Angkor 2

On the day 2 we visited many temples. The whole site is maintained by world heritage and the entrance fee is collected. We have to give our photos (if we don't have they click the picture there) and a photo id pass is given to each individual which is checked at every site on entry. One day, Three day and a Week's pass is given on payment. (in US dollar) the money goes to combodian company. No body is allowed to be in the site after 7 p.m. Angkor Thom is the city which has four gates inside which lots of temples have been built. Yes all of them are temples built by the Kamboja kings who practiced hinduism and later buddhism. We can see pictures and stories from every epic stories of hindu mythology and it is really overwhelming to hear the Combodian guide pronouncing the names of the mythological characters and asking us if it right! You see apsara every where in all the buildings. The four entrances to Angkor Thom have huge structure with four faces, which they have found is the face of the King Jayavarman VII. The whole records have been lost as they were in palm leaves and they are reconstructing the history using the stone carvings and also some travel documents recorded by chinese traveller(s)!
The entry to the city is through the gate which has the four faces. It is quite wide as to allow the elephants to go inside in the olden days so our bus had no problem going through it. Each gate n/s/e/w has in front of it the big naga structure the serpent vasuki which is used in the churning of the milk of ocean in our mythology. One side we can see the devas and the other side of the entrance the asuras holding the 7 headed serpent. The heads of many of these demons and devatas have been cut and we are told they have been taken for private and other collections.
This vasuki structure appears to be the theme of modern Siem Reap as we see these in the latest structures also.
Two important sites are to be mentioned. one was the temple with the four faces of the king which is called as Bayon temple complex. Though it is all in ruins it is overwhelming to see the benign face smiling at us from every direction and level possible. It appears there are more than 200 faces in that structure.
The second one is the Angkor Wat which is the world famous structure. This has three compartments for the Hindu trinity God brahma , vishnu and siva. Even now we can see a big statue of vishnu. Inside wall of this building is carved with lot of mythological stories where we could recognise, siva, rama, ravana, skanda, krishna and many many more of our mythological characters .
The building has five distinct stupas which are carved like the closed lots petals.
This building has multiple structures and it has buddhist shrine in the highest level and prayers are being offered even now.
Combodia is a buddhist country now majority of the population being buddhists.
The structures are built with sand stone. It is quite tough to climb up all the levels as the steps are narrow and broken in parts. But we did go to the highest level.
The whole culture and the technology of temple building was probably transferred from South India when the traders used to come to old kamboja for trading purposes. Those days they had to travel in the sea with the help of wind and they could go in the direction in which the wind blew. It used to take 6 months for the wind to change direction and they could start back the homeward journey only at that time. So it is asssumed that they had to stay in kamboja for the whole period (max six months) and that is how the buildings are so distinctly Indian.
The artisans might have come to South India and learnt the style of the buildings. But it is distinctly angkor though it has so much of Indianness. For four five centuries this place practiced hinduism.