Angkor Wat Temple (ប្រាសាទអង្គរវត្ត)

Angkor Wat (/ˌæŋkɔːr ˈwɒt/; Khmer: អង្គរវត្ត, temple city / city of temples), temple complex at Angkor, near Siĕmréab, Cambodia, that was built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman II (reigned 1113–c. 1150). The vast religious complex of Angkor Wat comprises more than a thousand buildings, and it is one of the great cultural wonders of the world. Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious structure, covering some 400 acres (160 hectares), and marks the high point of Khmer architecture.

 

 

The city of Angkor served as the royal centre from which a dynasty of Khmer kings ruled one of the largest, most prosperous, and most sophisticated kingdoms in the history of Southeast Asia. From the end of the 9th century until early in the 13th century, numerous construction projects were undertaken, the most notable of which was Angkor Wat. It was built by Suryavarman II as a vast funerary temple within which his remains were to be deposited. Construction is believed to have spanned some three decades.

All of the original religious motifs derived from Hinduism, and the temple was dedicated to the gods Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu. The five central towers of Angkor Wat symbolize the peaks of Mount Meru, which according to Hindu mythology is the dwelling place of the gods. The mountain is said to be surrounded by an ocean, and the complex’s enormous moat suggests the oceans at the edge of the world. A 617-foot (188-metre) bridge allows access to the site. The temple is reached by passing through three galleries, each separated by a paved walkway. The temple walls are covered with bas-relief sculptures of very high quality, representing Hindu gods and ancient Khmer scenes as well as scenes from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. After the Cham people of modern-day Vietnam sacked Angkor in 1177, King Jayavarman VII (reigned 1181–c. 1220) decided that the Hindu gods had failed him. When he built a new capital nearby, Angkor Thom, he dedicated it to Buddhism. Thereafter, Angkor Wat became a Buddhist shrine, and many of its carvings and statues of Hindu deities were replaced by Buddhist art.

 

In the early 15th century Angkor was abandoned. Still Theravada Buddhist monks-maintained Angkor Wat, which remained an important pilgrimage site and continued to attract European visitors. Angkor Wat was “rediscovered” after the French colonial regime was established in 1863.

In the 20th century various restoration programs were undertaken, but they were suspended amid the political unrest that engulfed Cambodia in the 1970s. When work resumed in the mid-1980s, the required repairs were extensive. Notably, sections had to be dismantled and rebuilt. In 1992 the Angkor complex, which included Angkor Wat, was designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO and was immediately added to the list of World Heritage in Danger. In the ensuing years, restoration efforts increased, and Angkor was removed from the danger list in 2004. Today Angkor Wat is one of the most important pilgrimage shrines in Southeast Asia and a popular tourist attraction. The temple complex appears on the Cambodian flag.

 

 

 

Angkor, archaeological site in what is now northwestern Cambodia, lying 4 miles (6 km) north of the modern town of Siĕmréab. It was the capital of the Khmer (Cambodian) empire from the 9th to the 15th century, a period that is considered the classical era of Cambodian history. Its most-imposing monuments are Angkor Wat, a temple complex built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman II (reigned 1113–c. 1150), and Angkor Thom, a temple complex built about 1200 by King Jayavarman VII. (See also Southeast Asian arts: Kingdom of Khmer: 9th to 13th century.)

 

History

The city of Angkor served as the royal centre from which a dynasty of Khmer kings ruled one of the largest, most prosperous, and most sophisticated kingdoms in the history of Southeast Asia. From the last decade of the 9th century, when King Yashovarman I made Angkor his place of residence, until the early years of the 13th century, the kings of Angkor ruled over a territory that extended from the tip of the Indochinese Peninsula northward to modern Yunnan province, China, and from Vietnam westward toward the Bay of Bengal. During this entire period, these rulers utilized the vast resources of labour and wealth at their disposal to carry out a series of prodigious construction projects designed to glorify both themselves, their gods, and their capital city. After the reign of King Jayavarman VII (1181–c. 1220), the power and vitality of the kingdom gradually waned until finally, after the armies of the Tai state of Ayutthaya (Ayudhia) captured and sacked Angkor in 1431, the city was partially abandoned. 

 

There were many changes in architecture and artistic style at Angkor, and there was a religious movement from the Hindu cult of the god Shiva to that of Vishnu and then to a Mahayana Buddhist cult devoted to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.

 

Angkor was a centre for administration and for the worship of a divine monarch. The city was planned and constructed on the basis of religious and political conceptions imported from India and adapted to local traditions. From the time of Yashovarman I, who named the city Yashodharapura, Angkor was conceived as a symbolic universe structured according to the model provided by traditional Indian (Hindu) cosmology. The city was oriented around a central mountain or pyramid temple (symbolic of Mount Meru, home of the gods) that was an architectural adaptation and completion of the one natural hill in the area, the Phnom Bakheng. In a similar manner, the central structure of each temple reflected the position of Mount Meru. The outer walls of each temple recalled the mountains that were believed to ring the edge of the cosmos, or world. The vast system of reservoirs, canals, and moats, which was one of the most notable features of Angkor, served primarily as a means of water control and rice irrigation, although it also represented the waters of the cosmos. 

 

In the later history of the city, the central temples were completely architectural creations (i.e., pyramid temples), such as the Phimeanakas of Suryavarman I (reigned c. 1000–50); the Baphuon of Udayadityavarman II (reigned 1050–66); and the Buddhist temple of Bayon, which was the central temple built by Jayavarman VII when he gave the city, which was later known as Angkor Thom, or “Great City,” its more or less final form.

 

Many of the temples at Angkor, all of which gave expression to Indian cosmological and mythical themes, were built in order to provide a locus for cults through which kings and other members of the royal family could be assured of immortality by becoming identified with Shiva or one of the other preeminent gods of the realm. For example, Angkor Wat, which is perhaps the greatest and certainly the most famous of all the temples in the Angkor complex, was built by King Suryavarman II in the 12th century as a vast funerary temple within which his remains were to be deposited, thus symbolically confirming his permanent identity with Vishnu. Inside the third enclosure at Angkor Wat are bas-reliefs running for hundreds of yards that depict scenes from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, as well as a scene of Suryavarman holding court. Hundreds of statues of apsaras (angelic dancers) also adorn the temple.  

During the political and military upheavals of the second half of the 20th century in Cambodia, there was some war damage and thievery among the temples at Angkor, but the major problem was one of neglect. Without adequate caretaking, the buildings became prey to engulfing vegetation and eroding water and elements. In 1992 UNESCO designated Angkor a World Heritage site and added it to the List of World Heritage in Danger (it was removed from the list in 2004). Subsequently, internationally organized preservation efforts were undertaken, and several countries contributed to the restoration of monuments at Angkor. 

REFERENCE: www.britannica.com