Thursday, February 14, 2008

Angkor Watt

Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat), a World Heritage Site, is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation—first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.

We managed to get to the temple by 6:30. Our tuk tuk driver dropped us off in front and told us that he'd wait in the sea of the other drivers. Somehow we managed to find him again after every stop we made. We got to Angkor Watt later than we were shooting for, but we still got to witness the sunrise. The whole time I just couldn't help but wonder how it survived the war when so many other things were destroyed.
These are some of the Devatas carvings all over the temple.
This is a statue of Vishnu, to whom the temple was dedicated.

There were headless sculptures scattered all around.




1 Comments:

At 7:48 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

That was some damn fine storytelling, Evans.

 

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