Banteay Srei Temple

Our first day of temple touring. As I explained earlier, our room rate at the Pavillon d'Orient included not only an all-day tuk-tuk with driver, it also included certain trips via car. Banteay Srei is approximately 37 kilometers from the hotel, so this was one of those trips via car. I arranged with the hotel to combine a couple of other stops with this temple trip and obtained a package price. We would see Banteay Srei Temple, Kbal Spean (river of a thousand lingas) and the more distant Beng Melea Temple in one full-day with the car and driver. The additional cost was only $40 or half the price of making separate trips. Main advantage was to get all the distant things done in one day.

First stop of the morning was to purchase temple passes. You can purchase either a day pass for $20 or a 3-day pass for $40. There are 2 versions of the 3-day pass -- either 3 consecutive days or any 3 days within one week. Obviously we opted for the 3 days within one week.





On the drive to Banteay Srei we saw lots of roadside stands in front of homes. They were selling locally grown produce and some kind of short block looking things. The driver explained that these were palm sugar, so we stopped and purchased a few packets. A photo and explanation of palm sugar was in our previous posting.

Banteay Srei Temple is often called the women's temple. But that misnomer is thought to have been caused by a mispronounciation of the name at some point in history. This temple was not dedicated to women as some people continue to believe. The name actually means citadel of beauty. This would be an appropriate name because of all the intricate carvings covering almost every surface of this temple.


Banteay Srei is a single story, low temple; unlike all the other temples is this part of Cambodia. It is also by far the most ornately carved and decorated temple. It was built in the year 967 A.D. and was dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. The temple remained in use at least until the 14th century and is assumed to have fallen into disuse sometime during that century. It was not rediscovered until 1914. Rediscovered by the outside western world, that is; the locals always knew it was there......just like the local people in Aguas Calientes always knew about Machu Pichu and the local people in Siem Reap always knew about Angkor Wat.

The Hindus believe in 3 major gods: Brahma, Visnu and Shiva. Brahma is the god of creation; Visnu is the god of protection; and Shiva is the god of destruction. Hinduism believes in balance, so if gods of creation and protection are to be worshipped, then the god of destruction must also be worshipped. There are many lesser gods or helpers to these gods. It is easy to get lost in all the names and details and there are different forms of Hinduism to further confuse us westerners. Wikipedia states there are 330 million Hindu dieties. I have enough trouble with Father, Son and the Holy Ghost; 330 million dieties is mentally overwhelming.

The temple is constructed mainly of red sandstone, which is easily carved like wood. It is situated facing east like most Hindu temples. I won't go into all the layout details. Check Wikipedia if you are interested in that sort of thing. Suffice it to say, we appreciated the beauty of the carvings and the intricate work performed so long ago; but since we are not Hindu the site details are not very important to us. It is amazing to me that these stone carvings are over 1,000 years old and they have lasted so long in such a high-humidity environment.

After being rediscovered in 1914, Banteay Srei was the subject of a celebrated case of art theft when Frenchman Andre Malraux stole four devatas in 1923. About this time there was a newly heightened interest in artifacts from ancient temples in SE Asia, and Monsieur Malraux contrived a way to take advantage of this interest. He stole the four devatas which had stone carved images on multiple sides. He endeavored to remove each stone image and sell it separately, thus quadrupling the amount of money others might have expected for selling the same artifacts. He was soon arrested and the figures returned to Banteay Srei Temple. This man later became somewhat of a cult hero in France and was appointed to the position of curator of a large museum in France. He supposedly repented the error of his earlier ways and became a convesator of art and historical artifacts.

This incident sparked worldwide interest in the temple site. The following year it was cleared. In the 1930s the temple site was restored in the first important use of anastylosis at Angkor. Anastylosis is the disassembling an historic monument piece by piece, usually involving numbering and measuring each component; then reassembling all the components back into their original configuration, adding reinforcement materials as required to help prevent further deterioration. This is the process now used on all the temples where attempts are being made to preserve. Until the foundation stela was discovered in 1936 it had been assumed that Banteay Srei was much older because of the extreme decoration and carvings. Discovery of the foundation provided exact date of construction.

To prevent further water damage to the temple site, a drainage system was installed between 2000 and 2003. At this time measures were also undertaken to alleviate damage to the temple walls from the nearby trees. Trees have been cut back and a single-lane dirt road built completely surrounding the temple site.

