PEAK TRIP to Angkor Wat, Cambodia (4)
~~ Angkor Wat & Angkor Thom

Before I came to Siem Reap, I thought Angkor Wat is a temple with many sanctuaries. As soon as I was there, I realized that the excavation of the ancient city we looked for has many temples which were built in different dynasties. The most famous two temples are Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. The former is well known as the five sanctuaries and more than miles bas-relief in the gallery; the later is well known as its Bayon, the four faced statue of Buddha. There are 254 different facial expressions for each Bayon there.

In fact, "Angkor" means Capital in Khmer, and "Wat" means temple. In Khmer's history, their emperors have their imperial palaces near by the sanctuaries. However, the wooden palaces have been destroyed and it is hard to find the ruin now. We can see only the stone-made sanctuaries today. However, we used to call all the excavations as "Angkor Wat".

Angkor Wat combines two religions, Hindu and Buddhism, and created the unapproachable art and construction. The Buddhism here is called Theravada (Lesser Vehicle), which is a little bit different from Thailand or China (Mahayana, Greater Vehicle), but there is no impact to the achievement of Angkor Wat in civilization.

~ posted by PEAK Traveler, 5th Sept 06, Angkor Wat, Cambodia