from the guilty party. To quote:

When two families are at variance and nobody knows who is right or wrong, each of the opponents sits on one of the towers. At the bottom of the two towers are the two families watching one another. After one, two, three or four days, he who is guilty manifests it in some way; he either developes ulcers or boils or catches catarrh or malignant fever. The innocent one does not suffer from the slightest complaint. They decide in this way between the just and unjust. It is what they call divine judgment. Such are the supernatural interventions in this country.

But according to Henri Marchal, former conservator of Angkor, both theories are contradicted "by the very shape of the vaults and the presence of divinities and altars in the inner rooms." He does not attempt to estimate what they may be but, instead, cautions the visitor against judging a monument by its name.

"That name," he wrote in his Archaeological Guide to Angkor, "very often is a modern one given by the natives, and picked up by the first visitors to the temples . . . p110 Therefore it (is) unnecessary to look for a sacred sword at Prah Khan, a crystal statue at Ta Keo, or for the place where ropes were tied on the so‑called towers 'of tight-rope dancers.' In a word, the name of a temple has nothing to do with its designation."⁠b

The two kleangs, or stores, have both porches and galleries attached. From certain native sources these edifices are supposed to have been "Courts of Justice," while others say they were residences for either princes, high dignitaries or distinguished guests. However, the finding of several bronze images in the north kleang and the presence of stone altars may indicate a religious use.

The Royal City

The Baphuon

Placed by Tcheou‑Ta-Kwan at one li •(⅖ths of a mile) from the "Gold Tower" (the Bayon), the Baphuon has been identified as being the even higher "Copper Tower" mentioned in his diary. Built by order of Jayavarman p113 V (968‑1001), it was first known as Haimasringagiri, or "Mount of the Golden Horn," and was dedicated to the worship of the god Hemasringesa.

Situated on an artificial mound, •812 feet back from the Veal (approached over a paved alleyway supported by short round columns), it has suffered much at the hands of time and especially of man. It is •390 feet long (east and west) by •375 feet wide (north and south) at its base and consists of a rectangular pyramid formed of three poorly constructed terraces. Its galleries are curiously, but delicately carved with scenes from Brahmanic poems and numerous animals.

On the upper terrace is a gallery, the walls of which are adorned with remarkably fine bas‑reliefs. In the center is a large sanctuary that at one time probably had a gilt roof or one plated with copper. In its present state, this ruined tower is •140 feet high, but it may have reached a height of •152 feet at the time of its erection.

If that tower was in proportion to the rest of the monument, then the Baphuon at one time was the finest, most elegantly symmetrical monument in all Angkor.

The Royal Palace

Just north of the Baphuon is the Royal Palace enclosed with a wall, •1,950 feet (east and west) by •975 feet (north and south), p114 pierced by five limestone gates, two on the south, two on the north and the main entrance on the east, fronting upon the Veal.

This east entrance is the Royal Terrace, or Terrace of the Elephants, one of the masterpieces of Khmer architecture and sculpture. Being •1,140 feet (⅕th of a mile) long by •45½ feet wide, it once served as a Royal Gallery from which the King and his retinue witnessed the parades and games held on the central plaza (Veal).

It has three monumental flights of steps to the center and one at each end. The facade of the terrace is a splendid elephant frieze of a grand hunting party. The almost life-size pachyderms bearing kings and princes in howdahs on their backs crash majestically through the jungle, tearing at trees and lianas with their supple trunks, crushing a tiger or strangling a rhinoceros. The scene is superbly, excitingly depicted. The two extremities are surmounted by Naga parapets and grinning lions, while the outer facings of the central steps are adorned with Garudas and Rakshas. The former, in this instance, have the head of a vulture, the body of a tiger, the arms of a man.

On the terrace at one time no doubt stood the pavilions of the Royal Palace, which Tcheou‑Ta-Kwan described as follows:

The main block of buildings is magnificent. The long verandas, the covered passages, are of bold and p115 irregular shape, somewhat lacking in symmetry. The Council Hall has gold window frames; on the right and left are square pillars bearing from forty to fifty mirrors, in rows, on each side of the windows. (On either side of the Royal dais are hung two large metal mirrors, before each of these stands a gold vase and in front of each vase an incense-burner, likewise of gold.) Below are represented elephants. I have heard it stated that inside the Palace are many marvelous places; but the orders excluding visitors are very strict, and it is impossible to gain admission. There is a gold tower in the Palace (Phiméanakas) at the top of which rests the deified spirit of a sovereign.

Except for a few crumbling walls and the vestiges of their foundations, the Royal Palace has vanished, though the vague outline of three courtyards still are traceable.

As the first court communicates with the outside through three entrances, it is believed to have had some official character. In its southeast corner is a little chapel, or library, rather well preserved.

The second court probably was the official residency of the King. The only edifice still standing is a sanctuary, Phiméanakas, derived from "akasavimana," meaning "aerial or heavenly abode." It is situated •975 feet (⅛th of a mile) west of the "Elephant's Terrace" and is in a dilapidated condition. Completed in 910 by Harshavarman I and dedicated to Vishnu (according to an inscription), it is •114 feet by 91 feet at its base and is shaped like a three-story pyramid, •30 feet high.

p116 It rests on an elevated platform surmounted by a gallery reached by flights of steps on each of its four sides. In a little chamber on the upper floor, according to legend, the King used to go each night to commune with a Nagi, or Queen of the Serpents, for upon that daily interview it was believed, depended the future prosperity and welfare of the kingdom.

