Searching for Something #11: Peace in Angkor – Angkor Wat, Cambodia

11: Peace in Angkor

25 Apr 2002
Cambodia has been quite interesting to me because it’s very similar to Thailand and yet has horrific differences.

The lush green landscape, oppressive hot season climate, people’s faces, and rural houses on stilts are all the same. But people don’t smile so much, and they seem to have an underlying sadness, which makes sense after all these years of war. Most of the goods in use, from motorcycles to toothpaste, as well as fruit are imported from Thailand. When I ask why, the answer is that Cambodians don’t know how to grow fruit or build roads, etc. Despite the 5-star hotels that are rapidly expanding, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge’s regime has killed progress in Cambodia. Most of the new business initiatives are run by Thais or Vietnamese.

We flew from Bangkok into Siem Reap, the nearest town to Angkor Wat, and spent four days gaping at the wondrous temples. Angkor Wat is the largest of the 60-some temples of Angkor, that were built between the 9th and 14th centuries.

We zipped between the scattered temples on our motorbikes and have spent hours clambering up and down the steep steps and exploring through the nooks and crannies (but not too far, for fear of unexploded land mines). There aren’t too many people here since it is the very very hot season, and temperatures are in the high 90’s with a lot of humidity. So we have the temples virtually to ourselves… and the tons of kids who play there and offer to show tourists around.

There are also Cambodians and monks who still worship at most of the temples. Often, I’d be climbing through deserted doorways to come upon a Buddha statue surrounded by offerings of money and burning incense sticks.

I am most struck by the sense of peace. When we’ve climbed to the highest level of a temple, we can sit in the breeze and look out over the surrounding lush jungle.

Angkor Wat is quite magnificent, with grand fortifications surrounded by a moat and beautiful carvings and flourishes around the inside walls. My favorite was a row of five apsara (heavenly nymphs) who looked like they were boogy-ing their little hearts out.

Our two favorite temples are Bayon and Ta Promh. Bayon has rising gothic towers decorated with over 200 gigantic heads of Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion. Each head sports an enigmatic Mona Lisa smile – sometimes they’re smirking, sometimes amused, sometimes cold, sometimes peaceful. Ta Promh is the only temple famously left unrestored. We felt like Indiana Jones wandering through the jungle to discover a long-lost ruin. The jungle is slowing taking over Ta Promh, with immense trees growing into and through many of the walls. Piles of rubble lie around, brought down by the tree’s root systems. It’s shady all around (thank god!) with speckles of sunlight peering through the green canopy above.

After a heinous 13-hour minibus ride over rough bumpy dirt roads (at one point we were stuck in the mud for an hour and a half), we reached Phnom Penh.

So far we’ve been wandering around town, soaking in the atmosphere of a wonderfully under-developed capital city. Many of the roads are still dirt, whereas other grand boulevards have French colonial facades. We visited the Tuol Sleng Security Prison 21, now a museum, but formerly where many of the Khmer Rouge victims were imprisoned and tortured before being carted off to die. Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge kept meticulous record of all their prisoners, and black and white photos of the victims with their haunted eyes gaze back at you from each wall. Original instruments of torture are still scattered through the site. The building was originally a high school, and it is now eerily peaceful, with lush manicured lawns and jasmine trees. Tomorrow we head for the infamous Choeung Ek (The Killing Fields) where many of Pol Pot’s victims were murdered.

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