Angkor Wat

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While more than one hundred major temple sites are found in and around the town of Siem Reap and Tonle Sap ("Great Lake") in northwest Cambodia, Angkor Wat is unique among them. An early capital of the Khmer empire, which flourished in classical Southeast Asia from the sixth to the mid-fifteenth century, Angkor Wat is the largest temple complex in the entire Angkor plain (other famous sites on the plain include Bayon and Ta Prom) and the largest religious monument in the world. Reputedly constructed as a funerary temple and mausoleum from sandstone at Phnom Kulen by Suryavarman II (1113–1150 CE), the ruins encompass an area of approximately 104 square kilometers and took more thanthirty years to build. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.

Angkor Wat was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, but its impeccably crafted and detailed ornamental architecture and bas reliefs depict all manner of Khmer legends and history of Angkor Wat. Measuring 1.5 by 1.3 kilometers in size, the complex is distinguished by its westward orientation, as well as by the wall and moat (measuring 190 meters wide) that surround it. These features not only delineate the temple boundaries but also represent other mountain ranges and oceans. A central avenue, 475 meters in length, connects the main entrance—accessed via a causeway across the moat—to the central temple, passing between two libraries and reflecting pools. The central temple consists of three stories, each of laterite, with five towers. The central tower, rising 55 meters above the ground, stands for Mount Meru, in Hindu mythology the center of the universe and home of the gods. The towers also serve as the current symbol of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Established by Yasovarman I (reigned 889–900/910), Angkor achieved its zenith in the twelfth century, when the Khmer empire ruled over an area that stretched from Vietnam to China and India. However, the city was sacked by the Chams of southern Vietnam in 1177, and Angkor Wat was converted into a Buddhist temple prior to the Siamese conquest of 1431. Jayavarman VII (c.1120–c.1215; reigned 1181–c.1215) subsequently established a new capital, Angkor Thom, which was abandoned in 1434. Overgrown by jungle, the ruins of both were rediscovered by the French in 1861, although their existence was well known to local Khmer residents and early European explorers.

Warfare in Cambodia in the 1970s and 1980s prevented tourists from visiting the site, a threat that persisted in remote parts of the complex through 1999, when guerilla soldiers of the Khmer Rouge even occupied Angkor Wat itself for a brief period. In the first years of the twenty-first century, tourist visits to Angkor Wat are again on the increase, and tourism has become a major source of foreign exchange for the Cambodian government. Land mines continue to be a threat in rural areas surrounding the complex, however, while theft and vandalism are the most serious physical threat to the monuments themselves. In order to prevent statues and carvings that give vitality to the temples and their histories from being stolen for private collectors, many have been removed for safekeeping and restoration.

Greg Ringer

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Higham, Charles. (2002) The Civilization of Angkor. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Ringer, Greg, (2000). "Tourism in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar: From Terrorism to Tourism?" In Tourism in South and Southeast Asia: Issues and Cases, edited by C. Michael Hall and Stephen Page. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 178–194.

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