The Sacredness of Angkor Wat
Buddhist Fundamentalism?
Saving Angkor - India's response
Antique-thirsty Museums of the West?

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For the rest of the chapter refer to the links listed below:

Sacred Angkor
Sacred Angkor Part 2
Sacred Angkor Part 4

The Sacredness of Angkor Wat   

Magnificent, sprawling temple

When Buddhism became the paramount religion of Cambodia is uncertain. It had long been flourishing and occasionally enjoyed royal patronage, but it was never the state religion and never held a dominant position. It seems likely that Siam, which was first influenced by Cambodia, later aided Cambodia’s conversion to Buddhism. The change was almost complete; today Hinduism is practically extinct in Cambodia, except in a vestigial form in certain ceremonies and festivities. Hindu deities have been absorbed by Buddhism and relegated to subordinate positions, and even the Hindu gods in the great temples, such as Angkor Wat, have long been replaced by the images of the Buddha.  

The Thais attacked Angkor Wat several times in the 1300s and 1400s and sacked the seat of the Khmer regime in 1431. Over the centuries, numerous different groups - including Thai and Vietnamese invaders, French colonizers and Khmer Rouge guerrillas - have trampled over Cambodia's ancient sites, each contributing to the damage.  

Today’s visitor to Angkor wat may find the temple quite bare. The rooms once filled with hundreds of sacred statues of the gods, richly appareled and adorned with jewels, are now empty. The doors of the shrine have vanished. The sacred objects that filled the galleries have been pillaged over the centuries or removed to the Phnom Penh Museum and the Siem Reap Conservation depot.    

Lord Vishnu: The Lord of Providence. 6th century 10 feet tall wearing a sampot. Phnom Penh museum.

Lord Vishnu is portrayed with eight arms to celebrate his Universal Majesty. 

(image source: Angkor: Splendors of the Khmer Civilization - By Marilia Albanese p. 126).

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The sacred statue of Lord Vishnu was toppled from its original position of supremacy in the central shrine and probably lost.  

All the wooden accessory buildings packed in the courtyards at the time of Suryavarman II and the bustling city filling the great space between the 4^th and 3^rd enclosures, have disappeared. Apart from this, it is conceivable that most of the reliefs would have been painted. Today, therefore, one can only guess at how the great temple looked when it was in use, with all the ceremonial paraphernalia, the flags and lamp standards, the brilliant offerings and a multitude of priests and attendants in fine courtly robes.   

Nevertheless the sacredness of Angkor wat can be unraveled through the reading of its architectural symbolism and the meaning of the narrative reliefs. The sacred complex at Angkor wat – set amongst forests, surrounded by moats and canals, with a colossal entrance gateway four sequences of enclosures with their own gopuras, several cloisters and staircases, rooms with hundreds of pillars, and the shrine hardly reachable at the top of a huge stepped mound – could unquestionably recall the dwelling of Hari (Vishnu) in his continent, the Harivarsa.

(source: India and World Civilization – D P Singhal  part II p. 124  - 131 and 255 and Southeast Asia- Past and present – By D R Sardesai p. 15 - 20).

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Buddhist fundamentalism?

Today’s visitor to Angkor wat may find the temple quite bare. The rooms once filled with hundreds of sacred statues of the gods, richly appareled and adorned with jewels, are now empty. The doors of the shrine have vanished. The sacred objects that filled the galleries have been pillaged over the centuries or removed to the Phnom Penh Museum and the Siem Reap Conservation depot.  

The sacred statue of Lord Vishnu was toppled from its original position of supremacy in the central shrine and probably lost. 

All the wooden accessory buildings packed in the courtyards at the time of Suryavarman II and the bustling city filling the great space between the 4^th and 3^rd enclosures, have disappeared. Apart from this, it is conceivable that most of the reliefs would have been painted. Today, therefore, one can only guess at how the great temple looked when it was in use, with all the ceremonial paraphernalia, the flags and lamp standards, the brilliant offerings and a multitude of priests and attendants in fine courtly robes. 

