Banteay Srei, Kbal Spean and the Cambodian countryside

Continuing on with the tuk tuk, we headed to Banteay Srei, 32 kilometers from Siem Reap. The 10th century temple is renowned for its elaborate carvings which extensively cover almost every inch of the complex, supposedly some of the finest on Earth(at the very least, finest Angkorian).

Banteay Srei means 'citadel of women', as it's said the three-dimensional carvings are too fine for the hands of man to have made.

Banteay Srei from Travels with Charley on Vimeo.

The pinkish hue of the buildings come from the rocks from which the stones were originally cut, and give the carvings even more beauty. Standing guard at the center of this temple of crimson are the 'mythical guardians' - monkey-faced stone sentries - replicas of the originals, which are housed at the National Museum in Phnom Penh. (I was later there and saw them and more intricate carvings from Banteay Srei)

We left red for green. Back on the road again, we continued deeper into the Cambodian countryside, up to the lone mountain in this flat land of rice paddies. As we began to leave the level lowlands and enter the mountains, the rain began to pelt us as we sped towards the sacred river carvings of Kbal Spean.

Cambodian Countryside from Travels with Charley on Vimeo.

Farming was, and still is, the foundation for living in Cambodia. Rice fields were normally planted near rivers and depended on overflow during the rainy season and irrigation to harvest good crop yields. These rivers were sacred in ancient times. Kbal Spean was sacred to the Khmers because its where the river begins.

Kbal Spean (50 kilometers from Siem Reap) is also referred to the 'River of a 1000 Lingas' because the riverbed is dotted with round stone carvings, or lingas, as well as deities and other images. A little water falls flows over an impressive image of Vishnu, and along the stream are many carvings of Hindu Gods.

Outer Temples of Siem Reap

Traveling alone, I set out with a Tuk Tuk driver to see a few of the outer temples.

My first stop was the temples of the Roluos Group. These are the earliest permanent structures of the Khmer empire, and mark a transition from brick monuments to stone. Most date from the 9th Century and were constructed under the rule of King Indravarman the first.

Preah Ko, or Sacred Ox, dates from the late 9th century, and is a shrine for the Hindu God Shiva. Unlike the later temples, Preah Ko was constructed with plaster. The best surviving plasterwork of the Roluos group temples can be found here. Stone lions guard the temple. Near, a stone ox lies complacently.

Continuing on, Lolei temple was next. Lolei is very similar in age and construction to Preah Ko. A major difference, however, is its crumbling state.

Construction workers were busy while children ran around the ruins. The temples looked in critical need of repair.

 On a doorpost of a temple was a stone slab with sand-script writing on it. It was amazing how similar the ancient Sanskrit was to the modern Khmer script.

 

Adjacent to Lolei was a Buddhist monastery. I quickly stopped in before heading to the grandest of the Roluos Group, Bakong.

Bakong is a five-tier pyramid made of sandstone, with eight brick and sandstone plastered outer temples surrounding. A moat surrounds the entire complex. A monastery is also on this site, and monks can been seen walking amongst the ruins.

Stone elephants line one of the tiers of the pyramid. At the top, the views of the complex are great. In the central tower is a Buddhist shrine.

On top of Bakong

Ta Prohm

    In upstate New York, near where I live, are the remnants of an old canal line that transported cement and other goods through Delaware and New York in the 1800's. As a kid, running through woods and climbing along the old stone walls of the canal - now locked in the tight grip of tall oak and maple roots  - was my idea of a jungle exploration: fraught with danger and discovery.
     

High Falls, NY

Trekking around the Cambodian temple of Ta Prohm in late June, 2011 I felt the same fascination for exploration that had endured in my pubescent wanderings, except on a more sublime and awe inspiring scale. 

Ta Prohm

   


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One of the marvels of Angkor, the temple of Ta Prohm was built in the 12th century by King Jayavarman VII as a Buddhist monastery/university, and abandoned in the 15th century.

Lost to the jungle until its rediscovery by French archeologists in the early 20th century, Ta Prohm saw 500 years of neglect; this allowed for the marvel which is Ta Prohm to take shape, for Ta Prohm is not a marvel by mere architecture or size, as Angkor Wat, but rather a treasure in the subtle and delicate union of human ingenuity, nature and time.

Ta Prohm Temple from Travels with Charley on Vimeo.

Unlike the Oak and Maple trees that wrapped themselves around the old canal of my home town, the trees in Cambodia were alien to me; their roots more like tentacles from a giant squid, strangling the temples from which they clung to.

Strangler figs merge with stone at Ta Prohm, creating a work of art half a Millennia in the making. However, fig trees are the real spectacle; soaring high above the site, their gigantic buttress roots cling to the tops and sides of temples like wooden spider webs. 

It's not supprising that the 2001 movie starring Angelina Joli, Laura Croft: Tomb Raider, was partially filmed at Ta Prohm. With the union of nature and temple, one can easily get lost in fantasies of being the first to find this hidden jungle ruin.

 Amongst the tourists, there was a monk dressed in a bright orange cloak, poignantly wandering through the stones of this ancient monastery.

My mind began turning over the spiritual significance of this site; spiritual for the monk in its Buddhist history, spiritual for me in the profound reminder of nature's omnipresent power - in the end, no matter how well we build something, the intrinsic qualities of the land and nature will always prevail.