Unfortunately, the temple has been ravaged by theft and vandalism. Authorities removed some of the original statues and replaced them with concrete replicas. The original statues were taken to the National Museum in Phnom Penh for safekeeping. The black market for temple antiquities is so lucrative that looters continue to attack. The original statues were even attacked within the National Museum. One sees statues with heads removed at all the temples. Apparently, the biggest black market item is a statue head.

One of the things I found interesting in Cambodia was the written Khmer language. It is so different from any other written language that I have seen. Sort of a cross between thick sanskrit and Greek. The main difference between sanskrit and ancient Khmer is that the characters in Khmer are much thicker and bolder, with more curves.

As we were leaving the rear entrance of the temple there was a group of men sitting on the ground playing musical instruments. Their sign stated they were landmine victime and were asking for donations. We saw no missing legs or arms; no missing fingers or toes; and no facial scars. Decided to follow the earlier advice and not give them any donations. Better to give money directly to the man who can use it.

Next stop for the day was Kbal Spean --- the river of 1,000 lingas.

Cambodian Cultural Village

After the war museum we went back to Pub Street where I enjoyed roasted aubergine pizza (eggplant to you Americans) and Bill sampled that 50 cent draft beer. He decided the Angkor beer was just as good (or bad) as the Tiger beer sold all over SE Asia. Again we saw many landmine victims attempting to make a living by selling various trinkets to the tourists. We bought a DVD about the temples of Angkor Wat from one of the men to do our bit for helping. The guide at the war museum and tuk-tuk driver had advised us not to put any money into the hundreds of "Help the War Victims" boxes that are all over the place. These boxes are placed by the government but supposedly the funds donated into these boxes never reach any of the war victims. The advice was that if someone wants to help war victims, give the money directly to a victim or, better yet, buy something from him so that he doesn't feel like a beggar. After lunch it was time to spend the entire afternoon at the Cultural Village.

The Cultural Village provides an insight to the various peoples who settled in Cambodia over centuries. The temples were built when the principle religion in Cambodia was Hinduism. This later changed to Buddhism. Today 90% of the population is Buddhist; about 9% Islamic; and about 1% Christian, or Catholic to be specific. The Catholicism is a hangover from the days of French colonization.

The first attraction in the village was a wax museum featuring depictions of the various historical people from the first century to the present time in Cambodia. Bill decided that he preferred the traditional manner of dress for females over the current mode of fashion. When we later visited the temples, we saw that all women were carved into the stones at all the temples wearing the Cambodian bare breast style of clothing. Women in Cambodia wore bare breast clothing until after the Thais invaded around 1232 AD. After the Thais arrived the women changed to the Thai manner of clothing. The traditional Apsara Dance was always performed wearing a bare breast costume until the Thai invasion. The Thais killed the Cambodian men and took the women and children back to Thailand as slaves. The Cambodian women taught the Thai women how to perform the Aspara Dance. Today, the Aspara Dance is always performed wearing traditional Thai costumes, even in Cambodia.

Across from the Wax Museum was another museum with exhibits of antiques. There also were depictions of the various daily lifestyles of different regions of Cambodia over the centuries. There was a local family in this section who were putting their kids up inside the displays for photos. These are 2 live children posing with some of the animals in one of the displays. For some reason this photo is showing up oriented in the wrong position as I enter this blog, but I have uploaded it in the correct orientation and hope it appears right-side-up. Can you imagine any museum back home letting kids climb up into displays! Here, the staff of the museum did not seem to care at all.

Next exhibit was the Millionare House. This was an ancient style of Khmer construction during the Ou Duong time (you can do the research if you want to know more about that time period). This was a very large house; the living level raised as is still normal in this wet area today. It was built of very fine wood materials and would have provided a luxurious manner of living. Wish we could have found such nice wood when we built out last home in Houston. At the Millionare House we saw a traditional Khmer wedding. Very pretty clothing. Although it was performed and explained completely in the Khmer language and we did not understand a word of it. There was one part where a man dressed in white came dancing about and singing and seemed to be explaining things to the audience, although he was actually a part of the wedding ceremony. Seemed more like a court jester to me. Clothing for the bride and groom were beautiful fabrics.

The next people we learned about were the Cham, who came from Champa, Vietnam. Their principle religion is Islam. The Cham people mostly live along the riverbanks and make their livings by fishing and blacksmithing. The people now living at the floating village (where we visited several days later) are mostly Cham, although the few traditional Cambodians who still live in the floating village are Buddhist.