Figures of lions once stood at each of the porches, while elephants ornamented the four angles. •About 160 feet north of the temple, a tank, •26 feet deep, but not yet excavated, has been discovered. For some unknown reason its south bank is considerably higher than the north one. Unlike the Phiméanakas, which is virtually without ornamentation, the tank is carved with fishes, reptiles and animals near water-level and on the steps. Above are nagas and nagi princesses, monsters and garudas.

North of the third court, which is still farther west, the apartments of the Queen and the Favorites, surrounded by a deep moat and a double wall and with only one entrance, through the King's Palace, are believed to have been situated.

North and slightly west of the Phiméanakas, through a gate in the palace wall, is the small temple of Prah Palilai (quod vide). From it one may return, via Tep Pranam, to the Terrace of the Leper King.

p117 Terrace of the Leper King

Immediately north of the Terrace of the Elephants, appearing almost as if it were an extension thereof, though probably older and of no connection whatsoever, is the Terrace of the Leper King.

For no particular reason the natives of the region have associated this terrace with an old Cambodian legend that the city of Yasovarman was founded by a leper king. Its only adornment, aside from the sculptured walls of the terrace, is a statue, which is neither a leper nor a king but probably an ascetic Siva. Undoubtedly brought here for some especial purpose from a neighboring temple, it is notable in that it is totally naked and has no sex. Khmer art, unlike the Hindu, is always chaste, never vulgar.

The terrace walls, •175 feet long by 26 feet high, are sculptured with exquisite bas-reliefs of interesting domestic scenes similar to those of the Bayon. The most astonishing feature is the existence of a second facade, almost identical with the outer one even to its intricate carvings, but separated from it by a passage only •1½ feet wide.

The most plausible theory of this extraordinary duplication of labor appears to be that the original terrace was too small and that the outer wall was added to give it the requisite size and shape. This may well have p118 happened since time, labor and material meant nothing to the Khmer kings.

Tep Pranam

•About 325 feet north of the Terrace of the Leper King is Tep Pranam (or "Terrace of the Great Buddha"), a cruciform platform •226 feet by 110 feet, on which once stood a Buddhist monastery founded by King Yasovarman in the 9th century when Sivaism was at its zenith throughout Cambodia, a touching tribute to the equality of the various faiths! On the terrace today is a dignified, but rather ordinary statue of the seated Buddha, •13 feet high, to which the name "Tep Pranam" is now applied. Behind it is a smaller statue of the Buddha standing, with outstretched hands and the face missing. All about are the remains of several "chedis," or bell-shaped funereal monuments, eleven of which formerly lined each side of the terrace except the east, which had but three.

Prah Palilai

•About 1,300 feet west of Tep Pranam is Prah Palilai, a sanctuary •45 feet high dating from the 10th century and enclosed within a wall •160 feet square. It is built on an exceedingly elevated base and has a vertical turret, the only one of its shape in all of Angkor. In front of the sanctuary, on the east, are a p121 friendly white Buddha and a small cruciform terrace, in two tiers. Around the lower tier run Naga balustrades, the one along the flight of steps to the northern wing being perhaps the finest specimen of this typical Khmer motif extant. The upper level was reserved exclusively for the King and Royalty. The carvings within suggest that the cult observed here was a compromise between Buddhism and Brahmanism, as the figures above the lintels on the north and south sides are of the Buddha, and on the west of Brahma on his three-headed goose, Hamsa, and on the east Indra on his three-headed elephant, Airavata.

Prah Pithu

On the east side of the Veal, almost directly opposite Tep Pranam, are five little temples, with terraces and ponds, each enclosed by a wall. Etienne Aymonier,⁠2 greatest of all authorities on Angkor, regarded the ensemble as an immense Brahman monastery. But J. Moura, his predecessor as "Administrateur" of the French protectorate in Cambodia (1883), called them a "sports club," where judges and officials of the monthly contests on the neighboring Veal assembled. This theory is supported somewhat by a native p122 tradition that chessplayers met there. Buddhist images now are everywhere; also an exquisitely shaped, harmoniously proportioned Naga head or two. Even better known are the delicate mouldings and decorated bands on the graceful cruciform towers.

The Author's Notes:

1 Louis Delaporte, a talented draughtsman-artist who accompanied the first French "Mission d'Exploration" to Angkor in 1866. Later he returned to assemble the superb Khmer exhibits now in the Musée Guimet in Paris.

Thayer's Notes:

a The woman in the photo also appears in the book's frontispiece, wearing the same hat. I believe she is the author's then wife.

b A salutary reminder elsewhere as well, as for example the so‑called "Pyramid of the Sun" in Teotihuacan in Mexico — no evidence it had anything to do with the sun.

c I'm certainly no expert in either Angkor nor ancient construction techniques, but I doubt very much whether these holes were to assist in lifting the stones: some large blocks bear no holes, and some holes are found on very small blocks. To me, these holes look like fastening points for decorative metal plates or possibly even cloths; or maybe — bearing in mind that the Elephant Terrace served as a grand reviewing stand for parades and that these holes appear much less frequently elsewhere — for temporary wooden extensions, bleachers, or the like (but that doesn't explain why almost all these holes are on the elephants and very few on undecorated blocks).

p89 Angkor Thom