Cambodian countryside

Cambodia is a profoundly agricultural country. I heard today that about 80% of households do not have access to the electrical grid. The average person makes about two dollars a day.

The first photo shows the countryside at its best. Since this is the dry season, lush fields were not common sights.

The second photo was taken out the window of a van. It shows about two-thirds of a typical country house. Note that all the living space is high off of the ground to compensate for the annual flooding.

Some historians suggest that the rural areas around this part of Cambodia supported a much larger population and had more sophisticated irrigation systems 900 years ago than today.

Gas station

Most vehicles in Cambodia have two wheels. Cars are on the streets, but motor scooters seem to outnumber them four to one.

Gas stations are quite different than those in Western countries. As you can see below, the gas is stored above ground in 55 gallon drums. Attendants pump the gas with a simple mechanical operation. Gas is also sold in two liter plastic bottles.

Temple wall carvings

In my thinking before my trip, I expected to visit Angkor Wat since the architecture is one of a kind. The huge number of high quality temples beyond Angkor Wat surprised me. What also took me by surprise was the enormous role that wall carvings have in the artistic tradition of the Khmer Empire.

On several temples hundreds of feet of carvings grace the exterior walls. These temples were partially designed to be sites of religious pilgrimage for the masses. Although the general population came, the interior spaces were reserved for the imperial elite. For Hindu temples that would be the Brahmins. For Buddhist temples the elite might be the political elite.

Wall carvings on the outside of the temples, therefore, were meant to appeal to the masses and demonstrate the religious devotion of the Khmer imperial officials.

In a previous post I showed an image from the churning of the sea of milk that is at Angkor Wat.

The first two images are from Bayon Temple. The temple was dedicated after a Khmer king had defeated an army of Cham people from what is now Vietnam about 850 years ago. An enormous detailed wall of carvings depict the various stages of this campaign. It reminded me of Trajan's Column in Rome with similar scale and level of detail.

The next image is from Angkor Wat showing divine female dancers. These images are found all over the temple structures in this area. Traditional Cambodian dance troupes imitate the style of dance represented (but obviously not the dress).

The last image is from a small temple known for its exquisitely detailed carvings from Hindu mythology. The well preserved carvings were delightful since at every turn there was something else to marvel.

Monkeys

You never know what might walk out of the forest when you are in Cambodia.

Water

The last temple that I visited was the smallest that I have seen. It had been constructed by a Khmer king known as the Leper King about 900 years ago. He mostly likely didn't have leprosy, but he had a fascination with healing waters.

The small temple sits on an island surrounded by a cross-shaped pool. A Cambodian student told me that it is the same shape as the symbol for a hospital, which I found to be an interesting interpretation. The pool itself is in the middle of a larger island which is the center of a huge reservoir of three square kilometers.

In ancient times a drink from the temple pool was viewed as healing. Today the pool looks fetid. A sip seems more likely to cause health problems than cure them.

Even in the rainy season the ancient reservoir typically does not contain water. This year with the historic flooding that I described in an earlier post, water is everywhere. A new boardwalk was built that was never needed before.

Seventy percent of the water in Cambodian rivers comes from China. China has started building huge dams, so this country known paradoxically as the land of water might be in big trouble. The biggest source of protein for this country is from fresh water fish. Dams mean less water, fewer fish, and food insecurity for this impoverished country.

One Cambodian speaking on this topic said that the future of Cambodia will be decided by Chinese dams and the damn Chinese.

More about temples

I have lost count of the number of Angkor temples that I have visited. Most are enormous structures. Many have water features, moats, or sacred pools associated with them.

The temples were places of worship and imperial prominance. Towers reach up to the sky and often whole surfaces are covered in carvings.

The designs are usually symetrical and oriented to all four directions. As one comes up to a temple typically a bridge is crossed, and enclosures lead on to other enclosures. In the center is an especially sacred place.

With the massive scale and numerous small rooms, temples can be very disorienting. For example I toured Angkor Wat with a small group of very experienced historians including some who had been to the site multiple times. We got turned around so much that we lost our sense of direction. Fortunately I was carrying a compass with me at the time (yes, I am an Eagle Scout), and I pointed the way out for our group.

It was not the only time that a compass has come in handy on this trip.

The picture below is me at one of the "lesser temples" near Angkor Wat. You can tell that the scale of these buildings is enormous.

Churning the Sea of Milk

In Hinduism one of the stories of creation involves a fairly engaging image.

Two groups of supernatural beings pull on ends of a giant snake that has been wrapped around a log. The base of the log rests on a turtle that is swimming in an ocean of milk. As the stick turns round and round, solids rise up from the milk like butter in a churn. Thus all creation is made.

One of the most famous images of the churning of the sea of milk is on one of the outer walls of Angkor Wat. Also the ancient bridges that lead to temple areas often have sculpted railings with these supernatural beings doing this first "tug of war" with the snake.