Cambodia, officially named the Kingdom Of Cambodia, is located in the southern part of the Indochina Peninsula of Southeast Asia. It has a population of over 15 million in which 95 percent practice the official religion of Theravada Buddhism.
A day around the temples
We began our day at Angkor Watt, which is an incredible site to see, a piece of history standing strong as it has been repaired and is now well looked after. The temple is surround by a moat that previously housed crocodiles but now has only fish. The moat and exterior is around about 1300m x 1500m, with the temple itself 1km square and made up of three levels surmounted by the central tower.
The next temple on our list was Ta Prohm, known to many tourist as the ‘Tomb Raider Temple’ because of one of the movies most iconic scenes of Lara Croft by a tree where the character falls into the earth. It is a temple of towers, small courtyards and narrow corridors that are merged with the jungle. Most of the temple is restored but parts are left where trees have grown through the structure as it has now become part of the temple and keeps it standing.
Banter Srei was next which means ‘Citadel of Women’ or as Jozef calls it The Lady Temple. It is suggested that the temple was built by women because of the delicate and elaborate cravings being too fine for the work of a man. The building plays with the colours of the clay ground that reflects the temple. It was by far the most vibrant temple.
The last temple on our tour was Bayon, a Buddhist temple, with the distinctive serene buddha face sculptures which are on the upper level and clustered around the centre. Initially the faces were thought to be of Brahma, the Hindu God of creation but it was later corrected to a Buddhist one and thought to be the faces of Lokeshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.