Nevertheless the sacredness of Angkor wat can be unraveled through the reading of its architectural symbolism and the meaning of the narrative reliefs. The sacred complex at Angkor wat – set amongst forests, surrounded by moats and canals, with a colossal entrance gateway four sequences of enclosures with their own gopuras, several cloisters and staircases, rooms with hundreds of pillars, and the shrine hardly reachable at the top of a huge stepped mound – could unquestionably recall the dwelling of Hari (Vishnu) in his continent, the Harivarsa.

(source: Sacred Angkor: The Carved Reliefs of Angkor Wat - By Vittorio Roveda  p. 255).

Replacing Lord Vishnu with Lord Buddha

If there is one disappointment with Angkor Wat, that is seen as you come to the top level. The top level has five towers, four at corners and one in the middle, which is considered the sanctum sanctorum. No doubt that the middle tower had the most beautiful statute of Lord Vishnu at the time the temple was built. However, with the Khmer rulers adapting to Buddhism, Angkor Wat was taken over by the Buddhist priests, and they replaced Lord Vishnu with Lord Buddha.  

Lord Vishnu 12th century, the pocked motif of the sampot is highly stylized and an exquisitely carved statue of Lord Buddha with a naga covering his head.

Angkor Wat is consecrated to Lord Vishnu, the presence of bas-reliefs from the Mahabharata and and Ramayana is especially appropriate. 
Hindus have worshipped and have a great respect for Gautam Buddha. However, Lord Buddha looks out of place here in the central sanctuary of the temple. 

Over the centuries, numerous different groups - including Thai and Vietnamese invaders, French colonizers and Khmer Rouge guerrillas - have trampled over Cambodia's Ancient Sacred sites, each contributing to the damage.  

(image source: Angkor: Splendors of the Khmer Civilization - By Marilia Albanese p. 123 and 88).

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All over Angkor and in the museums, with great regret and discontent a Tourist can see disfigured and defaced statues and broken Shiva Lingas in all monuments as well.  

Today, there are three gigantic Lord Buddha statues inside the sanctum sanctorum. The whole beauty of the Sanctum sanctorum disappears with the Buddha statues inside. 

Lord Buddha looks out of place there. This was not built as a Buddhist temple.

(source: Cambodia  - Angkor Wat).  For more refer to Buddhist fundamentalism  

The main entrance to Angkor wat, in an engraving after Louis Delporte (1842 - 1925).

(image source: Angkor: Heart of an Asian Empire - By Bruno Dagens p. 44).

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Follow up history

The first Europeans to “discover” Angkor wat was the French botanist, Henri Mouhot, who wrote in his journal of finding a monument equal “to the temple of Solomon and erected by some ancient Michelangelo. But for the Europeans anybody but Cambodians, could have built Angkor wat, whom they considered primitive, congenitally lazy, and decidedly inferior.

Over the centuries, numerous different groups - including Thai and Vietnamese invaders, French colonisers and Khmer Rouge guerrillas - have trampled over Cambodia's ancient sites, each contributing to the damage. The Thai king plundered the wealth of Cambodia. He was not merely removing statues to his own capital, he was taking away the power of the Kings of Angkor as contained in these divine images. A hundred years later the Burmese were shrewd enough to do the same: When they conquered Thailand they sacked Ayuthya, the capital, and in their turn removed a number of the Angkor statues. Finally in 1734 these statues arrived in Mandalay, where they have remained ever since.

Most of the plundering came from the Siamese (Thailand) in the 15th century who carried away most of the cultural treasures. However, the most notorious planned expedition looting in the early 20th century involved Andre Malraux – who would later become France's cultural affairs minister of De Gaulle cabinet. He and his accomplices removed large sections of the temple and shipped them out of the country. He was later arrested and tried. 

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

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France has had colonial possessions, in various forms, since the beginning of the 17th century until the 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, its global colonial empire was the second largest in the world behind the British Empire. 

The French never modernized much economically in Indochina. All they did was collect taxes efficiently, but nothing much changed in the Cambodian village economy. Discrimination against non-Vietnamese by the French continued, especially when it was revealed that Cambodians paid the highest taxes per capita in Indochina. In 1916, a tax revolt bought tens of thousands of peasants to Phnom Penh to petition King Sisowath Monivong for a reduction in taxes. The French, who had thought the Cambodians were too quiet and indolent to organize a protest, were shocked.