Chinese people moved to live in Cambodia more than a thousand years ago during the Song Dynasty. The principle religion is Buddhism. Today most of the Cambodians of Chinese heritage make their livings by owning and operating small businesses. Some Chinese also grow and sell fruits and vegetables at the open-air markets. Of course, no Chinese exhibit would be complete with a few of the traditional Chinese dances. One dance had costumes that I would not normally think of as Chinese, with ultra-long sheer sleeves that moved in unison as the girls danced. And beading like some Native American dress. Maybe these Chinese were of Mongolian heritage. Then, of course, there was the traditional stilt dance and the lion dance. Guess we will be seeing these again when we visit China in April/May.

Another group of people in Cambodia are the Kola. The Kola people were originally from Burma, the country now known as Myanmar. We will not be visiting Myanmar due to ongoing disagreements with the USA. It is not considered safe for US tourists at this time. The Kola people arrived in Cambodia in the 1870s, so they are fairly new arrivals to this ancient country. The Kola live primarily in the Pailin district in far northwest Cambodia. There are many precious stones in this area, as well as many peacocks. Thus, a dance called the Pailin Peacock Dance originated from this region. The girls in blue look like they have been doing a lot of yoga. Such flexibility!

The Kroeng people are ethnic minorities living in the northeast of Cambodia, mostly in the Rattanakiri province. The Kroeng make their living by farming and hunting. They believe in Animism and their style of dress is similar to Native American clothing styles of hotter climates. Another tribal group living in the northeast of Cambodia in the Mondulkiri province are the Phnorng, who also make their living by farming and hunting and also believe in Animism.

The Surin people live along the border of Cambodia and Thailand, an area that is much in dispute between the two countries today. Apparently there is a temple in that area that the Thais claim to be theirs, and the Cambodians place an equal claim on it. There have been several skirmishes in the past year and a few soldiers have been killed. Presently, the Surin people are considered to be living in Thai territory. Their culture is the same as the Khmer people living north of Siem Reap in Cambodia. The Surin are good at organizing elephant matings and elephant contests. The Surin believe in Buddhism, although a few believe in Neak Ta Me Mut which is a form of witchcraft. As there are still land mines in this part of Cambodia, we won't be going anywhere near the Cambodian/Thailand border.

Lastly, the largest percentage of the population of Cambodia are the Khmer people. Khmer still do wood and stone carvings, make clay pots, crafts and do a lot of fishing. The Khmer have kept the traditional Apsara Dance alive. The Khmer also make palm sugar, something with which we were not familiar. A couple of days later I asked our car driver to stop and buy some palm sugar when we were en route to the Banteay Srei temple. The rural Khmer were selling palm sugar packets at roadside stands in front of their homes. Palm sugar is made from the sap of a particular palm tree. It is the type of palm tree that has foliage like multiple palmetto fronds; it has an almost black trunk. This is a very valuable type of palm tree. The leaves of the palm fronds are used for thatch roofs. The wood of the trunk is excellent for making boats and houses. The palm tree sap is boiled about 40 minutes and stirred constantly as it cools. It is then dropped in small spoonsfull onto a flat surface. The resulting small sugar disks are then wrapped in folded palm frond leaves in a cylindrical shape. The small candy packet is then inserted upside down inside a slightly larger folded palm leaf packet. Small strips of palm leaves are used to tie these packets. They are sold on the roadside 3 for $1, but the price in downtown Siem Reap is usually at least triple that. BTW, the Cambodian currency is the riel but US dollars are really the common currency. The ATMs disperse either riels or US dollars and all prices in stores and restaurants are printed in USD. Everyone speaks English as well as Khmer and the children are taught English in school.

We decided we had all the Cambodian culture and history we could stand for one day and skipped the final third of the Cultural Village. Here is a painting that depicts the main temple at Angkor Wat as it would look during sunrise. I include it to illustrate how vast this temple complex is. Actual photos of Angkor Wat will be posted when we visit there in a day or two. This painting was in the museum at the Cultural Village. That is the outer wall of the temple complex. The sanctuary of the temple is located in the structure shown way in the background, which is actually the center of the temple complex. BTW, the moat that surrounds the temple is 200 meters wide. This is a big temple! Tomorrow we start touring a few of the actual temples.

