Temple complex of Angkor Thom

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Angkor Thom (Bayon)

Shyam (Siam/Cyan) is the color of limitlessness - of sky, of ocean, of distant hills, of the limitlessness of kings’ egos that made them see themselves as God-kings.

That ego has materialized in the temple of Angkor Thom that was built by King Jayavarman VII, not only as a monument to the Gods that he worshiped, but also as a monument to himself. He also built Ta Prohm as a temple dedicated to his mother and to a lesser degree, to Brahm Ancestor. (Don’t ask me how this is possible. I do not know.)

Bayon temple of Angkor Thom is what I call ‘smileys’ temple. The huge towers (23 meters tall) depict the ‘smiling faces’ of exactly WHO? Do they represent Lord Brahma’s, because they face the four cardinal directions? Do they represent Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara or do they represent King Jayavarman VII?

The temple of Bayon is at the center of Angkor Thom (city) surrounded by a moat. (3 km X 3km) This moat represents the ‘Kshirsagar’ (The Sea of milk ). This primordial sea of milk is being churned by the ‘Devas’(heroes) on one side and the ‘Asuras’ (villains) on the other side of the causeway that bridges the moat. The ‘churner’ is the sacred ‘Meru’ mountain represented by the Bayon temple and the serpent ‘Vasuki’ is the rope of this churner. The nine ‘gems’ that appeared out of this churning are carved on either side of the gate, leading to the inner sanctum.

This causeway of ‘Devas’ and ‘Asuras’ leading over the moat is very uncommon because each Deva and each ‘Asura’ is distinct. There is dynamism about the whole scene, which is lacking in some other famous avenues that we have seen. The Avenue of Sphinxes at Karnac temple in Egypt is just that - a number of identical, static Sphinxes lining an avenue. We also have seen a number identical Buddhas lining an avenue in Ayuththya, Thailand.

Our guide was very good, very conscientious, but he was a Buddhist like the majority of Cambodians and did not know the fine nuances of Hinduism. He had tried read about Hinduism but he had been taught French in school (Cambodia was a French colony) and the books on Hinduism were mostly in English. Naturally, he had his limitations. It used to lead to hilarious situations.

“That is the bas relief carving of the God Vishnu sleeping on the serpent Basuki” he said.

“It is Vasuki, not Basuki and Vishnu does not sleep on Vasuki, he uses Sheshnag as his bedding” I told him. Irreverent though I am, I DO know our mythology—or so I thought.

He perked up. There were a lot of carvings that had puzzled him. He had tried to glean concepts of Hinduism from books, but Hinduism is a complex religion. It is like a big tote bag in which you throw everything: animism, idolatry, atheism, agnosticism, hedonism, philosophy, theosophy, worship of many gods, one god or no god. Anything and everything is allowed. In fact, it is a very tolerant, all-pervasive religion.

Our poor guide was confused, but here we were, directly from the land of Hinduism, India and Hindus, and he was not going to lose this opportunity.

Here my husband’s one-man-up-ship came in picture. “The serpent’s name is not Shesh, it is Anant” He said. He has many good qualities, but tact is not one of them.

I switched over to Marathi, our mother tongue. “Aho, ase kay karatay ? Anant is a name of Lord Vishnu and Anantshayan is the adjective of the snake Sheshnag , which means Vishnu’s bed”

“No, no, we have an Anantshayan in our office, and nobody is going to name his child after a snake. Moreover, we also have a Nagashayan in the office. Do you mean he is Naga’s bed?” he countered.

His office seems to be full of people with sleep and bed in their names and on their minds.

I looked at him with distaste. What possessed me to marry this man? “Don’t you have a Shesh-shayan in your office?” I asked sarcastically.

“No, but we have a Sheshadri” he said helpfully. Now this snake Shesh, true to its snaky nature, had suddenly and inexplicably turned itself into a mountain. (Adri in Sanskrit). Wherefrom he gets these people in his office, Vishnu only knows.

“There is an ‘Anantnag’ in Kashmir. That means Anant was a snake” said I unthinkingly, and contradicting myself.

My husband smiled with supreme happiness. His purpose was served, but he further wanted to fluster me. “Anantshayan means ‘Forever Sleeping’” he said. I decided to ignore him.

I turned to our guide, and switched back to English. “So, this is Vishnu and this is Sheshnag”, I said a little extra brightly, extra loudly, extra firmly which drowned “Anant” muttered by my husband rebelliously.

Our guide showed us the next panel of ‘Kaliamardan’. “See Lord Vishnu dancing on Sheshnag” he said. “No, no, that is Krishna dancing on the head of Kalia” I said.

Our poor guide was further confused. Krishna was Vishnu’s avatar, but then who was Kalia? “It is an avatar of the Sheshnag” I said brazenly, wishing that all these snakes - Basuki, Shesh and Kalia had drowned in the ‘kshirsagar’ i.e. Sea of Milk.

My husband just smiled his wicked grin at my discomfiture.

Our guide was insatiable. Excitedly he took us to a mile-long (maybe not a full mile, but thereabouts) carving of the Mahabharat scenes.

“What is this?” he asked.

“That is Lord Krishna preaching Geeta to Arjuna”

“Why is he preaching?”

“Because Arjuna saw his own relatives among the enemies and did not want to kill them”

“Why should Krishna tell Arjuna to kill his relatives. It is not a good thing to do” He said self-righteously.

“We agree, but the relatives had insulted Arjuna’s wife” Here I decided to simplify matters, use Arjuna as a generic name for the five brothers and NOT tell him that the wife was not Arjuna’s alone but also his brothers’ in a polyandrous relationship.

“Why did they insult her?”

“Because her husband(s) had gambled her away and she became a slave.”

“Bad, bad husband! So bad to gamble her away. Krishna was right. That kind of bad bad gambling husband should be killed” he said with feeling.

We did NOT enlighten him that Krishna was on the side of that “bad bad” gambling husband.

In Southeast Asia, people repeat a singular word for either emphasis (‘bad bad’ husband) or to make it plural. I and my cousin had visited an exhibition of Chinese crockery/pottery in Mumbai once. Those Chinese merchants knew hardly any English. When we asked when the exhibition would be over, they replied “Tomollow, tomollow, tomollow”.

On the same lines, had I wanted to be truthful about Arjuna’s wife, I would have had to say that she had “husband, husband, husband, husband, husband”. Our poor guide would have been even more confused then.

In fact, I learnt my lesson and changed my stance from theism to atheism to agnosticism in a matter of seconds. When he asked about Rama, Sita and Ravana, I said, without batting an eyelid, that I had never heard of these people and did not know anything about them. I was not going to give my husband another opportunity to flummox me.


I shudder to think now what sort of a garbled story of Mahabharat he is telling to the other tourists.

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Photos

Devas lining the causeway
The Devas are holding the five-headed serpent Vasuki for "Churning"

Asuras lining the causeway
The Asuras are holding the five-headed serpent Vasuki for \"Churning\"

Closeup of Devas
A closeup of Devas

Closeup of Asuras
A closeup of Asuras

Bayon temple
See the 'smileys'of the Bayon temple?

War scene
Carving of a war-scene in bas relief

Closeup of smileys
Closeup of four-headed Brahma?

Comments

[Heather from Australia]

Love the way you write
Thanks for the great descriptions of your adventures. I look forward to reading more.