After the 15th century, contacts between India and Cambodia decreased significantly, under the onslaught of European powers seeking colonies in South- East Asia, and thereafter in South Asia. 

During the Vietnam war, American jets bombed Angkor Wat. Cambodians swear that there were no insurgents at Angkor Wat. Yet, the Americans pilots knowing that this was not only a national but world monument bombed it. Fortunately, only minor damage was done. In February 1969, General Creighton Abrams, the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, requested permission to attack Vietnamese troops inside Cambodia. President Richard Nixon quickly agreed, and on March 18, 1969, American B-52s launched the first of many secret bombing raids over Cambodia. The carpet bombing that had started covertly in 1970 to stop America's enemies from Vietnam using Cambodia as a base outraged the American public and crippled Cambodia as a nation.

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Saving Angkor - India's response

Indian response to the Cambodian International Appeal 

After the Vietnamese supported government took control in 1979, the few Khmer conservation officials who had survived the holocaust, were assigned to take stock of the state of affairs at Angkor. The then Cambodian Government launched an international appeal for help in the restoration of Angkor monuments. This came to the notice of the then Indian Prime Minister, the late Mrs. Indira Gandhi, in April 1980.   

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964)  and Indira Gandhi (1917-1984).

Mrs. Gandhi had her first love with the Angkor monuments in 1954, accompanying her father and India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He was the first Head of Government to visit Cambodia to felicitate King Norodom Sihanouk after the declaration of Independence from France on 9 November 1953.

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Mrs. Indira Gandhi had her first love with the Angkor monuments in 1954, accompanying her father and India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. 

He was the first Head of Government to visit Cambodia to felicitate King Norodom Sihanouk after the declaration of Independence from France on 9 November 1953. She naturally understood the urgency behind the appeal and responded positively. The Cambodian side, through Vietnam, conveyed their appreciation for India’s prompt response.   

The ASI was doing a yeoman’s service in archaeological restoration and conservation of Angkor wat under extremely adverse conditions.

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The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was then tasked to make a preliminary report of the works involved. Mrs. Gandhi, nevertheless, was not discouraged by the thought of huge costs, and cleared way for a full scale Survey Mission. Meanwhile, a package of immediate assistance to help the remaining handful of Cambodian archaeologists carry out damage control activity on their own. 

There was intense international activity in the intervening period for securing the restoration of Angkor Wat which perhaps was another contributing factor for delay in accepting the ASI’s report. But the two most important factor that weighed heavily in the Cambodian Government’s decision to finally invite India in the face of many international competing forces with better financial standing were: 

1. the better placement of the Indians to understand and respect the cultural heritage of Angkor…

2. the competence of ASI in handling the work since they had undertaken similar restoration work in India for many decades.

The reality was that the ASI moved in to save Angkor Wat at a time when no one else was prepared to do so due to political compulsions of the East-West Cold War.  The civil war was raging in the surrounding regions of Angkor and the security situation in Siem Reap was precarious. The unskilled labor had to be trained for this specialized work. There was no electricity, no health facilities, no communication with outside world. In short, the working conditions were extreme. But, for seven to eight months at a stretch for seven consecutive years from December 1986, the ASI experts spend all their energies in saving Angkor Wat, shoulder to shoulder with their Khmer brethren.   

Southern Central entrance: Before and After restoration by the Indian team

(image source: Saving Angkor - By C M Bhandari  p. xi and 112 - 140). 

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One advantage the Indian archaeologists have enjoyed in their restoration work of Angkor Wat is their familiarity with the architectural, cultural, and religious philosophy of the Angkor monuments. In India itself, stone monuments abound and decades of work in archaeological excavation, restoration and preservation have given them expertise and experience in handling the Angkor monuments with reverence and care.  