Angkor War Museum and the Khmer Rouge

This posting is mostly for our gun-nut son (you know which one you are!).

As surely everyone in the world knows, Cambodia was in a state of war for about 29 years -- from 1970 until 1999. The movie "The Killing Fields" provides a good depiction of the sheer hell that the Cambodians suffered during those decades. Pol Pot was an assumed name by a man who was half-Cambodian and half-Chinese. The name stood for "POLitical POTential" and he was supported by the Chinese military. The population of Cambodia was 7 million at the beginning of the Pol Pot regime of terror; the population was less than 4 million when the war finally ended. Most of those 3 million people were either bludgeoned to death (bullets cost too much), or they were literally worked to death or starved. Pol Pot separated families -- his army would enter a village or city and women would be sent to one camp, men to another and children to another. Pol Pot's army placed tens of thousands of land mines throughout the Cambodian countryside, especially heavilly near the borders with neighboring Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. They also would put mines in the city streets for children to pick up and detonate. In retaliation for these mines, the regular Cambodian troops also set land mines. Today, most of these land mines have been removed except in the northern part of Cambodia near Thailand. Tourists are warned not to venture off well-traveled paths or roads anywhere in Cambodia. With good reason. The war ended only after Pol Pot died of a heart attack in 1998 and his army no longer wished to fight, although even today there are still a few remnants of the Khmer Rouge out in the jungle of northern Cambodia. In 1999 peace was finally declared.

BTW, Khmer Rouge is not pronounced the way we say it in the USA. In Cambodia, Khmer is pronounced "k-m-eye" with the m and the eye sounds blended. And Rouge is pronounced "roo." Khmer Rouge is pronounced K-m-eye Roo or K-mai Roo. Shown is the Khmer Rouge flag. The gold shape in the center represents the distinctive shape of the temple of Angkor Wat.

In Siem Reap one sees victims of the land mines on every street. Some have both arms blown away at the elbows. Some have missing hands or fingers. Many have only partial legs or no legs. It is very, very sad. To learn more about this recent period we started our tours of Cambodia at the Angkor War Museum located in the outskirts of Siem Reap. Our tour guide was a victim of a land mine. He lost several fingers and still has visible shrapnel in his face, shoulder, wrist and groin. He is still saving to have operations to have these shrapnel fragments removed some day because they are painful. The government does not help with these expenses; cannot afford to because there are so many victims and so little money. All around the Siem Reap area we saw signs at various construction sites that were financed by gifts or grants from governments all over the world -- like hospitals built and operated by Germany, pharmacies by France, schools by Brussels, playgrounds by Australia, police stations by other countries, and so on. In 1999 Japan gave Cambodia the money to build the roads and highways that are in use today. Without this worldwide financial assistance, Cambodians would not be able to rebuild their country. BTW, we did not see one sign where the United Stated is helping Cambodia -- at least not in the Siem Reap region.

Our guide suffered his injuries when he was a child. He picked up what looked like a green toy that was lying in the city street and it blew up in his hand. He said that he lost many friends to land mines during the war. At certain exhibit stations he would look away and get teary because he would remember friends who had died in that particular manner. He said he lost everything in the war and has no family left. The mines were of multi-national origin. Shown is a Claymore mine, USA manufactured.


There was a Chinese MIG on display, as well as some large Chinese or Russian helicopter. All the artilerry in this outdoor museum had been found in the jungle nearby. Some of it dated back to WWI and there was a lot of WWII stuff. In the top photo Bill is holding a M80 grenade launcher, something he qualified expert on when he was in the Army back in the late 1960s. Shown on the left are a few WWI automatic rifles. Above are only a few of the AK-47s they had found in the nearby jungle. And on the right are an AR-15 and an M-16. Also shown is an American jungle periscope which could be used to sight in range to target. This thing still works! On the left is a Chinese automatic pistol, obviously many years old. Then again on the left are shown a couple of Chinese automatics.

Lastly, there are a few of the many anti-artillery guns or whatever these are called. Some are American, some are Russian, some are Chinese. It surprised me how many of these things they had recovered from the jungle. These date back to WWII and the Vietnam era as well as what were used during the Pol Pot regime. Bill identified what each one is and what time period, but I will not go into those details here.

