Welcome! We are so happy that you have decided to join us on our temple tours through the Angkor Archaeological Park.
Although the ancient city of Angkor Wat is the most popular and usually the first stop for tourists visiting the park, Richard and I are more drawn to the city of Angkor Thom.
One of the main reasons we preferred visiting the city of Angkor Thom, was the temple of Bayon, with its many faces of Buddha. The temple of Bayon is situated in the centre of this ancient city and was a symbolic link between heaven and earth. The wall enclosing the city of Angkor Thom was built to represent the stonewall around the universe and the surrounding moat, the cosmic ocean.
Just before entering the southern gate of the city of Angkor Thom, we stopped at a small temple, on the left side just before the bridge.
In front of every temple there is a stone sign post which gives the name of the temple in both Khmer and English and the date that the temple was built. There is also an information board, so if you did not have a tour guide, you would be able to identify the temple, in what century it was built and some information and facts about the temple.
Baksei Chamkrong is a small Hindu temple. The inscriptions on the columns of the door and the arches indicate the date of the temple and also mentions a golden image of Siva. It is believed that this temple was dedicated to the Hindu God, Shiva and that a golden image of Shiva was kept inside this temple. The temple was built by King Harshavarman I in the early 10th century and was dedicated to his father, an Angkorian King, Yasovarman, also known as the “Leper King”.
The name Baksei Chamkrong means “The Bird Who Shelters Under Its Wings”. According to the legend, a king fled during an attack on Angkor and was saved from being caught when a large bird swooped down and spread its wings, sheltering the king from the enemy.
In front of the temple is an area where the ground appears to be sunken. Theoun explained that this sunken ground would indicate that any treasures that were buried in front of this temple, would have been dug up and removed.
Centered, in front of the temple is a “Shiva Linga”. The linga is an elongated circle, stretched into an oval shape, set in the center of a disked base known as a “yoni “. Together the linga and the yoni symbolize the cosmic union of the male and female. The linga representing a phallus (the male organ) and the yoni representing a vulva (the female organ). When researching the Shiva Linga, it is mentioned that it is a symbol of the Universe, which means a doorway to the beyond, yet it would seem that the local Cambodians believe that this symbol represents “fertility”.
A steep stairway on each side of the base leads to the top. The square central tower has one door opening to the east, with three false doors on the other sides. Each false door contains motifs of foliage on stems. The interior of the tower has a sunken floor.
Theoun Chan, our guide, explained that the stairways were built steep and narrow, to ensure that worshippers visiting the temple at the top, would need to crawl up the stairway in a humble, pious way with their heads bowed, thus showing respect.
We felt respect for these worshippers, as crawling up the stairway to the top, left us humbled and breathless. But the view from the top, made it all worthwhile.
When reaching the top, we found that the temple, no longer encased the Hindu deity, Lord Shiva, (God of Destruction and Destroyer of Evil), but a statue of a reclining Buddha.
When the Khmer Empire came to power in the ninth century AD, Hinduism was the official religion. Hinduism slowly declined in Cambodia and was replaced by Buddhism. 90% of the current Cambodian population follow Theravada, a form of Buddhism.
Buddhists do not worship or believe in a God. The word Buddha means “the enlightened one” (the one who is awake). Buddhists meditate and adapt a way of life living according to the spiritual traditions and teachings of the Buddha.
As explained by Theoun Chan, every one that we can learn from or who teaches us, is considered to be a Buddha. He also went on to say, no religion is bad or good, it is the man that chooses to be either bad or good.
Join us for our next blog, where we will share more with you about the South Entrance to the ancient city of Angkor Thom.