The ASI was doing a yeoman’s service in archaeological restoration and conservation of Angkor wat under extremely adverse conditions. India’s only shortcoming perhaps was in not publicizing its work. In fact, the publicity could have been exploited free of cost had the ASI shown some imagination, such as writing books about their work and the monuments at large, or producing documentary film.

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Samudra Manthan: Churning of the Milky Ocean Gallery 

The most important gallery, also known by its Sanskrit name Samudra Manthan had suffered some extra damage, prompting Groslier's team to dismantle it. Even after four years the reassembly could not proceed beyond the plinth level. With the fall of Phnom Penh to the nationalist forces, Groslier had to leave the Angkor Camp in January 1975 with tears in his eyes. It was followed by four years of horror and genocide by the Khmer Rouge. 

The proudest of achievements of the ASI has been restoration of the Samudra Manthan Gallery which, had been dismantled by the French. To make matters worse, even the records of the French work were not available in Phnom Penh and the EFEO was in no mood to part with it. 

Samudra Manthan (Churning of the Milky Ocean) gallery before restoration which was dismantled by the French.

When a French company lost a restoration contract for Angkor Wat, for instance, it spread the canard that Indian cleansing methods were damaging the temple. 

“Can Hindus who gave us our gods ever destroy them?” asked an incredulous Cambodian when told of the rumour.

Samudra Manthan (Churning of the Milky Ocean) gallery after restoration by Indian team.

(image source: Saving Angkor - By C M Bhandari  p. xi and 112 - 140). 

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Any visitor to Angkor wat now would have no clue as to what the condition of this gallery was before the work of the Indian experts began. It lay along with its priceless bas relief totally exposed to the vagaries of nature till the ASI’s arrival. It took the ASI engineers and other staff three years, 1988-91 seasons, of continuous work to restore this gallery along with the two adjacent gopuras or entrance porches and halls, to reassemble the jigsaw puzzle of nearly 2500 stone members lying overgrown with vegetation in the open. This task must rank among the finest achievements of the ASI.

(source: Saving Angkor - By C M Bhandari  p. xi and 112 - 140). For more refer to chapter on Suvarnabhumi, Seafaring in Ancient India, War in Ancient India and India on Pacific Waves?

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Antique-thirsty Museums of the West?

A beautiful sculpture of Vishnu on the rocks in the path of river Siem Reap in Kbal Spean in Cambodia was a treat to the eye, till the heritage plunderers scooped out the upper part of the body and sold it to the antique-thirsty museums in the West.  

The river dries up in summer. When it flows, it appears to fall from the feet of Vishnu. Below are the carvings of Shiva Lingas, detailing the story of Ganga, descending from the heavens, touching the feet of Vishnu and falling into the locked hair of Shiva.

A very elegant bronze Garuda mount of Lord Vishnu.

(image source: Angkor: Splendors of the Khmer Civilization - By Marilia Albanese p. 118).

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Vishnu astride Garuda, an image that is present at many temples in India are found commonly in Cambodia. The Salarjung museum in Hyderabad has one of the most beautiful collection of images of Garuda carrying Vishnu. 

Garuda, Lord Vishnu's vahana on the entry of stone wall.

(image source: webmaster's own collection of photos taken during a recent visit).

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The National Museum in Phnom Penh has an image of full-size Harihara, whose head had been severed. A small board says the head is at the Musee Guimet, Paris. Such unabashed hunger for the antiques is manifest everywhere one turns in Cambodia.

The extensive Sanskrit inscriptions quoting Hindus texts as well as the public works of Cambodian kings and queens, starting with Queen Kulaprabhavati (circa 5th to 6th century) and all the monarchs of the later Kambuja empire, beginning with the emperor Jayavarman II who established his first capital at Hariharalaya near the modern Siem Reap speak of the extensive contacts between Cambodia and India.

Some of the minor stories in the Hindu Puranas are enlarged and played repeatedly in the carvings in Cambodia. One such is the story of Sagar Manthan—The Churning of the Ocean for the nector. In modern Cambodia, this scene of devas and asuras churning the ocean for the nector is portrayed on the outside wall of the War Memorial in Sien Rea and some major hotels also. One of the largest bas-reliefs in the world is in Angkor Wat, measuring 49 meters, depicts this scene.

Cambodia is not merely a story of the Hindu influence on the sub-continent. It is as much the history of cultural, trade and social relationship. Angkor Wat and other temples are not reminders of foreign aggression on the land but testimony to the cultural affinity and the sharing of a common culture. 

Lord Brahma - Phnom baset. Angkor. Cambodia.

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The Indian school textbooks that discuss in great detail about the so-called influence of the Islamic art in India do not even spare a cursory attention to this history, being narrated by the temples in Cambodia. A gloss over that needs to be set right. 

(source: Stones that speak a story - By Vaidehi Nathan - organiser.org).

Stolen Lintels

It was in the lintels that the stone carvers excelled. Henri Parmentier, who had trained as an architect and was the chief of the archaeological service of the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient until the beginning of the 1930s, considered the lintel "the major decorative point of the Khmer sanctuary," where one could find every form of sculpture and ornament in the Khmer repertoire. The religious significance of the sanctuary doorways, through which the priests passed into the most sacred parts of the temple, made them the ideal site for iconography. These sandstone blocks became sculpted panels installed in front of the true lintel, which was supported by the main pillars.

The lintel depicting one of the most famous Hindu creation stories, at Phnom Rung was the subject of a celebrated dispute, having been stolen from the temple in the early 1960s. It then appeared at the Chicago Art Institute, on loan from a private collection.  

It was successfully recovered by the Thai government in 1988, it has been restored to its original place.

Lord Vishnu on the Ananta Nag: Hinduism most famous creation stories.

The lintel depicting one of the most famous Hindu creation stories, at Phnom Rung was the subject of a celebrated dispute, having been stolen from the temple in the early 1960s. It then appeared at the Chicago Art Institute, on loan from a private collection.

(image source: Khmer: The Lost Empire of Cambodia and  The Civilization of Angkor  - By Mideline Giteau).

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The scene is of Vishnu reclining on the Naga, Ananta, which floats in the primeval sea. A lotus flower grows from Vishnu's navel and from the flower is born Brahma, who creates the world.

(source: Angkor: The Hidden Glories - By Michael Freeman and Roger Warner   p. 134). 

For more refer to Asian antiques sold at Christies.com. 

The rest of the chapter continues at the links listed below.

Sacred Angkor
Sacred Angkor part 2
Sacred Angkor part 4

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Did You Know?

Spean Praptos: Is the Longest Corbeled stone-arch bridge in the World.

The bridge of Kompong Kdei (12th century) built century during the reign of King Jayavarman VII.

With more than twenty narrow arches spanning 246ft (75m), this is the longest corbeled stone-arch bridge in the world.

The bridge of Kompong Kdei (12th century) built century during the reign of Jayavarman VII.

With more than twenty narrow arches spanning 246ft (75m), this is the longest corbeled stone-arch bridge in the world.

(image source: Khmer: The Lost Empire of Cambodia and The Civilization of Angkor  - By Mideline Giteau).

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The bridge of Kompong Kdei (12th century). The road from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap still crosses the Spean Praptos, the laterite bridge of the village of Kompong Kdei, built in the Angkorean period, and one of the most beautiful on the Khmer roadways. The arches of the bridge are built by corbeling, and are narrow and very tall. 

One of the finest bridges, the Spean Praptos, measures eight seven meters in length and fourteen in width. It comprises of eighteen arches which only have a span of two meters for a height of rise of five meters, and rest on pillars one meter thirty wide.

The architect Jacques Dumarcay has shown how these arches could be fully or partially closed in order to contain the water upriver from the bridge. This method of irrigation, where a noria was needed to contain the water subsequently used to irrigate the surrounding fields, was very different from the baray system.

It is a remarkable work of art, both because of its imposing size and because of the contrast of the grey-green sandstone with the warm colors of the laterite.

(source: Khmer: The Lost Empire of Cambodia p. 21 and  The Civilization of Angkor  - By Mideline Giteau  p. 71 - 72).

The rest of the chapter continues...

Sacred Angkor
Sacred Angkor part 2
Sacred Angkor part 4

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