However, must identify one more thing. A Russian T-54 tank, shown on the left. This was the first time either Bill or I had seen a tank of this type. And this little museum had several of the T-54s. The driver of this small tank had to be a very tiny person because you would not believe the size of the little compartment where the driver was seated. The driver's compartment was on the front of this model tank, under a hatch door on the left side beneath the gun. I think our 9-year-old grandson would have had a difficult time getting into that tiny space! Where in the world did Russia find men small enough to use these tanks? I could see finding small Chinese or Cambodian men because there are many Asian men of small and thin stature. But one normally thinks of Russians as being fairly large and hefty guys. Seems like a strange design for Russians to me.

The rest of our time in Cambodia was spent looking at temples and cultural villages and floating villages.

Enough with the guns already.

Arrival in Siem Reap

This posting is primarily for other cruisers and travelers following in our footsteps. A couple of experienced cruisers in our marina who have hung out in SE Asia for years told us that getting to Kuala Lumpur via express bus was the best way to go. Well, experience is a wonderful teacher; and now that we have done it, we don't agree with that advice. Unless you plan to stay in central downtown Kuala Lumpur, take the plane instead.

The public bus serving the marina area is very unreliable timewise. The express bus to KL departs the Bukit Indah station at 0900. Since we could not rely on the public bus #6 to follow the posted schedule and get us to Bukit Indah in time to make the connection with the express bus to KL, we opted to have the marina shuttle deliver us to the Bukit Indah station -- cost 40 ringitt. Bus for 2 persons to KL -- cost 62 ringitt. Taxi from bus terminal in KL to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) -- cost 120 ringitt. Supposedly there is a public bus from KL bus terminal to the KLIA airport for 8.50 ringitt but we never saw that bus. Shuttle for 2 people and 1 piece luggage from Concorde Inn Hotel at the airport to the LCC Terminal of KLIA -- 55 ringitt. So, total cost to get from marina to the LCC Terminal in Kuala Lumpur -- 277 ringitt (about $82 USD) and 7 hours travel time. Cost to fly 2 persons via Air Asia from Senai Airport at Johor Bahru to the LCC Terminal at KLIA including taxi to or from Puteri Harbour Marina -- $82 USD and less than 2 hours travel time. Seems like a no brainer to me. Take the plane.

Also, the LCC Terminal is more than 20 km from the KLIA main terminal. And about the same distance from all the airport hotels. Except that there is a new Tune Hotel (operated by Air Asia) that is located directly at the LCC Terminal. The Tune is the only sensible place to stay for overnight connections with Air Asia, Tiger Airways or Firefly airlines. The Tune stays booked up so reserve your room months in advance of travel.

Air Asia is a low-cost carrier, no frills whatsoever; and they are strict on their baggage allowance. But overall it was pleasant enough. Flights were on time and planes were clean and appeared well maintained and mostly new. The meals sold on the plan were very reasonably priced and smelled good, although we did not partake.

We arrived in Siem Reap at 0900 and were greeted by a driver from our hotel. We had obtained e-Visas and breezed right through Immigration and Customs while all the other plane passengers were busy completing forms. In fact, we were the first people out of the terminal. The driver led us to a nice Lexus LE; then served us ice-cold cloths to freshen up and cups of ice water to sip as he drove us to the hotel. We stayed at the Pavillon d'Orient, thanks to recommendation from Andy and Melissa on S/V Spectacle. We would not have wanted to stay anywhere else. There are many large resort hotels at much higher prices that appeared very nice; and there are many very cheap hostels/guest houses/hotels for lower budget travel. But we would not have wanted to stay anywhere other than the Pavilllon d'Orient.

The area surrounding the Pavillon d'Orient is not attractive or welcoming, but once inside the wall surrounding this boutique hotel it is lovely. And the staff is very efficient and friendly. Included in our room rate was our personal tuk-tuk driver from sunrise until 10 p.m. daily. A tuk-tuk is basically a mechanized rickshaw. It is a small motorcycle with a passenger compartment attached. These are everywhere and usually cost $25 per day. The room also included a more than ample breakfast. The hotel's homemade yogurt was marvelous. And they made perfect 3-minute or 4-minute eggs.

One night the hotel surprised us with a complimentary pretty chocolate mouse cake delivered to our room. Delicious! Also included was car transportation to and from the airport, to the Banteay Srei temple 37 km distant and a half-day trip to the floating village. What more could we have asked for! There was a nice swimming pool but we never got around to using it. The hotel presented us with 2 vouchers for free one-hour massage each. I opted for the traditional Khmer massage. Felt great. It has been a very long time since I was pampered with a professional massage.


