moderatelyExcessive

This morning was spent visiting the lost city of Angkor Thom and the temple referred to as the Bayon. I’ve heard so many people in Phnom Penh complain about getting “templed out” after two days, but I have no fear of that happening right now. I am, however, feeling “touristed out.”

Dear fat German family with the long, matching mullets,
I thought it was a bit unnerving when your child tried to climb the eight-foot buddha inside the central tower of the Bayon and you took pictures instead of reprimanding him. I tried to keep quiet when your mother stood on that Buddha’s prayer mat with her nasty mud-caked sandals, where others sit to pray and conscientiously remove their footwear before they do. But did your father really need to let that fart rip as he stood over the two elderly women who were kneeling, praying and making their offering to Buddha? I’m just asking, schweinhunds.

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On another note, elephants are now my favorite animals, bar none. I still haven’t taken a ride on one (that will have to wait until some future foray into the jungle of Northeast Cambodia), but I’ve had enough time with them now to simply be in awe of them. I fed one a few bananas, pet its trunk, and I swear it smiled at me. The thing is, it looked right at me (not at my body, or my face, but directly into my eyes), and there is no doubt in my mind that there’s a great intelligence there. They’re not like horses — they know their route when taking tourists for a trip around the Bayon, and they don’t need spurring or whipping to know when to begin, or where to stop. Cambodia may just be the only place where I can actually think of having one as a pet, and it is not beyond possibility.

Editor’s Note: I need to make a minor correction to my last post: Yama is not the Hindu God of death, but the God of judgement after death. It doesn’t change the resonance of Heroin being referred to as Yama here by very much, but it ought be noted anyway.

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Day Two in Siem Reap and Angkor was even greater than day one. Aside from the trip to Angkor Thom and a handful of smaller temples, today contained a visit to Da Phrom, one of the few temples that has been left in the condition it was ‘found.’
Whereas other temples have had the jungle foliage removed, and have had their main structures restored to some degree, what stands of Da Phrom is now mainly held together by the hundreds of years-old trees that have become one with it. The particular kind of tree (”Strung” in Khmer) holding Da Phrom together has a trunk and root system unlike anything I have seen before. Sometimes the roots appear serpentine, other times, like waterfalls. In going through my photos, I’ve noticed that the scale of this place gets lost easily: a sixty-foot tower seems miniscule next to a hundred-fifty foot tree. It is nearly impossible to take a photo of both a part of this temple, and the entire tree engulfing it.

As our guide noted, early Khmer culture was based on Animism, and their gods and goddesses were the trees, the rivers, the sky. Settlers from India brought with them Hinduism, which dominated Kampuchea for a few hundred years before Buddhism became the primary religion. As I walk through this temple, filled with Hindu and Buddhist symbols and statues, and I see how the trees and moss have become as much a feature as those made of stone, I can’t help but think that Animism is trying to reclaim its place.

Another note: you will see many round holes in the bricks that comprise Da Phrom. These holes once contained pearls, diamonds, and other precious stones. In its heyday, a visit to Da Phrom’s central tower was considered mandatory for the King every night in order to ward off misfortune. As the King approached Da Phrom, torches were lit which would reflect off the embedded gems, and bathe the King in beams of light of every color and quality.

Pictures from the morning temple visits:

Pictures from Ta Prohm: