Lost Kingdom of the Ancient Gods

In the tropical rainforest in the heart of the Kingdom of Cambodia, mystery still shrouds Angkor – the largest complex of Hindu and Buddhist temples in the world. Who were the rulers who built them, what inspired them to create such beauty in a wild place and why did they ultimately leave everything to the jungle? Hundreds of temples raise hundreds of questions that remain unanswered to the present day.

Text & Photo by Svetlana Dingarac

It was five in the morning when I left the hotel, equipped with a camera and tripod, and stepped into one of the busier streets of Siem Reap. Samnang, a young Khmer whom I teasingly hired to be my personal chauffeur, was already waiting for me at the agreed upon location, dozing in his tuk-tuk, a popular means of transportation which is actually a motorcycle with a roofed sidecar for passengers. Though still dawn, the streets were jammed because the working day in Cambodia starts quite early, before the heat and humidity reach their unbearable peak. Bikers with karmas, traditional Khmer headdresses, entire families squeezed on miniscule mopeds, trucks full of day labourers en route to rice fields, all hurried to reach their destinations as soon as possible. It was the beginning of April, the warmest month in this part of globe, and I enjoyed the morning freshness and the pleasant air stream during our short ride to the temples of Angkor. The reason for the early visit to this archeological park was the sunrise behind "the temple of all temples", the imposing and unmatched Angkor Wat.

By the time we reached the ancient reservoir that encircles the temple, I realised that the best places had already been occupied. Hundreds of visitors from all parts of the world were lined along the walls, stairways and galleries waiting for the magic moment of the first sunray to appear from behind one of the five towers of the temple. The strange peace that reigned over this unreal sight was disturbed only by monkeys’ calls and the constant clicking of cameras. After the sun appeared on the horizon, the silhouettes merged into an amazing sight. Unending rows of stone pyramids, towers, monuments, artificial lakes and canals could be seen as far as the eye could see. Angkor Wat – the heart and soul of the Kingdom of Cambodia, the national pride of all Khmers, the site that bears the flattering title of the largest sacral object in the world – was waking up before me.

Angkor Khor is actually only one part of the ancient city comprising more than 1000 temples and palaces located in central Cambodia, on a line that runs from the Tonle Sap Lake and Mountain Kulen, some 240 km from the capital Phnom Penh. This huge metropolis was once the seat of the powerful empire of Khmers that stretched from northern Vietnam and south of China in the east to the Bay of Bengal to the west. It was built between the ninth and the twelfth centuries. At the zenith of its grandeur, it had a population of more than 750,000 residents, which made it the largest urban centre in the world at that time. Its closest rival was the Mayan city Tikal in Guatemala, which covered an area that was three to four times as small. Even today its dimensions fascinate visitors. Suffice it to say that its area of 400 square kilometres is about 40 square kilometres larger than the area Belgrade covers.

The golden times of Angkor begin with the King Jayavarman II, who proclaimed himself God-King. At the acme of his rule he began building a "temple-mountain", which symbolically represented the centre of the universe. With this, he left a demanding task to his successors, whose desire was to exceed their ancestors both in the number and volume of constructions. Inspired by religious faith and ambition, and supported by enormous wealth, the famous conquerors hired the most distinguished artists and the most excellent masters to create Angkor Krom, Angkor Wat and the walled city of Angkor Thom. In fact, the name "Angkor" means city and "vat" stands for temple. This is a modern name coined in the 16th century, while the original name is unknown. The public palaces, buildings and houses were all made of wood, and they were thus destroyed by the passage of time, whereas the buildings made of more durable materials, like bricks and stone, were reserved for Gods.

For centuries, huge wealth poured into the city through massive military attacks on neighboring kingdoms and lootings. Millions of slaves and tens of thousands of elephants were killed for the glory and affluence of Angkor. The stone blocks for the construction of Angkor Wat were transported for a full 40 years from distant parts by water buffalos. Its builders were surely outstanding experts in mathematics and astronomy, for although their huge structures stretched for kilometers, they were executed with unbelievable precision.

At the beginning of the 12th century, after the completion of Angkor Thom, the last of the structures, the fall of Angkor began. Indeed, the collapse of Angkor began at the moment when its construction came to an end. When the water-supply system crumbled, the inhabitants began to leave, while the remaining population was decimated by numerous diseases. The Siam Army broke in from the west, looted the city, slew all the men and enslaved the women and children. After that, the once glorious Angkor remained abandoned in the jungle. Only Buddhist monks lived there. As before, monkeys still live in the city, amusing and terrorizing visitors while exhibiting their ancient right to reign in the jungle.

At the end of the 16th century, when Portuguese missionaries arrived to the lotus towers of Angkor Wat, this once magnificent capital had already lost its former splendour. It was recorded that the first visitor was Portuguese monk Antonio da Magdalena, in 1586. However, the outside world learned about the city only from travellers’ stories. Several centuries had to pass to before the magnificent temples of the Empire of Khmers were recovered from the deep shadows of tropical rainforest and oblivion. In 1858, the French explorer and travel book writer Henri Muohot surprised the world with his discovery. In his travel books from the jungles of the South-Asian peninsula he described the temple which, according to his conviction, was equal to Solomon’s temple and more splendid than anything that Greece and Rome had left behind.

Today, Angkor Wat is the most important national symbol of Cambodia and represents the culture of Khmers and the people of this nation. Its image can be seen on numerous state symbols, including the national flag and on a 500-Riel banknote. Even at the time of the Khmer Rouge, the golden image of the temple formed part of the Cambodian flag. True, in 1975, many Buddhist monks who had been living in the temples of Angkor were massacred, together with the majority of Buddhist inhabitants, after falling victim to the proclaimed "social re-organisation." It is a real wonder that in spite of the destructive force of the Khmer Rouge, Angkor suffered only minor damage. Upon the re-establishment of peace in 1992, Angkor was placed on the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage Sites, but it is also on the list of endangered objects at risk of further destruction and devastation. In the 1980s, at the initiative of Sofia University in Japan, a research team was formed with the aim to study and restore the temples and to educate local Cambodian experts.

Today, many temples of Angkor have been restored and together they present the most important example of Khmer architecture. It is estimated that about two million tourists visit the complex every year, but their number increases from year to year. The popularity of Angkor suddenly soared in the world after the film Tomb Rider (2001) partly filmed in the temple Ta Prohm, one of the most mystical parts of Angkor. Its popularity was largely due to famous actress Angelina Jolie who was featured in the role of Lara Croft. It seems that the actress has since become emotionally attached to this country. Actually, Tomb Rider is the first film set in Cambodia after 1954, when Peter O’Toole acted in Lord Jim, filmed in the shadows of Angkor Wat.

Although Angkor is in fact a huge archeological park, tours of which are rather costly, its atmosphere is hardly sterile as is the case with museums. Buddhist monks, fortune tellers, souvenir sellers, pilgrims, local musicians and painters can be met within its stone walls, in towers and galleries. Young girls, dressed in the costumes of celestial maidens, dance ‘apsara’ and pose for a dollar per photo to western tourists looking for original memorabilia. Live pictures of the present day intertwine at every step with the sights of the most glorious moments of the Khmer past, carved on a dozen-metre-long bas-relief. Finally, after many centuries of oblivion, Angkor today lives again.