When you take all these extras into consideration, the room rate was quite reasonable for such a lovely little hotel.

Each night one of the staff would deliver to our room a small scroll tied with red silk thread. This was our bedtime story. Each story was a short Cambodian tale, either with a moral or humorous message. A delightful touch! Also included were a few Cambodian proverbs, some of which were a bit too mystical for us. Here are a few that did make sense to us:

"Riding a buffalo across mud is easier than swimming."
Interpretation: Utilize the resources at your disposal rather than making things difficult for yourself.

"The back foot follows the front foot.
Interpretation: Children follow in the footsteps of their parents; surordinates follow the orders of their superiors.

"Even those with four legs eventually slip; even those with complete knowledge eventually slip up."
Interpretation: To err is human.

The first afternoon we took the tuk-tuk to downtown Siem Reap for lunch. Found a Mexican place and enjoyed watching people on the street while we scarfed $1 tacos and $2 margaritas. Draft beer everywhere was only 50 cents per mug. No wonder backpackers love this place!

There was a pharmacy at the end of Pub Street and I was able to purchase enough thyroid hormones to last me until we reach the Med next year. Exactly the same brand I would purchase in the USA, but at a fraction of the cost. Will never understand why this drug that was developed in the 1930s costs so dang much in the US but is so inexpensive everywhere else in the world. Cambodia is one of those countries that does not require physicians to write prescriptions for non-narcotic drugs. So buying the levothyroxine without a script was not a problem. I also bought a few rounds of antibiotic cipro to replenish our medical kit on the boat. Then we went out to the silk farm.

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our camera so have no photos. The silk farm is one of the artesan ventures in Cambodia. The government supports several artesan ventures to keep the traditional skills alive. This was an interesting little tour and it is free. I would recommend it. We saw everything about silk: the various types of mulberry trees that the silkworms eat, the cocoons and how they are stored as the worms develop inside, how the cocoons are boiled and the thread is extracted and then spun into thread, the various methods of dying the threads, the looms and weaving processes. An interesting tidbit is that real silk will not burn, only the partial silk fabric will burn. If you set flame to 100% silk fabric, the flame with extinguish and the fibers will turn white. Partial silk fabric will flame and burn up, leaving black fiber residue. An easy way to tell if a fabric is truly 100% silk, if you are brave enough to try to burn your clothes. We purchased a couple of silk pillow covers for our main saloon as souvenirs.

A very dry account of Angkor Wat

Unlike almost everyone else it seems, neither Bill nor I had heard of Angkor Wat until just a few years ago. Angkor Wat is a vast complex of temples built centuries ago in northwest Cambodia; left to be overtaken by jungle and later rediscovered. Angkor Wat is a huge tourist attraction today and will be our only stop in Cambodia. We have no desire to visit the Killing Fields in the southern part of Cambodia. That is too depressing.

Below is a very dry description of Angkor Wat borrowed from a website dedicated to geological sites of "peace and power" -- all a tad too mystical for Bill and me. If you are not into history, skip this posting:

There are two great complexes of ancient temples in Southeast Asia, one at Bagan in Burma, the other at Angkor in Cambodia. The temples of Angkor, built by the Khmer civilization between 802 and 1220 AD, represent one of humankind's most astonishing and enduring architectural achievements. From Angkor the Khmer kings ruled over a vast domain that reached from Vietnam to China to the Bay of Bengal. The structures one sees at Angkor today, more than 100 stone temples in all, are the surviving remains of a grand religious, social and administrative metropolis whose other buildings - palaces, public buildings, and houses - were built of wood and are long since decayed and gone.

Conventional theories presume the lands where Angkor stands were chosen as a settlement site because of their strategic military position and agricultural potential. Alternative scholars, however, believe the geographical location of the Angkor complex and the arrangement of its temples were based on a planet-spanning sacred geography from archaic times. Using computer simulations it has been shown that the ground plan of the Angkor complex – the terrestrial placement of its principal temples - mirrors the stars in the constellation of Draco at the time of spring equinox in 10,500 BC. While the date of this astronomical alignment is far earlier than any known construction at Angkor, it appears that its purpose was to architecturally mirror the heavens in order to assist in the harmonization of the earth and the stars. (NOTE from Judy: this sounds a bit far-fetched; more likely it is just coincidence--seems that if you looked far enough back and at enough constellations you would find a match to physical location of almost anything.) Both the layout of the Angkor temples and iconographic nature of much its sculpture, particularly the asuras (‘demons’) and devas (‘deities’) are also intended to indicate the celestial phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes and the slow transition from one astrological age to another.

At the temple of Phnom Bakheng there are 108 surrounding towers. The number 108, considered sacred in both Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies, is the sum of 72 plus 36 (36 being ½ of 72). The number 72 is a primary number in the sequence of numbers linked to the earth’s axial precession, which causes the apparent alteration in the position of the constellations over the period of 25,920 years, or one degree every 72 years. Another mysterious fact about the Angkor complex is its location 72 degrees of longitude east of the Pyramids of Giza. The temples of Bakong, Prah Ko and Prei Monli at Roluos, south of the main Angkor complex, are situated in relation to each other in such a way that they mirror the three stars in the Corona Borealis as they appeared at dawn on the spring equinox in 10,500 BC. It is interesting to note that the Corona Borealis would not have been visible from these temples during the 10th and 11th centuries when they were constructed. (Again, this sounds far-fetched to me; as in literally grasping at stars.)

Angkor Wat, built during the early years of the 12th century by Suryavaram II, honors the Hindu god Vishnu and is a symbolic representation of Hindu cosmology. Consisting of an enormous temple symbolizing the mythic Mt. Meru, its five inter-nested rectangular walls and moats represent chains of mountains and the cosmic ocean. The short dimensions of the vast compound are precisely aligned along a north-south axis, while the east-west axis has been deliberately diverted 0.75 degrees south of east and north of west, seemingly in order to give observers a three day anticipation of the spring equinox.

Unlike other temples at Angkor, Ta Prohm has been left as it was found, preserved as an example of what a tropical forest will do to an architectural monument when the protective hands of humans are withdrawn. Ta Prohm's walls, roofs, chambers and courtyards have been sufficiently repaired to stop further deterioration, and the inner sanctuary has been cleared of bushes and thick undergrowth, but the temple has been left in the stranglehold of trees. Having planted themselves centuries ago, the tree's serpentine roots pry apart the ancient stones and their immense trunks straddle the once bustling Buddhist temple. Built in the later part of the 12^th century by Jayavarman VII, Ta Prohm is the terrestrial counterpart of the star Eta Draconis the Draco constellation. Shown are a few photos taken from Google images. I'm sure there will be more photos later once we have visited this temple.

During half-millennia of Khmer occupation, the city of Angkor became a pilgrimage destination of importance throughout Southeastern Asia. Sacked by the Thais in 1431 and abandoned in 1432, Angkor was forgotten for a few centuries. Wandering Buddhist monks, passing through the dense jungles, occasionally came upon the awesome ruins. Recognizing the sacred nature of the temples but ignorant of their origins, they invented fables about the mysterious sanctuaries, saying they had been built by the gods in a far ancient time. Centuries passed, these fables became legends, and pilgrims from the distant reaches of Asia sought out the mystic city of the gods. A few adventurous European travelers knew of the ruins and stories circulated in antiquarian circles of a strange city lost in the jungles. Most people believed the stories to be nothing more than legend however, until the French explorer Henri Mouhot brought Angkor to the world's attention in 1860. The French people were enchanted with the ancient city and beginning in 1908 funded and superbly managed an extensive restoration project. The restoration has continued to the present day, excepting periods in the 70's and 80's when military fighting prevented archaeologists from living near the ruins.

Orthodox archaeologists sometimes interpret the temples of the Angkor complex as tombs of megalomaniacal kings, yet in reality those kings designed and constructed the temples as a form of service to both god and their own subjects. The temples were places not for the worship of the kings but rather for the worship of god. Precisely aligned with the stars, constructed as vast three dimensional yantras and adorned with stunningly beautiful religious art, the Angkor temples were instruments for assisting humans in their realization of the divine.

Jayavaram VII, spoke of his intentions in erecting temples as being

“full of deep sympathy for the good of the world, so as to bestow on men the ambrosia of remedies to win them immortality….By virtue of these good works would that I might rescue all those who are struggling in the ocean of existence.”

And with that fine message, we are off for a week in Siem Reap, Cambodia and touring of Angkor Wat temples. First stop, overnight in Kuala Lumpur. Then early morning flight to Siem Reap and a week at the Pavilion d'Orient boutique hotel. Our first vacation of 2010.